Suffering Teaches Obedience

'Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb :8). "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.... lf ye be without chastisement... then are ye bastards, and not sons"(Heb 12:6,8). "For remember, when your body suffers, sin loses its power, and you won't be spending the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but will be anxious to do the will of God. ' 'Don't let me hear of your suffering for murdering or stealing or making trouble or being a busy body and prying into other people's affairs. "So if you are suffering according to God's will, keep on doing what is right and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you" (lPet 4:1,2,15,19 tib). I've often wished there were a way to gain without pain; a way to learn without suffering and chastisement — but there isn't.

We would prefer to enjoy an effective ministry without the suffering which makes it possible. If God used painful suffering to perfect Jesus, how much more will He use trouble in our lives? Let us then joyfully embrace the Lord's discipline. For by this we know we are sons and not bastards. [Note: Paul is applying this in a spiritual sense. Under the law, bastards had no right to priestly or kingly ministry (Deut 23:2). New Testament rules of grace decree children born out of wedlock are treated the same as anyone else.]

Trials Produce Perseverance And Maturity "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature... not lacking anything" (Jas 1:2-4). Many leaders seem to become "escape artists" when obedience to God's will requires suffering or trials. James teaches us that rather than try to escape the fiery ordeals that come, we should joyfully embrace them. Notice, "...perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature. "This means we cannot speed up the process. Fiery ordeals do not produce instant results. When a fiery trial comes we must not only embrace it, we must endure and persevere in it.

The Cocoon And The Butterfly. A man once found a cocoon which had dropped from a tree. The butterfly was beginning to emerge, so he stopped to watch. It struggled for about forty-five minutes. In that time only the head and part of one wing emerged free of the cocoon. Thinking he would help the struggling butterfly accelerate the process, he took his razor-sharp pen knife and cut the cocoon open to release the emerging larvae. To his surprise, he found only the part which had emerged through great effort and struggle was developed.

The part he had cut free was still undeveloped and not ready to be exposed to the elements outside the cocoon. Instead of helping the larvae become a butterfly, he had aborted the process. The half-developed butterfly soon died. We church leaders are guilty of the same thing. We see brethren wrestling with difficulty. We feel sorry for them and try to help them out, only to discover that they fall back into the same problem again a short while later. Were we to let them suffer awhile, and learn the lesson God is trying to teach them — it would be better for them and the Church.