Quotes about Suffering

If we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Timothy 2:12 NKJV).

Just look what they did to me!" we defy and point to our hurts. "Just look what I did for you," he reminds and points to the cross.

Isn't it enough that these hands will be pierced in the morning? Must they scrub grime tonight? And the disciples . . . do they deserve to have their feet washed?

A season of suffering is a small assignment when compared to the reward.

The fruit of sin is thorns—spiny, prickly, cutting thorns. I emphasize the "point" of the thorns to suggest a point you may have never considered: if the fruit of sin is thorns, isn't the thorny crown on Christ's brow a picture of the fruit of our sin that pierced his heart?

We long for the call to come home. But until He calls, we wait.... And how do we wait? With patient eagerness. (See rom. 8:25,23) Patient eagerness. Not so eager as to lose our patience, and not so patient as to lose our eagerness. ...we grow so patient we sleep!... ... Or we are so eager we demand. We demand in this world what only the next world can give. No sickness. No suffering. No struggle.

You can't see the warden. You can't see the locks. But you can see the prisoners. You can see them as they sit on their bunks and bemoan their fate. They want to live, but they can't because they are doomed to do what they most want to avoid—they will die. Imagine Jesus seeing us in our "prisons" of fear:

The hand squeezing the handle was not a Roman infantryman. The force behind the hammer was not an angry mob. The verdict behind the death was not decided by jealous Jews. Jesus himself chose the nails.

Why did he do it? One reason. So when you hurt, you will go to him - your Father and your Physician - and let him heal.

Death, failure, betrayal, sickness, disappointment—they cannot take our joy, because they cannot take our Jesus.

Why did he endure all these feelings? Because he knew you would feel them too.

9In the same way I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born," says the LORD.