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Suffering
The famous actor, Bruce Lee, is quoted as saying,
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”
Whatever he may have meant from a purely natural point of view, there is certainly some truth in the statement regarding our Christian pathway. The Bible does not teach that a life of faithfulness to the Lord will be an easy or pain-free life. In fact, just the opposite! For instance, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalm 34:19). As we read the Biblical accounts of men and women, young and old, we find that there was much suffering.
Recently going through a time of severe pain and physical suffering, I found comfort in the fact that the Lord Jesus suffered far more for me than I could ever suffer in this life. It has brought to mind the verse, “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 12:3). And of course, there are those atoning sufferings which we will never enter into or understand.
“Christ also suffered for us…Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:21, 24).
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