GOD KNOWS WHEN WE SUFFER

We all have times of suffering and when we do, it's sometimes hard to remember that GOD knows all about it, and that He understands our anguish and grief much more than we can imagine (see Matthew 26:36-42).

Our deepest need is our LORD, and the realization that He can and will meet us in our grief, and comfort us in a way that no one else can, because He's also suffered grief and anguish....as the suffering Messiah, separated from the Father, when He took upon himself our transgressions to pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus was in deep agony in the Garden of Gethsemene, because he knew that God's wrath would be placed on him and cause him to be separated from the Father, until the full extent of God's wrath was completed. This was done as our Savior hung on the cross. He then said, "it is finished" as the full penalty for sin was paid for by Jesus, (see John 19:30).

I don't know what your grief, anguish, pain, and times of discouragement have been, or the cause of them. But I do know that none of us are expempt from experiencing these things at some point in our lives. He loves you very deeply, just as he loves me, and each of his children.

He wants you to lay your burdens, anguish, and pain on him. When you do this, he will help you have the strength that is needed to take whatever it is that you're facing. As I'm aging, I'm learning to do this much more quickly than in my earlier years. This doesn't mean that I'll never face difficulty or deep pain again, but I know that my LORD'S shoulders are broad and that I can lay my burdens on him. He will lift them, he will hold me in his care, and he will never let me go.

Thank you JESUS for taking my burdens and pain. I pray for my brothers and sisters that they will allow you to do the same for them. Amen and Hallelujah!

by Cheryl Ellen Baxter ©

ON SUFFERING

I come to you Lord open and bleeding,
Raw with anguish, and once again you
Comfort me, You....my place of refuge
You understand, for you too have bled

And as I think of it now, I'm aware of the
Real drops of blood that you've shed, and
I admit that knowing this makes me feel
A little foolish, thinking that my bleeding

Could compare with your suffering....yet
You know that I'm human, as i know that
YOU are GOD.

by Cheryl Ellen Baxter ©

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RELATED SCRIPTURES

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 -- For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
⁴ And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
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Romans 8:16-18 -- The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
¹⁷ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
¹⁸ 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.