Be Patient in Suffering

Have you noticed how slowly time seems to pass when you're suffering? The rest of the universe is still ticking along as usual, but your little patch is running in slow motion – extreme slow motion. And in that place, patience wears thin very quickly. Can't we just get on with this? Can't we just get through this, to the other side? Dutch watchmaker, Corrie ten Boom, helped Jews escape the Nazis during WWII. She was eventually arrested and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Surrounded by death, disease, and unimaginable cruelty, she endured horrific conditions with a calm and quiet spirit. She and her sister Betsie, who died there, would pray, share secret Bible studies, and minister to the other women. Corrie later wrote, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." She didn't escape the suffering; she bore it with patience, trusting in God's eternal timing. Doubtless, you can't imagine going through what she went through with the same countenance. And yet amidst our suffering here and now, that calmness, that stillness, that incredibly faith is entirely possible. Not because I say so, but because God does. Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. (NRSV) Friend, there is such power in God's Word and my prayer is that right here, right now, that power would be unleashed in you so that as you rejoice in the certain hope you have in God through Jesus Christ, you too will lay hold God's patience in your suffering; you too will discover in your experience that there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still. Be patient in suffering. That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.