Suffering (under construction)

Kinds of suffering

There are different kinds of suffering:

1. There is physical suffering, where the body suffers pain.
a. Acute pain; I smashed my thumb with a hammer.
b. Chronic pain; my joints hurt from arthritis.
c. Hunger or thirst; I want or need food or water.
d. Weariness - the suffering of being tired from work or exertion. "In due time you will reap if you do not grow weary." "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."
e. Lack of sleep.
f.  Cravings.  I want chocolate or sugar.
g. Sexual pressure; I want sex and relief.

2.  There is emotional suffering
Rejection
Loneliness
Shame
Guilt
Fear
Anger
Grief
Abuse
Humiliation
Obedience
Irritation
Disappointment
Awkwardness
Slavery to idols
Pressure No pressure, but if you don’t get through this, everybody goes to hell.

Patience is being willing to suffer without giving God a deadline to end it.
We want to learn to embrace paying rather than make it go away.
We don’t have to quit, but we can take a rest. If possible.

Sources of suffering
God,
others
Satan
Brokeness of the world
My own sin

Increased suffering is God's calling to the next league up.

Some fruit - the presence of Christ - for example can be drunk abundantly and deeply.Delayed gratification.
Whatever you pay for upfront, you get back with interest.
The instruction of the cross is the instruction about suffering.
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Hold in front of you the joy of what you were suffering for.



How do I fellowship with Jesus in my suffering? Philippians 310 the fellowship of his suffering.
He who hates his life. Hating your life is making yourself suffer.
If anyone wishes to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. We had to put away self. We have to take up suffering. In Jesus is the ultimate goal in all of this. It can’t be for pride of being able to suffer. Also it’s take up your cross daily. It’s something that has to be done every day.
Jooih
Hinds feet sorrow and suffering
Fellowship with the shepherd
God’s grace is not taking away the pain but helping us endure and get through it.
People left the farms because they could not get ahead. Also it is really difficult to have to depend on God for your living. However what a glorious existence crying out and depending on the Lord every day to provide.
Anyone bears fruit he prunes it that it might be her more fruit. This pruning has a sense of hacking. It may be very painful. But it will bring the fruit.
When a lien loves you, it can be a painful experience. His claws can sometimes scratch his teeth can sometimes nick you. When he stands on your chest and licks your face it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes he takes you with him out in the bush out in the wild. It’s not comfortable out there. It’s hot. It’s dangerous. But he loves you and he wants to be with you.
CS Lewis said you wanted a God who loves you? Congratulations! You’ve got one.
Medicating our pain is not for bidden in the Bible. Let wine be given to him whose life is better. But when we medicate we miss the benefit of what God is doing in our pain. So there’s that fruit. Also if the medication becomes an idol then that is sin

We want to learn to suffer and overcome affliction so that we can be with Jesus. If he calls me in the middle of the night to pray and I cannot endure in weariness, then I cannot be with him. If he calls me to join him in sharing him with another person, but I am afraid then I cannot join him. If he calls me to serve and labor, but I am lazy and cannot get off of the couch then I cannot join him. Beware of the pride of suffering for suffering’s sake.

The heart is the instrument of our vocation. Spurgeon
You can always tell someone who has suffered, they all have time for you. Chambers
He who has suffered a seized from Sin
The tree produces the opposite of the fruit. I’ll discipline seems sorrowful and not joyful peaceful through righteousness. Also in excess of rest and things and material things and comfort and and suffering and sorrow.

The fruits of righteousness are meant to be a taste of things to come. They are not meant to be a steady diet in this life. As a steady diet in this life, they will bring sorrow and misery. And suffering. These are the seeds that they contain.

Where I am there with my servant be also. If we want to be with Jesus we have to be his servant. If we want to be his servant we have to be where he is doing what he wants to do. Doing what he likes to do. Doing the things that are important to him. In order to do them we must be in shape. We must be ready to suffer and carry her across. Otherwise we cannot go with him. He says I wish you were willing to die to yourself and take up your cross you cannot come after me. He’s not saying he’s not giving permission, He is stating a reality that if you want to go where he goes then self denial and cross carrying are a must.

1Co 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it;

[2Co 1:3-7 NASB] 3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are [sharers] of our comfort.

It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds. … The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent. victor frankl



He cites Nietzsche’s, who wrote that “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” and admonishes against generalization:



Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, “I have nothing to expect from life any more.” What sort of answer can one give to that?



What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.



These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. “Life” does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.

What are the benefits and blessings of suffering?
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, - 1Pe 4:1 NASB
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. - 1Pe 4:1, 14 NASB
but if [anyone suffers] as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. ... Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. - 1Pe 4:16, 19 NASB
And He was saying to [them] all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? - Luk 9:23-25 NASB
What is suffering the gateway to?
How does suffering help me to know Jesus?
4. What can I learn that will increase my ability to suffer (patience, long suffering)
For the joy set before him he endured the cross.  We have to find and keep meaning in our suffering.