Dear Missionary Lady,
Greetings in the name of our God, who knows the end as well as the beginning. He is working everything for His grand eternal purposes. Following is the next section in my study on praying during suffering.
Category Eight – Time Context
“The God of all grace … after that ye have suffered a while”
(I Peter 5:10). “Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be
found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (I Peter
1:6-7). Suffering is temporary. These two verses refer to suffering as being
for a little while. After the time of suffering, God intervenes. That is often during
this life (5:10), but many verses refer to results that come only in eternity
(1:6-7). Even when we find relief in this lifetime, it seems that such relief
is minimal, almost inconsequential, in comparison to the results that must wait
for the next life.
“For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life” (II Corinthians 5:4). The suffering of this life is inescapable, as we live in a world of death, but all the suffering will disappear when we reach the world of life.
“Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:34b-36). While this passage refers primarily to enduring in the faith (in the face of suffering), it clearly teaches that something better than this world is coming. One aspect of that is the crown that will be bestowed. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (James 1:12).
Sometimes the relief itself will not come until the next life. “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” (II Thessalonians 1:7). Certainly, the fulness of rejoicing and glory will be seen only in eternity. “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (I Peter 4:13). “Also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed” (I Peter 5:1b).
It isn’t just that eternity will finally yield an aspect of relief that we will not find in this life, but there is an incredible magnitude to that eternal relief. When we finally see the ultimate deliverance, none of our current suffering will be worth another thought. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (II Corinthians 4:17-18).
“Father, help me to keep the proper perspective between the temporal and the eternal. Although I pray and long for deliverance now, help me to be willing to wait if that is what You decide. Help me to remember often that my suffering is never empty, but also to remember that the greatest glories of deliverance will come only in eternity. May I be encouraged with the assurance that some day my suffering will be swallowed up by unimaginable glory.”
May God bless you as you serve Him today – on the way to eternity.
Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
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