"For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." ( 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 CSB )
Jackie Hill Perry says in her new devotional, "Suffering creates an interpretive lens. Either refining the suffer's vision of God or blurring it."
I've found this to be exceedingly true. For some it makes them hate God or gives them a reason to deny him, saying that if there is a God, he would not allow suffering. For others, it makes them concoct all sorts of false doctrines like believers aren't suppose to suffer, twisting Scriptures to fit their fancy.
If we give ourselves over to truly studying the Bible, having the integrity to read it and let it speak to us, not explaining away the difficult verses, but reading the entire counsel of Scripture for what it is, in there, and there only, lies the story and hope we are so desperately hungering for in our hearts.
For those willing to do this, we not only find some semblance of sense in suffering, but we find a Savior who lowered himself into ours feeling every inch of our pain and infinitely more, crying out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" ( Matthew 27:46 )
Why? Why did God forsake his own Son?
So he wouldn't have to forsake us.
That truth is worth us digging into.
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