Truth Matters-42

Suffering is not a pleasant thought, but today on Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, she explains the spiritual reason and rationale why God allows people to suffer and how suffering can make you better or bitter.

I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis. Some of you have been chosen to be tested by God. Some of you are experiencing God-appointed suffering.

Though you may not know it, God has found you worthy. God-appointed suffering can come in many forms. Some of you have experienced barrenness or are experiencing barrenness, marriage difficulty, financial difficulty, spiritual warfare in your family, wayward children, persecution at work, and rejection from those that you thought loved you. I am here as a living witness who has walked through fire from my own personal indiscretions and came close to drowning in my own sins to tell you that God may be allowing the reproach, the rebuke you are currently facing, or the obstacles and trials confronting you, not to harm you but to save you. God often puts these things in front of us as a means of changing our direction and changing our lives. God does not delight in your suffering. His heart is tender toward you. When you suffer, he suffers.

It grieves his heart deeply. But sin has consequences. Most people do not realize the impact that sin and bad choices will have on them. But to whom God loves, he will also correct for the purpose of forgiving and restoring. In 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 10, because we trust in the living God, we both labor and suffer reproach. But what is reproach?

That's not a word that we use very common today. Reproach is a rebuke or scolding calling us into accountability for the wrong we have done or the life we are living. Some of you may be shocked, but we do not preach this part of the gospel in the average church in America. We preach that God is a God of love and love does not equal chastisement or the need for God to correct us when we are not living in his will. This understanding of God's love is not correct.

Paul commands Timothy to teach this. Because whom God loves, he will also correct. If God is working in your life trying to turn you around and you're not recognizing all the obstacles he's putting in your way, then you need to stop and come into the realization that God wants to move in your life.

Some of you are so broken that your tears wet your pillow at night. Stress from your past decisions and sins have you so overwhelmed that you are living a life of despair because of the sins of your past. God wants to forgive and heal you today. The devil will keep reminding you of past mistakes and poor decisions, while God wants you to walk in forgiveness having no memory of the past. When God forgives, he forgets. Your sins evaporate like dew on a dry summer morning. God's heart is tender toward you. Stop listening to the devil, stop listening to yourself, and stop listening to others that are trying to keep you living in condemnation. Because whom God sets free is free indeed. He wipes the slate clean and your sins have been washed away. If God loves you so much as to create you in his own image and called you to be his son or daughter, then you are truly blessed. Because whom God calls, he also equips and begins a good work in you. His heart is tender toward you. Just like Esther, she was chosen, but she still had to face annihilation as she was a Jew.

She still had to face the king. But you are still asking, how can a God who loves me so much and has a plan for me, a plan not to harm me but to prosper me, to give me a hope and a future, permit me to endure something like this? I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis, telling you the truth of God's love. His heart is tender toward you and your suffering matters to him. There are many in the Bible, like the person Job, who suffered greatly not because he had sinned, but for the purpose of God accomplishing his purpose in Job's life and in the lives of many, much like the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who is sinless, but his death and resurrection has brought salvation to millions. If you are suffering, confused, angry, and hurting, wondering why God may have allowed suffering in your life, Dr. Davis would like to help.

You can reach her by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com or connect with her on Facebook at Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Dr. Davis would like to leave you with this closing thought. Though weeping endures for a night, joy comes in the morning. Though the righteous fall seven times, seven times they will rise again. Don't look to your suffering, but look for God's plan in your suffering. This has been Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, a production of The Truth Project, reminding you that God will finish the good work he has begun in you.