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Title: A Season of Suffering   Send to a Friend
Date: 10/01/2013    
 
Friends,

Welcome to another addition of Women of Wisdom's (W.O.W) e-letter! W.O.W's mission is to encourage you to live the divine purpose for your life! Expect to see a W.O.W. e-letter monthly and be sure to pass them on to your friends.

After a long absence, I finally sat down to write again.  You might wonder why I stopped doing something I have a great passion to do - Write.  Some would call it ''writer''s block'' - a euphemism describing a season in a writer''s life when they believe they have completely run out of words.  I still had plenty to say but just couldn''t seem to articulate them in the same way as before.  Until now....

Now I''ve been thinking a lot about suffering.  Lately I have encountered many people that are suffering in one way or another.  For some its physical suffering, while for others its emotional, or spiritual suffering.  It just seems that there is more suffering than any other time since I have been on the earth.  I suspect it has always been here but for some reason or other I remained blissfully unaware.  I was convinced I had a high tolerance for pain and I suspect I had been fortunate to have had very few really painful seasons in my life and so I simply didn''t see it.  I do now and its changed me.  Its certainly changed how I view life and purpose.  There was a time in my life that I subconsciously bought into the idea that somehow if I was a good person, obeyed all the rules, served God with my life, and was a committed Christian, that I would somehow escape the suffering that is just as much a part of life as the seasons in a year.  Certainly, I didn''t get that out of the Bible.  In fact, the Bible says it as clearly as the noses on our faces that a significant part of living a divinely purpose-filled life includes some suffering. 

Take the apostles for example.  In the book of Acts we read how courageously they lived their lives after being filled with the Holy Spirit and in many situations while spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, they were beaten, rejected, ridiculed, and literally thrown out of town for one reason only: Obeying God''s will for their lives.  In Acts 14, Paul was stoned by the city leaders and thinking he was dead, they dragged him out of the city for preaching the Gospel.  But after he had come to his senses, he got up and went back into the city.  Not only that,  the Bible goes on to say that he continued to preach and he and Barnabus  "strengthened the disciples and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. ''We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,''  they said." (Acts 14:22)

If, like me,  you have been in a season of suffering or are currently in a season of suffering, don''t think it is a strange thing.  Instead dedicate yourself to learning how God can be glorified even in those times that you feel He is so far away.  He''s not.   And the one thing we can count on is the perfect nature of God.  He is good even when all else seems bad.  He doesn''t stop being good simply because our circumstances are not what they used to be. There is a purpose even to our suffering.  It takes a stronger faith to believe in God''s goodness when our world is upside down.  And we gain much. We gain the ability to persevere and mature.  More importantly, if we allow it, we gain a closer relationship with God.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  (James 1:2-4)


Be Blessed!

Mary

Mary Banks

For Speaking Engagements: Contact 281.537.5959
Mary_Banks@wowconsultinggroup.com

Has this Demi E-letter blessed you? Write me and let me know. Better yet, pass it on to those you care about!


© 2013, Mary E. Banks Permission is granted to forward this e-letter (and it's greatly encouraged) provided the © copyright notice and contact information are included. Thanks!

   
 
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A Season of Suffering     10/01/13
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