FINDING JOY IN SUFFERING

FINDING JOY IN SUFFERING I don't know anyone Who likes to SUFFER I certainly don't- Do you? BUT Jesus found JOY in suffering Because he was offering HIS LIFE up for others- FOR US And I think that That is the ONLY WAY- We can find JOY in it= Is offering up ourselves- OUR sufferings for others Saint Paul wrote: “Brothers and sister: NOW I rejoice In my suffering For your sake And in my flesh I am filling up What is lacking In the afflictions of Christ On behalf Of his body- Which is the CHURCH ….....” Colossians 1:24 FIND joy in suffering OFFER it up for God Offer it up for others And a UNIFIED CHURCH in Christ Jesus The world tells us Our goal in life Should be happiness And we find that happiness In money and materialism- In sex-and in having a perfect body NOTHING could be Further from the truth For All these kinds of happiness Are fleeting We can only find true happiness- TRUE JOY=in FINDING GOD In finding Jesus Nowhere else “You make known to me The PATH OF LIFE You fill me with JOY In your presence With eternal pleasures At your right hand” Psalm 16:11 “The prospect Of the righteous is JOY But the HOPES of the wicked Come to nothing” Proverbs 10:28 A few hundred years later Saint Francis of Assisi Came along He spoke to His companion=Brother Leo “PERFECT JOY-is-upon REACHING their destination- IS to be rejected-called names-beaten and tossed aside And to bear it all And be JOINED With the sufferings of Christ” That would be PERFECT JOY For Saint Francis A bit extreme To say the least BUT we should ALWAYS Offer up our sufferings to God For the sake of others I have always done so=SINCE Being besieged by intense Chronic pain since the age of 22 “NOW if we are children- Then we are heirs- Heirs of God And co-heirs of Christ IF indeed We share in his sufferings In order That we may also SHARE in his glory” Romans 8:17 UNITE your sufferings With God and Jesus For the sake of OTHERS There is NO other way TO FIND JOY IN SUFFERING In Jesus' name Robert P. Wallman 7-16-16 Ps INSPIRED by an article in LIVING FAITH MAGAZINE by Amy Welborn