Sufferings

Sufferings are not an indication of something bad,
They are indications that you have come to the next level.
Or...indications that you have come to the last lap of your current level.

What is 1 month of suffering and endurance worth, compared to the rewards you will receive? Compared to an ETERNITY of joy? Its nothing.

Infinity / Anything < infinity = Nothing>

Not everyone can be persecuted, not everyone can go through sufferings the way the higher ranks of Jesus' disciples went through, but be glad that God even bother about us! Because He loves us.

Having gone through the fire, Im beginning to see the rewards.
It didnt take long. Your capacity to endure through the suffering is more 'crucial' to God, than the brokenness you will experience afterwards, because He knows the steps that you take. Every move, every decision, He knows, He's there and He sees you.

And based on that, He will determine whether to prolong it, or end it. If you fail a test, you just have to go for a 're-test' until you pass. You may end up getting stuck.

If a pot is deformed, we dont destroy it, we just put it in the fire again and let it melt once more. If gold is not purified, its gonna remain in the furnace until it does. And since God said He will complete the work He has started in you, He will do it.

Your suffering can be a blessing.

God never wastes a painful experience.

Somewhere out there, there is always someone who is going through the same thing. That person may be praying for a breakthrough, and God may not send the breakthrough directly. Instead He chooses to send you, at the cost...of yourself, as...the breakthrough, someone who understands.

Your body, broken for others.

When we suffer for something we never done, for something we dont deserve, for something we didnt intend to happen, you become a reflection of God's life. Its only during that time, we can truly say, 'its no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That the life we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God...'

Only when your life is similar to Jesus' life, and He controls it fully, not us, that's when we know our lives will be counted worthy of the calling.

As pastor always says, keep on keeping on. Keep on praying, keep on reading the Word, keep on showing up, keep on committing, keep on fighting.

Just because Jesus died, He did not stop being God.

If a man can remain God in the midst of death, then there's hope for us all. We just need to remain true, in the midst of IMPERFECTION. The gap isnt really very big. We just need to be a good son, a good daughter, in the midst of being a child...of God.

But Jesus? He has to be a right man, in the midst of being a true God!

You wanna compare the 'level of difficulty'? We will never compare up to what He went through for us. Similarly, you will go through it, for someone else.

Sufferings are not things that are 'happening'...
But things that are 'preparing'...