Have You Ever Truly Suffered?

So, I know how in the past I have talked about suffering and how we all may think that we have gone through a time of suffering.

Well, something that I listened to put that into perspective for me. I listened to a sermon given by my pastor, JD Greear that was titled "The Silence of God." At first glance at this title, I was taken aback at the thought that God could be silent, but then it became clear what the sermon was about.

In this sermon, JD talked about how in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ was praying to God and suffered a fate that no other living person has ever experienced, and that was a true separation from God.

The thing about this is that this distressed Christ in such a way that He almost died. Think about that.

This man suffered in such a way that He was sweating blood! A condition called hematridrosis, to sweat blood is such a rare event that it is only brought about by extreme bouts of stress, such as when a person is facing his or her own death.

Now obviously, Christ knew what He was about to endure. In fact, He pleaded with God that He might not have to undergo what he was about to have to suffer. But that is the amazing thing about Christ's death, in that He had the ability to prevent His death but did nothing to stop it.

And that shows A) how much God loves us and B) how amazing it is that God chooses to bless us with His presence.

This shows how much God loves us in that while people may turn their back on God, He will in turn never turn his back on us. No matter what we may be going through at the time, no matter how much we may have suffered, God is always going to be with us. The only way in which we will not have God with us is if we reject Him in life, leading to an eternity separated from His presence. And if just a momentary separation from God almost killed Christ, I believe that the pain and suffering that we would endure for eternity would be unimaginable.

The second point, that God chooses to bless us with His presence is evident in the fact that He allows the Sun to rise in the morning and that He allows us to awaken to see this event. God blesses us with His presence so that we might be better able to do what we were created to do, and that is to give Him honor and praise all of our days.