This is somehting that the Lord had shown me over the summer. It really had an impact on me and I hope it does the same for you.
*Quotes from "The Inward Journey" by Gene Ewards*
*We are almost, but not quite, two people: an inner person and an outer person. Your inner person deals with the spiritual; your outer person deals with the physical. You Lord wishes to strengthen the inner person and, in some ways to weaken or at lest bring into submission the outer person. The Lord wants us to be controlled, not by our emotions, or thoughts, or will, but by our spirit. Nothing we do impresses Him, but what He does in us impresses Him. Few if any of us really seek after a deep, intimate relationship with the Lord except, 1, just before, 2, during, and 3, right after those periods of disaster, catastrophe, suffering and pain. Whatever it is the Lord puts into your life, that affliction is a friend working for you, not against you. We walk a thin line when we talk about either the joy of the Christian life or the cross of the Christian life. Do not fall into the trap of trying to supress your soul- or personally hauling it to the cross, there to scrounge around for a hammer and some nails. The Lord himself heeds no help. He can do it for you, but you only get in his way.*
We may suffer much on this earth, but we will never experience the suffering the Christ went through. He suffered enough for all of us, for our eternaty with the Father. We will only suffer a small portion of what Christ went through, so we could spend eternaty with Him.
*What kind of Christian can best endure suffering? He doesn't exist. I could hamdle your problems easily. You could handle mine with a yawn. But it didn't happen that way. I got the ones I couldn't handle; so you got the ones you couldn't handle.*
What is the purpose of such suffering? And, why does it seem to be worse with all the Chrstians, the children of God? Well, think of it this way, you learn a lot when you're going through something rough. YOu learn more about life, and usually more about God. You have to suffer some to learn more. Now look at it from God's point of view, he allows such suffering, to trnsform you into his image. Everyday you are being ransformed more and more into his image, until the day you die, whether it be at 15 or 85. At that day you are perfect and ready to be with the Father, again, for all eternaty.
*There will be very little, if any, spritual progress in the deeper parts of you until the deadly cold blad of the cross pierces to the vitals of a self-nature buried so deaply and woven so completely into you human nature they seem to be one and the same.*
God seeks to break your inner person. He wants your outer person to almost controll your inner person (again, we are almost like two people, and inner person, or your spirit, and your outer person or your flesh or sinful nature). THe outer person controlls most of us, we do things that are wrong and sinful. But your spirit, or even refered to as your concience, needs to controll you actions. And God wants to brake that outer person and bring into submission through suffering, and the cross.
*Brokeness is more dearly prized by the Lord than all of the greatness this world has ever seen. There will be no meekneses and compassion without disaster and loss. There will be no unselfishness without moral blow delt to selfishness. There will be no humility until there is a totla irreparable loss of reputation. There will be never be any true seccess in the Lord's work until it has been preceded by many, many tums of disasterous failure. It is through a broken heart the God brings his purpose into the world. Then Lord, bring forth my broken heart. Bring forth out of your treasures, my broken heart. The wreckage caused sorrow and grief, is it's price God is willing to pay to achieve brokeness, compassion and tenderness of spirit in a life that, in it's intrinisic state, is a life of unlovingness. Know this: Trials are among the greatest blessings of life. If you have the tendancy to blame everything on the devil, then you are going to miss out on a great deal of the Lord's work intended for your life. In fact, if you have a tendancy to blame even a portion of the the things that come into your life as being from the devil you may have missed one of the central issues of God's work in our lives. If God is doubly merciful, he may even give you a renewal of that longing to know him deeper. Until you take your last breath, he will be working to transform you. You may not have any controll over what is happening to you, but you have a great deal of controll over your reaction to what is happening to you. The eternal essence of a catastophe is not the tragedy itself, but you reaction to it.*
Over the time we send on earth God transforms, and perfects us through suffering.
