Aug
20
I awoke in the middle of the night thinking about suffering. Then the saying “Sufferin Succotash ” jumped in my brain. I googled it and was reminded that Sylvester the cat of Looney Tunes made the saying famous.
As a youth I grew up loving Looney Tunes and despising succotash. My Dad thought that feeding his kids liver and succotash was a good thing to do. Maybe so, but I beg to differ!
Eating both are right up there with suffering in my book- at least the book of a young boy.
But life has a way of refining our perspectives and, since Jesus is The Lord of Life, He allows suffering to refine us and make us Holy if we will see all things through the faith and truth filter. Otherwise, we will buy into the lies of the evil one who will be right there in the midst of our pain tempting us to distrust God, causing us to doubt His love, goodness and greatness. Tempting us to throw him out of our lives with the bath water of suffering!
Now, I must admit that prior to March 11, 2012 I did not know what real suffering was all about. Since then, God in His wisdom, power and love has purposed me to go deep into the well of suffering for my good/holiness and His glory.
As I lay in bed pondering this season of spiritual refining my thoughts were drawn to the story of Joseph which reminded me of the Streams in the Desert devotional that talks about the iron of suffering which went into Joseph’s soul and prepared him to fulfill the vision The Lord gave him many years earlier.
I did a google search to find the devotional- when I saw the date and title my jaw dropped!
Free Through Suffering
“Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress” (Ps. 4:1).
This is one of the grandest testimonies ever given by man to the moral government of God. It is not a man’s thanksgiving that he has been set free from suffering. It is a thanksgiving that he has been set free through suffering: “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” He declares the sorrows of life to have been themselves the source of life’s enlargement. And have not you and I a thousand times felt this to be true? It is written of Joseph in the dungeon that “the iron entered into his soul.” We all feel that what Joseph needed for his soul was just the iron. He had seen only the glitter of the gold. He had been rejoicing in youthful dreams; and dreaming hardens the heart. He who sheds tears over a romance will not be most apt to help reality; real sorrow will be too unpoetic for him. We need the iron to enlarge our nature. The gold is but a vision; the iron is an experience. The chain which unites me to humanity must be an iron chain. That touch of nature which makes the world akin is not joy, but sorrow; gold is partial, but iron is universal. My soul, if thou wouldst be enlarged into human sympathy, thou must be narrowed into limits of human suffering. Joseph’s dungeon is the road to Joseph’s throne. Thou canst not lift the iron load of thy brother if the iron hath not entered into thee. It is thy limit that is thine enlargement. It is the shadows of thy life that are the real fulfillment of thy dreams of glory. Murmur not at the shadows; they are better revelations than thy dreams. Say not that the shades of the prison-house have fettered thee; thy fetters are wings — wings of flight into the bosom of humanity. The door of thy prison-house is a door into the heart of the universe. God has enlarged thee by the binding of sorrow’s chain.
–George Matheson
*****
If Joseph had not been Egypt’s prisoner, he had never been Egypt’s governor. The iron chain about his feet ushered in the golden chain about his neck.
–Selected
So, if you find yourself in the midst of a severe trial of suffering, remember Joseph and the following passage-
Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn[b] among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Remember, He has chosen you to become like His Son and has given you right standing through His suffering and death and – here’s the kicker! He has promised to work ALL things together for your good and His purpose for you- to give you His Glory!
Peace, Jonathan
