GLORYING IN SUFFERING
August 2017
I am writing this on the last Sunday of July 2017. Exactly this time last year my wife and I were in London for the weekend. Rosario was not well, and we naively thought she had some kind of infection on her lung but in spite of that we had a lovely weekend together. We went to the theatre and saw the musical, Les Miserables which Rosario enjoyed very much.
We stayed in a very nice hotel with a beautiful view over London from our window. The hotel was right next door to the famous church – All Souls Langham Place next to the BBC television studios. So on the Sunday morning after we had checked out of the hotel, we went in for the service.
The preacher took Psalm 23 as his text and, as I shared in the Message of the Month for August last year, I saw the Psalm in a totally new light, not because of what the preacher said, but the Holy Spirit gave a fresh insight.
Rosario and I enjoyed the service very much that day but we had no idea of what was awaiting us on the Tuesday of that week when she had an appointment at the hospital. After they had done a scan we were called in to see the doctor who gave us the devastating news that Rosario had inoperable lung cancer.
We walked out of his office hand in hand totally stunned. But unseen to us Someone was walking with us…...
The pivotal point of Psalm 23 is “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of DEATH - You are with me.” At that moment we began walking through that valley of shadows and I can tell you it was horrible and it still is, but I can also testify that our Shepherd walked with us through the valley during the precious few days that were left - before He took His lamb, my darling wife to dwell in His house FOREVER...
So here I am one year later and I can honestly say that every day from then to now He has been with me. Maybe I should explain how...
Well, as you might expect, there has been the calming sense of His presence but possibly even more strongly than that, the awareness of His grace and favour permeating everything. Then there has been His comfort. There were anniversaries like today, and other events that in anticipation I couldn't bear the thought of, but when it came to it and I had to face those things - it was OK, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. There has also been His help with all kinds of practical things and I praise Him for the way He has smoothed the path and made things go well time and time again over the past year. These are just some of the ways that He has with me and I give Him the glory for it.
I shared this in church this morning and then the preacher in his sermon, quoted some words from Romans 5:3-4. I would like to share them with you because I have never quite seen them before as I see them now:
“We glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
I had never considered glorying in suffering before now.
For born again believers suffering is not a pointless dead-end.
Sufferings/trials/tribulations actually result in creating very positive things in our lives.
In the natural suffering can cause people to become anxious, bitter, fearful, hopeless but for those who have the Shepherd with them, it produces qualities of perseverance, character and hope. It makes us into people who, having experienced suffering come out of it stronger, better people with hope in God for the future.
I have been through the worst thing I could possibly imagine and I discovered that as terrible and horrible as it was, and still is, I can say as David said to the Lord: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, You are with me.”
So out of my own experience of suffering I can embrace it, even glory in it, as something that has not destroyed me, but is producing qualities that are deeper and stronger than I have ever known before.
Suffering is never comfortable (it wouldn't be suffering otherwise) but every time we experience trials and tribulations remember as Paul says:
“Our light affliction,
which is but for a moment,
is working for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory.”
(2 Corinthians 4:17)
​
​
​
​
​
​
​