Suffering Gracefully for God: Empowering Faith

By Rodrigus Neal

If you are looking to become more resilient in your walk with God while maintaining your peace and happiness throughout life's trials, or possibly gearing up to take even more chances in life through hope and faith, then Suffering Gracefully for God "" Empowering Faith is a must read. It's no secret that no one and not even Jesus was exempt from life's adversity. However, Jesus always had a great peace and understanding about him that propelled him past his toughest trials. Likewise, with today's world being full of unexpected tragedy, controversy, natural disasters, and discord even for those of us in Christ, we also need to be armed with the peace and understanding of Jesus. In short, the spiritual insight from this book will take you through a life-changing process that will help you unravel the mystery about certain struggles and unfortunate events that you've sometimes faced in life and in faith, beginning with your calling to partake in the suffering of Christ. Next, it will also help you identify some of the most amazing and helpful testimonies that were meant to empower you and help you press on in your journey with God. In turn, you will also be amazed and inspired to learn that even God himself chooses to suffer on our behalf. Hopefully thereafter, you will become more encouraged to take your personal journey with God, win the spiritual battles you may face, and all while living a more progressive life of faith that you hoped to live. To top it all off and one of the most interesting aspects of this whole process is learning how God secretly rewards your perseverance in faith. [e-mail]

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645154846

Book preview

Putting Your Suffering in Perspective: Unraveling the Mystery

Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

—2 Timothy 3:12

If you ever questioned your faith in God, his word, his power, his timing, or his ability to fulfill his many promises, don’t feel bad because you are not alone. Likewise, if you spent your life trying to live by faith, but for some reason have struggled to see the things that you’ve hoped and prayed for, again, don’t feel bad. Lastly, if you’ve ever found yourself, on more than one occasion, wrestling with trying to understand your suffering and adversity or why God has allowed certain circumstance to takes place in your life, please don’t be disturbed any longer. It can be frustrating at times, trying to figure out where God is in all of your troubles while also trying to make sense of your adversity. It can also be very frustrating, to say the least, when you try to live by hope and faith only to be disappointed, let down, and to suffer because of it. Believe it or not, while the inevitable suffering of men and women on earth may seem like a curse at times, our struggles are actually very complimentary to God’s plan for our lives. In fact, certain scripture say that God’s power is magnified and glorified in our weakness. Not only that, but God actually wants us to rely and call upon him at times, especially when the impossible needs to be done. Thankfully, I’ve come to understand that this is just one of the many reasons that God allows certain suffering and adversity in our lives. As I said in the introduction, suffering gracefully for God while willingly enduring the afflictions of faith is one of the most honorable and faithful things that we can do to serve him. In this chapter, I’m going to try and help you make sense of some of your unanswered questions due to your adversity and your walk with God. It’s facinating because whether we really know it or not, there are reasons for some of the strangest adversity that we may face living by faith. While it may seem like a little too much for us to discern or bear at times, thank God there really is a reason. That being said, suffering gracefully for God is such a broad topic, because the knowledge of God is so broad and vast. In the same way, the struggles of mankind are also just as broad and never-ending. Together, they are so vast and complicated at times that it also causes us to struggle with our faith and belief in God. To help you get a better understanding of this and to shed some light on our struggle with God’s word, you can begin by looking at it this way. Since the beginning of creation, what God has come to understand about the world and what’s best for it, we only have a short time to discern bits and pieces of. Also, if you take a look at the book of Proverbs and how it is filled with the vast wisdom and knowledge of God, you will see that it really is too much for any one person to discern or interpret all by themselves. Again, this one of my main reasons for writing this book. It’s simply to help relieve you of certain confusion and frustrations, which may be hindering you in faith. One of the easiest ways that I’ve found to do this is to either put or keep things in the right biblical perspective, according to scriptures that you may already know. But before you can began to do that, you need do yourself another big favor. First, take the weight of the world off your shoulders and put it back into the hands of God, where it truely belongs. I only say this because God has a much deeper understanding of the troubles that you and I may face in life. Next, you also need to remind yourself that God created this world and not man or woman! Although we may participate in the destruction of this world or have helped facilitate some of the most amazing blessings and inspirations to date, we didn’t breathe life into each other at creation. We didn’t set the course of time; neither did we put the boundaries upon the ocean. No matter how much we think we are in control, God shows us from time to time that we are not and that we are helpless without him. I believe that establishing and maintaining this type of mind-set will be beneficial to putting things in a much easier perspective for your walk with God.

Not only that, but it should also help usher in and ensure a certain peace in your life that may not have been there before. If not, then it should at least be a start to gaining your inner peace if you haven’t already begun to receive it. Now when considering your newfound outlook about your faith struggles, does this means you shouldn’t attempt to live your life when you need to? Certainly not! On the other hand, you should still do these things and some. In fact, you should do them in peace, knowing that God expects you to not be dormant in the spirit and to stir up the gift inside of you, which may cause you to be uncomfortable at times. After all, how else will you learn about God? Lastly, I think what will also prove to be helpful in gaining your newfound perspective is to be mindful of the false sense of self-guidance and ability that we as people think we have. This for one will help remove and reduce a lot of self-induced pressure, which we bring upon ourselves, attempting to do the things that was only intended for God to do. More importantly, doing so should prompt you to rely and wait patiently for God after you have suffered the work of faith. To get a clear example of waiting and relying on God, just take a look at the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. Although his struggles were not all that physical, it had to be a very frightening experience simply waiting for God while staring death in the face. Now I know many of us may never truly find ourselves in an actual lion’s den, but it’s good to know that the will of God can prevail in any circumstances that we may find ourselves in. Furthermore, I believe that it’s testimonies like these that should continue to remind us that we basically belong to God and that we were created for his purpose and not our own. Lastly, I believe that growing in this mind-set should also help return the glory and power back to God and us to the long-suffering men and women that God intended for us to be.

Next, as you continue to self-reflect and grow into your newfound outlook in faith, it’s also very important to recognize the Godlike character and ability of long-suffering that we possess. It’s so important that it helps us to be resilient in our faith walk. This is simply because we were made in God’s image. This is very critical thing to know, if you are going to be more than just a casual believer in God. Not only that, but if you are going to overcome the harsh attacks of the devil or expecting to overcome any adversity in faith, you will need to know about your God-given ability to long-suffer and to overcome. In fact, when you begin to understand this wonderful gift inside of you, I think you will find it very uplifting knowing that you have been empowered to outlast or withstand your adversity because of your spiritual ability to long-suffer like God himself. Personally, I’ve found that learning about our calling to long-suffer will not only open your eyes about the many struggles of your faith but will also empower you to overcome greater obstacles through faith. The next critical piece to this perspective is learning how to endure God’s plan or calling, despite our own personal plans. I know that we as Christians have heard it repeatedly that God wants to lead and guide us in our spirit. As preachy as it sounds at times, it’s nothing short of the truth. Believe it or not, it’s revealed in many scriptures like Isaiah 58:11, John 16:113, and Proverbs 16:9 how we were not meant to live by bread alone or how neither man nor woman can fully guide themselves. In fact, if you’ve ever attempted to walk by faith and have struggled with discerning your path at times but instead, unexpectantly witnessed the remarkable works of God in light of your own failures, then you also know these scriptures to be true. From my personal experience, I’ve learned that this is one of the major obstacles of receiving certain blessings from God. We simply fail to acknowledge God’s plans or decisions at times. Thankfully, I’ve learned to accept that God understands the decisions that needed to be made in my life, much clearer than I do, despite how those decisions may unintentionally cause me to suffer at times. I’ll be the first to admit that God’s plans may not always be the most glorious ones, like the ones we may have for ourselves. In fact, I can truly say that his plans, for the most part, are the complete opposite of the plans that we may have for ourselves. However, I will say that when God brings you through the fire and to a place of peace, you will be thankful that he chose you. Who knows? Maybe God is working or attempting to work in your life at this moment if your spirit is willing. Just maybe, he’s trying to get you to inspire someone or the world for that matter. Maybe he’s trying to help you with your personal plans to let your inner light shine. In any case, don’t be surprised to learn how God’s plans versus your own plans may also cause a bit of adversity. I know that this can seem somewhat controversial for the traditional Christian and for someone who only knows God as the all-the-time-good God. However, if you take God out of the genie bottle and acknowledge him for all that he is to this world, then you will be able to see the real truth. In fact, you will also become even more empowered to overcome greater things through faith while being able to maintain your peace in the midst of any adversity.

Now that you have obtained a critical piece to your newfound perspective in faith, let’s continue on by taking a more detailed look into the understanding of God about the suffering that you may face, which will also help strengthen your newfound perspective. Believe it or not, one of many key references that the Bible makes about the long-suffering of men and women is in Galatians 5:22 (NKJV). It expresses that the fruit of the spirit is filled with many wonderful fruits and character, to include long-suffering. When you read this scripture, you will see that there are some very attractive fruits of the spirit that makes us who we are in Christ. I think that most people can agree that this is the type of character that most people would desire to interact with. However, at first glance, long-suffering may not be so appealing to some. My guess is that it’s because we lack a deeper understanding of long-suffering like God has. When I first read it, I can’t say that it jumped out at me either. As a matter of fact, I’ve rarely heard ministers or churches truly teach on the topic of long-suffering. When you take a deeper look into it, the act of long-suffering is viewed as good in the eyes of God, despite how we may see it at times. This simply because of the type of results that the spirit within us produces. Also, keep in mind that these are the same gifts or fruits of the spirit that men and women inherited from God at creation. In fact, these are the fruits that God expects us to produce daily in our lives. This is one of the reasons why the gift of long-suffering shouldn’t be overlooked or cast aside. However, it should be seen as the gift of endurance, patience, and power, which enables us to overcome adversity on our journey with God. It can also be seen as a tool that enables us to endure God’s correction, chastisement, and discipline at times. Not only that, but it’s also the tool that God uses to help give us our testimony. Believe it or not, the awesome thing about our struggles in life or in faith is that we were specifically given the power to overcome any temptation or adversity known to man, because of our empowerment by God to endure periods of suffering. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the many expression of long-suffering throughout the Bible and how it’s used. In the beginning, when God created us to carry out his will, he not only knew of the beautiful character of long-suffering but also knew that we would need this ability to endure adversity while pursuing the things of faith. It’s amazing because when I first tried to understand the idea of being a long-suffering servant of God, I asked myself the following questions: Why would long-suffering be such an important fruit or a gift of the spirit that we would need in this world? Honestly, most suffering seems more like a curse at times, more than anything? Even more so, I think that many will agree that suffering, let alone periods of long-suffering makes you miserable, tired, confused, angry, and involuntary humble to say the least. Seriously, it could also lead to death. However, I also heard an inner voice say, All of that may be true, but you really need the gift of long-suffering, like everything else that I gave, to help you. Simply put, it was given to help you overcome the light afflictions brought on by faith and the unfairness of this world. As I began to grow spiritually, it was becoming clear that the spirit of long-suffering is very much a gift or spiritual ability to us. In fact, it’s how God has stayed faithful, patient, humble, merciful, and forgiving toward us, despite our disobedience. It’s also how he’s been able to endure with us generation after generation. In the same way, it’s also how people of faith have overcome, grown in their faith, suffered others and their burdens, and are still able to do the work of God generation after generation. As you can see, the mystery of our long-suffering is not that big of a mystery. Not only that, but in the right perspective, it does something to us and for us, all for the will of God. One of the many things that it does is that it prepares and builds our endurance to go farther in our walk with God. At the same time, for some, it has humbled them and brought them closer to God; while for others, it has enabled them to carry out their personal plans as well as the plans of God. Sadly, for those who fear their struggles in faith, it has kept them from overcoming circumstances that could have possibly lead to a great door of opportunity. Right here if you will, I want you to stop and take a few seconds to think about someone you knew who may have pressed on in their journey, remained steadfast in faith, and hopeful throughout their faith struggles. Despite all the adversity they faced, they somehow overcame impossible circumstances because of their willingness to endure gracefully and walk in the hope of God. Also, take a moment and recall those who decided not to move forward and take a chance on God. Maybe it was because of a lack of hope, no vision, no faith in God, no desire to improve, or maybe because of fear. Then again, maybe they were just unwilling to endure walking by faith because it seemed safer to just stay where they were in life, instead of suffering God’s plans? When I personally weighed things from this perspective, I was faced with a serious question myself. I remembered how in the past that I was willing and motivated to suffer for my own interest and to overcome certain adversity for personal gain. I then asked myself, why shouldn’t I prepare to suffer like Jesus, or for the will of God? Why shouldn’t I do battle with the flesh that the Bible says we have yet to overcome. At this point, I accepted that long-suffering should be seen as the double-edged sword that it really is. Again, all this is because we were made in God’s image