though He was a Son, yet He
learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
And having
been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation
to all who obey Him,
Hebrews 5:8-9
There is a
positive aspect to suffering. We all endure suffering to some degree, but the
good news is that through it we can become like Jesus. Are you willing to pay
whatever price is necessary in order to become like Christ? There are some
things that God can build into your life only through suffering. Even Jesus,
the sinless Son of God, was complete only after He had endured the suffering
His Father had set before Him. Once He had suffered, He was the complete,
mature, and perfect Savior through whom an entire world could find salvation.
If you become
bitter over your hardships, you close some parts of your life from God. If you
do this, you will never be complete. Some places in your soul can be reached
only by suffering. The Spirit of God has important things to teach you, but you
can only learn these lessons in the midst of your trials. King Saul was made
king without ever enduring hardship, but he never developed the character or
maturity to handle God's assignment. David spent years in suffering and
heartache. When he finally ascended the throne, he was a man after God's own
heart.
Don't resent
the suffering God allows in your life. Don't make all your decisions and invest
everything you have into avoiding hardship. God did not spare His own Son. How
can we expect Him to spare us? Learn obedience even when it hurts!
Jesus' human
life was not a script that he passively followed. It was a life that he chose
freely (John 10:17,18). It was a continuous process of making the will of God
the Father his own. Jesus chose to obey, even though obedience led to suffering
and death. Because Jesus obeyed perfectly, even under great trial, he can help
us obey, no matter how difficult obedience seems to be.
Christ was
always morally perfect. By obeying, he demonstrated his perfection to us, not
to God or to himself. In the Bible, perfect usually means completeness
or maturity. By sharing our experience of suffering, Christ shared our human
experience completely. He is now able to offer eternal salvation to those who
obey him.
- Excerpt from
“Experiencing God Day-By-Day” by Henry and Richard Blackaby