Receiving The Word In Affliction

Everywhere I go it seems people are battling afflictions. Some are health related. Some are financial in nature. Many endure grief as widows or widowers. The list is long of people enduring chronic pain and the pain of sin in loved ones. It seems each week I hear new stories.

I also see these brave people continue to show up week after week to receive God's word. They hunger for it. They long for the meat of it. God's word feeds their souls and gives them the strength, courage and faith to keep battling the suffering and pain in their lives.

God takes His word and applies it to our hearts. Sometimes that comes in the form of a stern rebuke. Sometimes it comes in the form of exhortation to give us hope for better days. Sometimes His word inspires us to keep trusting Him. At other times His word reminds us of all Jehovah has done for us in salvation resulting in our loving Him more.

I am continually inspired by people who are suffering horribly. They still come to receive the word. They still love and trust Jesus to help them through. They still have joy. One person commented to me just yesterday that her pain made her tough as she trusted God through it all. Decades of painful sorrow and yet looking on the outside I would have never known what she has been through. Her receiving the word and joy hide decades of pain she has carried.

My job is to feed people the word and to help them. What happens over and over again is I am inspired by people who endure much affliction and yet they don't give up on God. They still love Him. They still seek Him. They still serve Him. They still yearn for His truth.

I am thinking about a lady that lost her husband yers ago. That has not stopped her from serving Jesus. She still teaches a Sunday school class. She is the church treasurer. She has coordinated meals for her church and community for years. She does it all with joy.

I'm thinking about several farmers who have farmed through years of bounty and years of drought and loss. They and their families are people of deep faith seeking God with all their hearts. Even in the learn years They receive God's word with joy.

I am thinking of a lady who has suffered pain in her life. I was shown a picture of her while on vacation digging into God's word sitting on a beach looking out at the ocean. I know for a fact it is her habit to dig into the scriptures daily. She inspires me to keep doing the same.

I think of a pastor named who lost his wife to a brain tumor. All the while he kept reminding me that God is good. He did not waver in his faith. Now he lives in another state near his children still ministering where God lets him.

I think of a pastoral couple in west Texas who have faithfully served their church for 23 years. They have done so through health set backs and the pain of losing a son and seeing another son battle a life threatening illness. Through it all they not only receive the word joyfully but deliver it joyfully as well. They inspire me.

There are others. More than I can include here. Men, women and students ministering the word with joy and receiving the word with joy even in the middle of their pain. Too all of you I say, you have my respect and admiration. You inspire me to do more for Jesus. I love you and thank God you are examples for the rest of us.

1 Thessalonians 1:6-7 (ESV)
6  And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
7  so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.