God wasn’t joking when He said in Isaiah 55:9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
These differences are dramatically illustrated in His instruction that we should rejoice in the midst of our sufferings. This advice might seem counterproductive, and it is definitely un-American. We tend to believe that joy comes through the removal of hardship. We are always cooking up ways to make life easier, while being confused by His lack of cooperation. He must be thinking, “Listen, you are wasting your sufferings.”
So what could possibly be accomplished by rejoicing in the midst of suffering? In the next few weeks, I will be sharing God’s higher purposes in suffering. The first purpose is this:
1) We can experience Jesus Christ on a level that is better than having gold (1 Peter 1:6-8). “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”
You may be thinking, “Is experiencing Jesus Christ really that good?” Paul claimed that knowing Jesus was so incredibly valuable that everything else was like manure in comparison (Philippians 3). Do your possessions and accomplishments seem like a pile of manure compared to knowing Him? If we turn to Him and not away, and ask Him to reveal Himself, we will discover riches that are out of this world. For more on how to start a relationship with Jesus – go here.
