Greetings!

I hope this message finds you well and that you are gearing up for Summer. My children are counting down the days until school is over and they are free. Freedom for them is not going to school, but little do they know, summer camp is right around the corner for them. I am requiring them to go to summer camp against their own will.

Last night in bible study at church, our teacher talked about suffering. She read Philippians Chapter 1 Verse 29. “For you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” She made a rather profound statement. She said, “The Lord is looking for worthy vessels.” There was silence in the room. I was not going to raise my hand and say, “Pick me!”

Suffering for the cause of Christ is the fine print in the contract of salvation that we miss. Like my children, we enter into suffering against our own will. The Bible says that we are bought with a price, and we are not our own. We celebrate the blessings and the provision of God, but we fail to realize the other side of the coin. That if we want to reign with Him, we must suffer as He suffered.

I can honestly say that I do not always look at suffering as a privilege or something granted to me by God. I look at it most times as an unnecessary part of my Christian Walk that I must go through because God said so, but if I had my own way I would detour it every chance that I got.

But the key word here in what I just said was unnecessary. Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and His ways are not our ways, they are much higher than ours. What God deems as necessary, I see the exact opposite as unnecessary. Quite often I say to the Lord, does it really have to happen this way? When I look back over my life, was that the only way for you to accomplish your will? I looked over my journal notes just this morning, and I wrote down last week, “I did not know that love would cost this much.”

There is no way to know all that we will experience for the sake of the Christ and the cause of the Gospel. I thank God that His mercies are new every morning and that His grace is sufficient for whatever situation I am in. Jesus prayed for His disciples in John Chapter 17. He asked the Father, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” I pray this over myself quite often. When my thoughts betray me and my heart gets weary, I have to remind myself of the Truth. By the washing of the water of the Word, I am made new all over again.

Until next time!!