"And indeed, all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

Paul to Timothy – 2 Timothy 3:12

Nobody in their right mind would choose to have their heart broken, their spirit crushed, or their bodies beaten…or would they?!?! So many suggest following Jesus is the beginning of a great, abundant life since now the King of all creation is our Father and He loves us beyond anything we can imagine. On this side of heaven and maybe more specifically, viewing life from North America our perspective of "great, abundant life" can sometimes get in the way of our understanding of what God's about in our lives. While He is the sovereign King of all and His love for us is humanly inconceivable (Romans 5:8) His ultimate end for us necessarily means suffering.

Bummer news for sure until we consider the nature and character of our God and King. God will never act contrary to His nature and character which is perfectly kind, compassionate, merciful, gracious, faithful, righteous, holy, and LOVE! This is certainly not an exhaustive list but you get the idea. Now consider what's going on in your life that you would rather not be wrestling with or enduring right now. Think of the most difficult realities of your life and consider who the author of that reality is…God Himself. If God could change or stop our difficult circumstances and He's all loving, why doesn't He? As Moses began to debate with God about the mission he had just been given and argues the fact that "he can't talk good" (supposed to be funny) God tells Moses in Exodus 4:11 "Who has mad man's mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?"

If we combine these two realities, God is absolutely sovereign and perfectly loving, we either have a formula for madness or we have a road map to a supernatural existence. The Biblical fact is that God's ultimate end for us is that He would conform us to the image of His son Jesus! Jesus "learned obedience from that which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8) how much more would that apply to us. Jesus was "despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3) and if we're to be conformed to His image it's likely we might encounter people who don't like and who even try to make our lives miserable.

However, we can be comforted in the fact that our perfectly loving and absolutely sovereign God and Father only brings into our lives that which is to this end: Christ-likeness. He'll only bring into our lives those people and circumstances that is for our good and His glory. So although nobody would consciously choose suffering in and of itself, many do choose to follow Jesus and trust their lives to the great, eternal King of all which necessarily means difficulties and suffering. But it's not random, God doesn't do random!!! He's in the business of making like Jesus and there's no great, more abundant reality than that!!!

"Father please change our perspective to see you as both completely sovereign and perfectly loving! Please move us to thanking You in all our circumstances. Thank you for loving us so much that You would make us like Jesus. Please keep us focusing on Him today no matter what You bring into our lives. We love and praise You our eternal King!"

His Kingdom Come,
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