REJOICE IN YOUR SUFFERINGS

Ro 5:3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
Ro 5:4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Ro 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
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It stinks to be in pain. There is no doubt about it. It hurts when someone hurts us. It hurts when a prayer is unanswered. It hurts when someone dies. It hurts to realize that we have messed up things and have to wait on God to fix them. If we can remove ourselves from the feeling of pain long enough, there is much growth to be had. I challenge you to look back on your biggest points of pains that you have had in your life, and test this scripture to behold it's Truth. This is one of the many reasons why it is so good to keep a journal. It allows you to look back on past happenings and learn from them. Our minds have a strange way of forgetting, especially if we do not particulary want to face the truth of any given circumstance. If you do not have a journal, I invite you to sit in silence for a bit and recall some of this past pain. After you walked through it, did it not strengthen your character? How about lesson? Did it teach you something that you may not have learned if you had not experienced the pain? Sometimes the pain is a result of our own poor choicces and we just learn from them. There are times however that God is using the pain to get us out of our comfort zone and onto the narrow path of life. Sometimes it takes something radical to force us to make appropriate changes in our life in order to secure a better future for ourselves. We will not always know the reason for our suffering but we can rest assured that God is in control and He will use even the worst of things for our best (ROM 8:28). How hopeless life would be without believing that promise God has made to those of us that love Him. Walk through whatever you are going through with full Faith that God can and will use the situation for the best of all involved. Know that this too shall pass, and someday you will have back double of whatever the devil has stolen. If you BELIEVE.