“It’s important to thank God for our sufferings.” Yeah, that’s true. It’s easier said when your sufferings are failing a test you didn’t really study for, or losing your keys when you’re already late. But what about the hard stuff? Like when your mom dies after a long battle with cancer, or you lose your best friend in a freak accident. Where’s the opportunity to be thankful in that?

In 2^nd Corinthians 12:9-10 it says But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” But what does any of that mean? Let’s break it down:

God’s graciousness is constant, in all situations. (My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness)

How we deal with the trials that come into our life, test our faithfulness to God. In hard times, we must cling to our all-knowing God. It is our job as Christian’s to not only trust God’s will but to continue to glorify him through our struggle. (Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.)

Here’s the basic truth of all of this: God uses our struggles to exemplify him

This isn’t an easy truth to accept, but here’s why it is so important; how we handle pain sends a message to non-believers.

If you’re anything like me, this is a hard pill to swallow. Why should I have to suffer? Why is this happening to me?

Jesus had a similar conversation with God in the garden right before he was crucified. But, Jesus trusted in God’s will for him. He prayed to God moments before he was arrested: “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you^[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:25-26) Jesus was about to be nailed to a cross, and he was still asking God to help him Glorify God in whatever way he could. Christ should be our model for obedience to God in the midst of GREAT suffering.

God didn’t promise our lives as Christian’s would be easy, in fact he told us the opposite in John 16:33. It says “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” And in Romans 8:18 he tells us “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

We live in a sin-filled world. Sufferings are inevitable but we can be at peace with the fact that our sufferings are used to glorify Christ----and they, unlike Heaven, are not eternal.