Patiently Enduring Suffering

[Sue J Love]

“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” (James 5:7-11 NASB1995)

Jesus Christ never promised us a life of ease and comfort if we follow him with our lives. He did not promise that all would go well for us and that we would not have to suffer. In fact, he promised us the opposite of that. He told us that if we follow him, becoming like him in heart, mind, deed, and purpose, that we will be hated and persecuted as he was. We will be lied about, falsely accused of wrong, tested, harassed, ridiculed, thought crazy, rejected, cast aside, falsely imprisoned, and even put to death.

But Satan cannot harm us unless God allows it. And God sets limits on what he will allow Satan to do, too (see story of Job). For God allows both bad and good to come into our lives to test us and to try us and to humble us and to teach us faithfulness, perseverance, endurance, and hope, even when all looks hopeless. Through the things we suffer, if we respond in the right way, we learn to rely on God and not on ourselves, and it strengthens us in our walks of faith to follow the ways of God regardless of how we are treated.

So, if we are having to endure some serious trials to test our faith, we must not lose faith. We must not yield to the flesh and to the enemy and give up the fight just because the battle got more severe. For God is absolutely sovereign over all he created, and nothing will come into our lives unless God allows it. And if our trust is in him, and we let him lead, he will see us through every trial. And running away from God, in order to escape the pain, never makes anything better, but only makes things much worse.

And we can find encouragement in the lives of the prophets of God of old who spoke in the name of the Lord and who endured unjust treatment at the hands of their persecutors. Many of them suffered greatly at the hands of their opponents because of their walks of faith in obedience to the Lord and because they spoke the truth of God’s word to the people for their good. And Job was a righteous man who endured suffering at the hand of Satan and at the hands of those who accused him falsely of what he did not do.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-39; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

And as all of us who are following Jesus Christ with our lives, we are to be those who do not gripe and make complaints against one another, in practice, to where we become embittered against one another in spirit, which could come from jealousy, impatience, selfishness, or our own ideas of how things should be done, based upon our own upbringing, culture, and traditions which we have had ingrained in us since childhood. For God didn’t make us all the same, and everyone is not going to be just like us.

Nonetheless, this is not to say that we should not judge deliberate and habitual sin in the life of a believer in Christ for the purpose to bring that person out of his addiction to sin so that he can now obey the Lord with his life. For this whole grumbling and complaining based on ourselves is not the same as us addressing addictive sin in the life of one calling himself or herself a believer in Jesus Christ. We are to call out sin, but to do so with love and compassion, with the goal of getting the sinner to repent of his sin.

But it isn’t just that. We are called of God to speak the truth in love to one another so that we are not led astray by men in their cunning, craftiness, and deceitful scheming who are trying to get us to believe a false gospel. And we are given spiritual gifts of the Spirit to share with one another to help one another to grow to maturity in Christ in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord. And we are assigned specific body parts within the body of Christ and to minister the truth of God’s word to one another.

[Acts 2:42-47; Philippians 2:1-8; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Ephesians 4:1-32; Ephesians 5:15-21; Colossians 3:12-16; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; Galatians 6:1; James 5:19-20; Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Peter 2:9; Matthew 5:13-16; Acts 26:18, etc.]

Near the Cross

Hymn lyrics by Fanny J. Crosby, 1869
Music by William H. Doane, 1869

Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary's mountain.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.

Near the cross I'll watch and wait,
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand
Just beyond the river.

In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.

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Patiently Enduring Suffering
An Original Work / May 6, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love