Christ - Making us strong when we are weak

1 Peter 5:10-11 (NLT)
10 In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 11 All power to him forever! Amen.

From the commentary of Matthew Henry:  The apostle begins with a most weighty prayer, which he addresses to God as the God of all grace, the author and finisher of every heavenly gift and quality, acknowledging, on their behalf, that God had already called them to be partakers of that eternal glory, which, being his own, he had promised and settled upon them, through the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ. Observe, What he prays for on their account; not that they might be excused from sufferings, but that their sufferings might be moderate and short, and, after they had suffered awhile, that God would restore them to a settled and peaceable condition, and perfect his work in them—that he would establish them against wavering, either in faith or duty, that he would strengthen those who were weak, and settle them upon Christ the foundation, so firmly that their union with him might be indissoluble and everlasting.

 

 

All of us will suffer at times over the course of our life. King David in his psalms often wrote of the suffering he was enduring. However, David always came back to the fact that God would be his redeemer and comforter no matter what happened. David knew whether in life or death God would bring him comfort from his suffering. It is our relationship with God and Christ that is the answer to suffering. Sure we may be able to find our way out of a painful situation, but there can be self-condemnation, fear, loneliness, anxiety and depression that walk along with us in our suffering. This is why a relationship with Christ is so important. The Apostle Paul wrote of his suffering and constantly being tormented by Satan. Paul said, “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” Then he went on to say, “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

We need to let go of our fears and trust Christ for the resolution to our problems. The resolutions may not always work out the way we desire, but they work out to fulfill God’s plan of making us stronger in life.

My wife and I had a dear Christian friend who recently passed away at age 57. Earlier in her life her teenage son was killed in a car accident as he went to buy her a Christmas present. She mourned his loss and suffered greatly over it, but God gave her strength to go one. She later divorced her physically abusive husband after her son’s death. She lived with her daughter and granddaughter and had an illness the doctors could not find. Before she passed away she told my wife, “Because of Christ at least I know I will either wake up with my son in heaven or with my daughter and granddaughter here on earth.”  Even in her suffering Christ had given her comfort.

 

So the answer to our suffering is a relationship with Christ - A relationship where we can talk to Him about our problems and allow Him to work in us to make us strong when we are weak.