Good morning -
Forest Gump was right. Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. As someone else has said, the future is like someone with their hands behind their back; you don't know if you'll be given a bouquet or thrown a brick.
The Apostle Paul said something very similar: "For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." (2 Corinthians 1:5)
To identify with the man of sorrows is to experience His sorrow, but thankfully He also offers us comfort in abundance. I've heard numerous testimonies of comfort and strength from faithful saints who walked through the valley of the shadow of death. The sufferings were painfully real, but so was abundant comfort.
Our sufferings are designed to be used to comfort others as is our comfort, according to Paul:
"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; 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." (2 Corinthians 1:6-7)
The strength that we are given in our times of affliction shine as a bright testimony to other believers, as does the comfort we receive during such times. That which we experience is not so much for our own good as for the good of the family of God. No one truly lives just for themselves.
If we do not see our lives and our experiences from the perspective of our connection to the rest of the body of Christ we have not properly "framed" our lives. Our truest identity and purpose is found within Christ's church.
The hardships that are an inevitable part of life often cause us to ask, "why?", or "why me?". Perhaps the answer that makes the most sense is, "for the good of the body of Christ." Others find strength as they see us find strength; others are comforted even as we are comforted.
Life is a "box of chocolate" mix of sorrow and comfort. Divorced from a genuine connection to the body of believers, our sorrow is especially painful and our comfort is hollow. Through a vital connection with others, however, a greater purpose is evident even as the Lord's comfort and strength comes to us through them.
May you find ultimate purpose and meaning in your Christian life today through you connection with His body.
Pastor Steve
Forest Gump was right. Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. As someone else has said, the future is like someone with their hands behind their back; you don't know if you'll be given a bouquet or thrown a brick.
The Apostle Paul said something very similar: "For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." (2 Corinthians 1:5)
To identify with the man of sorrows is to experience His sorrow, but thankfully He also offers us comfort in abundance. I've heard numerous testimonies of comfort and strength from faithful saints who walked through the valley of the shadow of death. The sufferings were painfully real, but so was abundant comfort.
Our sufferings are designed to be used to comfort others as is our comfort, according to Paul:
"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; 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." (2 Corinthians 1:6-7)
The strength that we are given in our times of affliction shine as a bright testimony to other believers, as does the comfort we receive during such times. That which we experience is not so much for our own good as for the good of the family of God. No one truly lives just for themselves.
If we do not see our lives and our experiences from the perspective of our connection to the rest of the body of Christ we have not properly "framed" our lives. Our truest identity and purpose is found within Christ's church.
The hardships that are an inevitable part of life often cause us to ask, "why?", or "why me?". Perhaps the answer that makes the most sense is, "for the good of the body of Christ." Others find strength as they see us find strength; others are comforted even as we are comforted.
Life is a "box of chocolate" mix of sorrow and comfort. Divorced from a genuine connection to the body of believers, our sorrow is especially painful and our comfort is hollow. Through a vital connection with others, however, a greater purpose is evident even as the Lord's comfort and strength comes to us through them.
May you find ultimate purpose and meaning in your Christian life today through you connection with His body.
Pastor Steve
posted by steve @ 12:08 PM
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