“By faith people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land … By faith the walls of Jericho fell … By faith the prostitute Rahab was no killed … And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.“
-Hebrews 11:29-38
Isn’t it interesting how faith leads to blessing and/or suffering.
A week ago or so I listened to John Piper’s sermon entitled, “The sale of Joseph and the Son of God”, VERY GOOD (thank you Jason). Piper described how Joseph kept getting the wrong stuff for the good he had done. He was faithful and righteous in everything, even though he couldn’t understand why he was going through such an odd and tough time in life. Things didn’t get better because Joseph was righteous. It took a long, long while, people’s sins and forgetfulness to finally bring Joseph to a blessed time in his life.
I wonder. Should we be looking for blessings in this life? Should I live in a way that will bring happiness and joy and comfort to me? Should I change my life or prayers if I don’t seem to be blessed in spite of my obedience and faithfulness o God?
The passage in Hebrew says that those who suffered did not get (on earth) what they were promised to receive. Conclusion: I should not think God is against me because my life is… du caca. Instead, I should simply keep going and persevere, doing what is right in the eyes of God and be sensitive to His Word. There is more to this passage and etc. but you might not want to fall asleep right now.
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Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.’ (Job 1:
Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man who fears God and turns away from evil. HE STILL RETAINS HIS INTEGRITY, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him without cause.’ (Job 2:3)
Then you know the rest of the story…..
Ray
hu-hum…
Tu avais le theme: Freshy
t’es juste jalouse de mon beau wordpress. change immediatement, p’tite voleuse.
hhahahhaa! J’me rappellais pas que t’avais celle-là…. je m’excuse. À l’université j’apprends à travailler avec le html et à faire de sites web. J’en a un sur geocities… mais juste pour les affaires d’école. Ca me tente presque de changer à geocities, mais ça me prendrais pas mal plus de temps écrire mes affaires et aussi mon addresse de blog serait pas mal poche et longue. Je vais voir si je vais changer mon blog tempplate…
I don’t think it’s blessing and/or suffering, but rather blessings that sometimes come through suffering. As we see in the life of Joseph, and even more in the life of Jesus, it was the hardship that turned into the blessing. God wants us to be happy, but he is far more desirous that we holy, and sometimes happy just doesn’t get you to holy.
You are right in saying that “blessings … sometimes come through suffering”, but it is obvious that the Bible teaches that faith has consequences and sometimes it leads to blessings and sometimes to sufferings.
The two are not mutually exclusive. The consequences of faith may be suffering, but God will still use the suffering to bring about blessing of some sort — even if the blessing is simply being able to “comfort with the comfort we have received.” God wastes nothing. That was my the point — realizing that even when the world “means it for evil, God uses it for good.”
I agree with you. I don’t mean to argue or anything, but I have a hard time understanding the point of your first comment. My entry said, “Faith leads to blessing and/or suffering” let’s persevere in times of hardships” and you say, “I don’t think it’s blessing and/or suffering, but rather blessings that sometimes come through suffering.” I agree with you, but I don’t exactly understand your point, since you’re (in my opinion) adding information to what I wrote (reminding me that suffering can lead to blessing), but at the same time you seem to disagree with the info given in the post (faith leads to blessing and suffering). But eh, no need to worry about anything. Maybe I don’t understand what you really meant with your comment.
Sorry for the confusion. I wasn’t arguing with your original point at all, because I agree with you. I was just trying to add to your thought that suffering isn’t necessarily separate from blessing (as suggest by the “and/or”). My comments were intended to be encouraging — because a lot of Christians view suffering as somehow being a place where God has lost control of the situation. Knowing that even in suffering, God is still in control has encouraged many hearts, and that was my only goal. Hope that makes it clearer.
Thank you!
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