“God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things.” (2 Corinthians 1:4, 6 NLT)
Your pain often reveals God’s purpose for you. God never wastes a hurt! If you’ve gone through a hurt, he wants you to help other people going through that same hurt. He wants you to share it. God can use the problems in your life to give you a ministry to others. In fact, the very thing you’re most ashamed of in your life and resent the most could become your greatest ministry in helping other people.
Who can better help somebody going through a bankruptcy than somebody who went through a bankruptcy? Who can better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who’s struggled with an addiction? Who can better help parents of a special needs child than parents who raised a special needs child? Who can better help somebody who’s lost a child than somebody who lost a child?
The very thing you hate the most in your life is what God wants to use for good in your life.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 4 and 6,
“God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things” (NLT).
This is called redemptive suffering. Redemptive suffering is when you go through a problem or a pain for the benefit of others.
This is what Jesus did. When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t deserve to die. He went through that pain for your benefit so that you can be saved and go to Heaven.
There are many different causes for the problems, pains, and suffering in your life. Sometimes the stuff that happens you bring on yourself. When you make stupid decisions, then it causes pain in your life. If you go out and overspend and buy things you can’t afford and presume on the future, and then you go deeply in debt and lose your house, you can’t say, “God, why did you let me lose my house?” You can’t blame God for your bad choices.
But in some of your problems, you’re innocent. You’ve been hurt by the pain, stupidity, and sins of other people. And some of the pain in your life is for redemptive suffering. God often allows us to go through a problem so that we can then help others.
Talk It Over
- What are some of the problems in your life that you have questioned God about or wondered why they had to happen to you?
- How could you use your painful experience to minister to others?
| The Way to Enter |
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| TODAY’S SCRIPTURE |
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| “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” |
| (Psalm 100:4, NKJV) |
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| TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria |
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What an amazing privilege we have to enter boldly into His throne of grace. We serve a personal God who desires a relationship with us. We have access to Him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! But notice that today’s verse tells us that we shouldn’t just come to Him any old way. We shouldn’t come empty-handed to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. What do we have to give that’s worthy of Almighty God? Our praise. Our thanksgiving. Our worship. We should always enter His gates with an offering of adoration from our hearts.
Praise isn’t just about singing songs on Sundaymornings. Praise is the expression of gratefulness to God for Who He is and all that He has done. Praise gets God’s attention. Praise is a powerful tool in the life of the believer because God inhabits the praises of His people! When we enter His presence the right way, He enters our circumstances; and when God shows up, the enemy must flee! Today, enter into His gates with thanksgiving and open the door for Him to move on your behalf!
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| A PRAYER FOR TODAY |
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| Father, You alone are worthy of my praise. Today I declare that You are good, and Your mercy endures forever! Have Your way in me by the power of Your Holy Spirit. I honor You today and submit every area of my life to You in Jesus’ name. Amen. |
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— Joel & Victoria Osteen
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