“He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Matthew 26:39 NLT “And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” Romans 8:17 NLT This past week has been quite a week of suffering for both Robin and me. The suffering has had different effects on us both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It has been such a depth in the quietness of my spirit, that agony would be an appropriate word to describe my mental and physical state at times. Spiritually, the battle has been raging as well. Just this week, we have been through ongoing pain of the cancers in our bodies, but also a new dimension of side effects from the pain patches we’ve had to wear. Those would include hallucinations for me, and itching. The fatigue, severe anemia and shortness of breath are a few other things to add to the already mixed plethora of symptoms that go with this suffering. To add to the already bag of mixed sufferings, I had what appears to be a minor TIA (very slight stroke) on Tuesday which yielded the left side of my body almost useless for just a few minutes and was gone. I’m thankful that’s all it was, as I had one in 2000 that affected my speech and ability to communicate for about twelve hours. In all of this, my mind has been racing to be released from this suffering and be granted the great gift of being able to go home if healing was not in the plan. I’ve cried out to God to release me and Robin from this long, arduous six year road of suffering for which there seems to be no answer, nor do the answers seem to be coming forth. At least, we feel we aren’t being given those answers at this juncture. I’ve begun to meditate upon Christ’s suffering in my own battle and quest to find answers. When I look at the human Jesus kneeling in the garden of Gethsemane, I see a man in agony knowing the further suffering would be ramped up a thousand times what He had ever experienced previously in His 33 years. He was about to suffer more than any man at the hands of the Romans and even more so, despised and rejected by those who may have even received great blessing from His hand of healing and provision. It would be a lonely road to the cross for all of humanity. In all of this suffering and anguish in His soul He still prayed…” bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Simply amazing! It was a bitter cup of suffering, yet He knew it must be done for everyone of us in order for us to have a way of escape from the curse of sin. I don’t think that I’ve ever had an inkling of the depth of that suffering until our battle with our own physical trials for which I would rather not drink from. In no way do I compare our suffering to the depth of what Jesus went through that night in the garden. I can’t fathom those moments. But I can relate to the vexation of suffering from a human standpoint where the weariness of all of it causes me to say…Lord, if it’s possible, let this cup of suffering pass from me. Just watching Robin suffer on a daily basis is sometimes more than I can bear. My soul gets heavy and burdened. And then, I read Romans 8:17, and Paul puts it all into perspective for me…“And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” There it is! If I want to share in the glory, His glory, I must also share in the suffering. I don’t have to go to the cross…done. I don’t have to be beaten and flogged beyond recognition…done. I’ll never have to carry the weight of every person’s sin on my shoulders…done. But because of the curse of sin, I’ll have to suffer in this life. He does make the suffering easier to bear knowing He already suffered, bled and died a death none of us will ever face, but He also did something glorious for all of us through His suffering…He provided all that we need in times of suffering including healing and miracles, but He also gave us the greatest gift in sharing in His glory! For me, that’s an amazing thought! I love the Lord more today, as I realize this depth of suffering and glory. It helps me to go on another hour and day and thank Him for His provision. It helps me to keep on running the race with patience. And so, this cup of suffering becomes a cup of blessing in the end for us! All made possible by Him who suffered more than any man, but now intercedes for those of us who follow! Praise His name! We have wonderful guests in our home this week! Robin’s praying parents have come to stay with us, and spend precious time with us for a season. We appreciate the time with them and the blessing in just being able to catch up and share our hearts. We continue to promote our book, “Through the Valley” through Facebook, our blog and several other venues. If you would like to purchase a copy for yourself, a friend, or perhaps you are a pastor who would bless us by buying a number of copies to bless your congregation with, I’m sure you’ll be blessed by our story and His provision ‘Through the Valley. You may purchase your copy(ies) through this blog on the book tab. We are going to be signing every book we sell from here on out now, as a token of our love and personal appreciation to you. Thanks for your support! May the Lord richly bless you today in whatever you are going through. Remember this…He went through all the suffering first, so we could share in His glory! Be Blessed!
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 01:05:43 +0000
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