Is life hard right now? Are you suffering?

Oh friend, hold on.

If you think about it, I bet you know others, who have suffered deeply, who will tell you that suffering was the very thing that taught them greater obedience and trust in Jesus.

And even Jesus, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” (Heb 5:8)

Jesus, our great High Priest and Advocate, experienced life on this earth and learned how difficult it is for us to obey God completely.

And He knows, suffering teaches obedience.

For suffering has a way of revealing the things we are depending on for our hope more than we are depending on God.

It peels our fingers off the things of this life that we hold too tightly and causes us to hold more tightly to God.

And a God we hold tightly too is a God we more readily trust and obey.

Hard times cause us to surrender more and more of the things we cling to for our security over God—things like money, health, relationships, even ministry success and reputations and help us see we have all we need in Him.

For it is in the denying of ourselves, the surrender of our will and even the yielding of our expectations for how life should go, that we discover amazing peace.

No, God’s ways our not our ways —they are so much better.

But often, it is only through suffering that we ever truly come to trust that.

And once we truly trust THAT—life will never be the same!

No matter what comes, we can face tomorrow as we follow God and trust Him to bring good from it.

readHebrews

trustandobey

kimjaggers.com