Just as sure as the sun comes up each morning, just as assuredly somewhere on this planet people are suffering. They are battling pain, adversity, and misery beyond description. Some are experiencing this on multiple fronts. What is worse is the fact that they have no relief in sight.
You really get to know what a person believes when adversity hits. Some say adversity builds character. That is true. It is also true that adversity reveals character. When the pressure is on what is on the inside finds a way outside. Suffering is the great sifter of our souls. Sometimes the truth is not pleasant. What shakes out is ugly, foul, and not pleasing to God.
For all the happy talk in churches, we truly find out what people believe when the suffering starts. I have seen people living in excruciating pain and yet testifying about Jesus and pointing people to Him with their last breaths. I have watched more than one person stare death in the face and still proclaim the goodness of God. Recently I heard a woman singing going through painful circumstances I would not want to have to face. I have not met many people who had more joy than this woman. It exuded from her.
When Jesus is real to a person, when they understand grace and the tremendous salvation they have experienced, praise, gratitude, and faith still flow from both the heart and the lips. Those are the people who inspire me. They are the ones I watch the most closely. I listen attentively to what they have to say.
Pretenders are usually exposed when the suffering hits. The inward reality sifted does not always match the outward appearance.
When God chooses suffering to sift our souls I hope we will chose the path of Paul and Silas in [Acts 16:25]. To pray and praise. The suffering that sifted their souls found Jesus to be real to them. Greater than any discomfort, providing peace that cannot be explained, and an indefatigable joy that could not be extinguished. We all need that.
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