So HUMAN! Yes, We Are.
So HUMAN.
That’s me. & That’s you. & That’s every person alive.
HUMAN!!!
On Tuesday, I reached out to someone who has been suffering with something—yes, something that really just causes so much stress to daily life, so much anguish, so much frustration—just so much!!!!!
What can we say to someone who is suffering.
“Let us pray over this.”
“God will hear us when we pray, when we ask Him to take away our suffering.”
“God sometimes tests us, tries us, to see if our faith is true.”
“God sometimes tries us, to convict us, to help us see Him, to see His Omniscience.”
To this one suffering, I said, “I will promise to pray for God’s peace. I will ask Him to help you endure through THIS SUFFERING.”
She replied, “Thank You, Mom.”
Today, I am not sure if you are a parent, if you are a mom or dad, if you have ever watched your child suffer through something, or if you have ever felt the heaviness of suffering when nothing can be done by our own might—But THANK GOODNESS, there is always Someone we can talk with. THANK YOU, GOD, WE CAN PRAY!
In studying God’s Word, I read a passage that spoke of suffering (thank You God), and in reading, I now realize the truth—sometimes we suffer for our own sins & sometimes we suffer because we are given suffering as part of our growth in Christ, or as part of our turning toward Christ.
Do not EVER believe me but believe GOD’S WORD.
“But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”
(1 Peter 3: 14-17)
Pause for a moment. Close your eyes so that you can easily see.
Picture the image of spring.
See the tree.
See the cocoon hanging, attached to the branch, TRUSTING the branch.
See the cocoon remain unchanging (maybe to the one looking at the appearance of the outside).
See the cocoon change inside.
See the insect become different—changed.
See the caterpillar become the butterfly.
SEE GOD AT WORK!!
We may live inside a cocoon, inside an abundance of pain, of suffering.
Yes, we may live right there. . . Today. . . And our suffering is painful.
Maybe we live in our suffering because of Nothing we have done!
Maybe we live in our suffering because of Everything we have done!
See the cocoon again. It becomes anew within the span of one season.
See the suffering come to an end.
See the springing forth.
See the freeing.
SEE!!!
Rested. Healed. Matured. Transformed. Beautiful. Useful. Emerged.
Without the STRUGGLE . . . the caterpillar CANNOT FLY.
Without the STRUGGLE . . . the butterfly would BE TOO WEAK.
Let us (as Peter wrote within God’s Word) “suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong” (1 Peter 3: 17).
I am fifty-five years old and SO HUMAN!
You are ?-years old and SO HUMAN!
WE ARE ALL THE SAME!
WE ARE ALL THE SAME—IN THAT WE ARE EACH HUMAN!
Yet, we are NOT all the same. There is a difference.
Yet, there is a still a major difference between Human Individuals.
- Some have accepted Christ as Savior & Some have not!
- Some suffer from doing good, from doing God’s will.
- Some suffer from doing wrong, from doing our own selfish will.
- Some belong to Christ & Some do not yet belong.
- Some belong to God and suffer from God’s will.
- Some belong to God and suffer from doing their own selfish will.
- Some do not yet belong to God and suffer, locked within their own unforgiven sinfulness.
- Some remain cocooned & some have been set FREE—TRANSFORMED BY GOD HIMSELF!
Our salvation is an act of God. Once saved, we are His; we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to accomplish what He has prepared for us to do.
That is our purpose.
We live—to reflect Christ!
May we be transformed. May we be transformed to become more & more like Christ.
May we live for Him and not for ourselves. May we seek His advancement & not our own.
May we serve Him. May we encourage others. May we be available.
We are So HUMAN! Yes, We Are.
May we live transformed, Prepared BECAUSE of our struggle, Ready to fly, & Useful to Accomplish His Will.
Today, let us end with a passage, one that we may know so well, verses written by the Apostle Paul as he remained in prison, written to those who lived in Ephesus.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2: 4-10)