Christmas In Suffering

O Lord, when will this suffering end? Are you here? Are you here with me? Or am I fooling myself into thinking that you are here with me? How difficult this journey is! How impossible it seems at times! How unbearable this cross is!

We all bear crosses for the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who trust in Jesus, those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, have to carry a cross. This is a requirement. Jesus said, “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me on a daily basis.” Sometimes I am tempted to ask, “O Lord, will this cross get lighter? Will a day come when I can lay aside my cross? The suffering seems endless.” “Why must I be persecuted by my enemies all day long?”, a certain psalmist asked. “Why must I endure this oppression? Why must I suffer so much?”

I have come to this understanding. The people of God suffer in many ways. Each one has a certain kind of suffering. And this suffering has gone on for a very long time. I’m not the only one who is suffering. Others are suffering. I know that they are suffering. During this Christmas time I need to think about them. I need to think about this suffering that all of us are going through.

Our lives are not perfect. There is something missing. There is something that troubles us. There is something that refuses to go away no matter how much we pray, no matter how much we believe in God. A certain suffering remains, as it remained with Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, who prayed three times about a certain suffering. And God said in reply, Jesus said in reply, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Today all that I have is God’s grace. And that is enough. “My grace is sufficient for you.” All that we have today, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, is his grace. His grace is sufficient for us. Let us believe that. Let us declare that. And let us continue to declare that despite how we feel. And we don’t feel very well. It doesn’t matter how we feel. God’s truth cannot change. If he said (that) his grace is sufficient for us, it means that his grace is sufficient for us.

There are certain problems that will not go away. There are certain tendencies that will remain within us, tendencies that we are not proud of, that we are not happy with. A certain problem will remain; a certain disease will remain. A certain rebellion will continue. But we must trust in God, who is working in us. He alone knows what he is doing. We must trust him to do his work, though we do not understand the way, the way in which he works. His ways are different from our ways. His thoughts are different from our thoughts. This is God. This is the fact regarding God, which we must reconcile ourselves to. We should be reconciled with this fact that God has his own way of doing things and we should trust him. He who promised is faithful. He who promised to save you is faithful. He will not abandon you. Believe that.

Your sufferings will be many. The Bible does not promise people that we will have a trouble-free life if they (we) believe in God. The Bible does promise problems. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord will deliver him from them all.” “When you are faced with many trials, be happy”, says the Bible. “Consider yourselves blessed.”

I have many troubles in my life today. So I am blessed. And if you have many troubles in life you are blessed as well. Rejoice in the fact that God is working in you, that you are a work of God and that he will complete his work. “He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it.” And no matter how it feels, despite our cries, despite our impulsive cries, and we cry out to God and say, “How long O Lord, how long?”

It’s Christmas time. It’s time to think about what God did two thousand years ago. Let us celebrate what God did two thousand years ago. He sent Jesus Christ, the only one who could save this humanity. He provided hope to a hopeless world. It was God’s way of saving a world, which was doomed to destruction. We all live in this world. We ourselves were doomed to destruction before Jesus Christ died for us on the cross, and saved us, and saved us by spilling his blood, by laying down his life for us. Today, in the midst of our problems, let us not forget God’s great answer to the greatest of all problems – the ultimate destruction of the human soul. God provided Jesus Christ as the solution. He who could save us from ultimate destruction can also save us from temporary problems. And we will have many temporary problems, and we do have many. But let us cast our cares on God today and despite how it feels let us trust him. Shall we do that today?

God bless you. Enjoy your Christmas because God is with you. 

(The transcript of the message of Samuel Godfrey George given on 20 December 2013)