Suffering

We all know what it's like to experience rough times in our lives. We have all gone through these times and we will have more of them as we go through our lives. Sometimes we bring this suffering on ourselves, maybe as a consequence of a choice we made and sometimes bad things just happen. But the thing to remember is that God is always always there for us, even when we face these storms in our lives. Read Revelation 2:9. The church is being persecuted but God is looking down on them and loving them. Guys when we feel so down and so burdened, we need to remember that we are rich because Jesus Christ is in us. God never leaves us and when He looks at us He sees us as rich. It's so easy to lose our focus when we go through rough times but we need to press on and trust the God that we serve! He holds each of our steps in His hand and we have to trust that He will pull us safely through every storm. See, our relationship with Jesus can never be taken away from us! Now, we have two options when we are going through a rough time: we can either lay down and give up or we can stand up, know we are rich in Christ, and reach out to other people. Our friends and other people in our lives need us! We have to affirm others' value and purpose in life and let them know how much we love them. We have to let them just vent to us and ask them questions about what they are going through. We have to listen with understanding, even if what they are saying seems crazy to us. It is important for us to grieve with them and try to understand what they're going through. Finally, we should pray with them and pray for them when we are not with them. When's the last time you asked somebody if you could pray with them? Guys, we gotta step up and not care what other people think or concentrate on our own problems. If we are God's hands and feet, we should be reaching out to people and loving them like our God loves us! Somebody might need you more than you think!