Continued from here.
As I shared in my last blog entry, God revealed to me that the purpose behind my being sick throughout the month of December was because of something He is doing in the life of someone else. God then reinforced this message on Joyce Meyer’s program, Enjoying Everyday Life. I’ll share Meyer’s insights and then add my own.
On her TV program, Joyce Meyer shared that she went through an annoying situation in which God revealed that she had suffered for the benefit of another person. In other words, she went through a situation involving another person in which she suffered, but God did not bring this situation into her life to punish/discipline Joyce or because the suffering was needed to teach her something. Instead, God was teaching the other person something, and for that person to learn the lesson, Joyce had to suffer.
Meyer said that as we mature in our relationship with God, God will sometimes allow us to go through seasons of suffering that have nothing to do with us. Instead, the other person must experience a painful situation in order to grow, and God will allow that painful situation to come about in the person’s relationship with a mature Christian. As a result, the mature Christian suffers, despite having done nothing to bring that suffering about (no unconfessed sin, etc.) because it’s not about him or her.
Let me tell you – that’s not a lesson I have been happy to learn, but it is definitely one that is good to know because I spent quite a bit of time begging God to teach me whatever I needed to learn from this experience so I could recover sooner. The answer was no because it was not about me! I needed to be sick as long as the other person needed to grow because this experience was about that person and not about me.
This is a tough lesson for me because I would have been willing to do just about anything to shorten my period of suffering, but I was helpless to do so. The only tool in my toolbox was prayer. At least I knew what (and who) to pray for once God revealed this to me. However, my prayers did not shorten my suffering, which was frustrating for me, doubly so since it’s been a lot of work for me to get back on track with my spiritual disciplines – I’m still feeling a bit “off” since that experience and welcome your prayers.
However, God reminded me that He was not asking anything of me that He did not ask of Jesus. How much suffering did Jesus do for me? So why do I fight against suffering for someone else? Just as Jesus’ suffering resulted in new life for me, perhaps God is using my suffering to bring about new life for this other person. Thus, there’s joy in the suffering. I confess I’m not yet to a place of “feeling joy” in suffering, but I’m a step closer to realizing that God is bringing beauty from these ashes.
[Graphic: Cartoon of Grace shrugging and asking, “Why?” Courtesy Bitmoji.]
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