[Faith-Talk] Fwd: The Seminary of Suffering

[Steve Heesen]

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> From: Solid Joys <noreply+sj at feeds.desiringgod.org>
> Date: October 31, 2018 at 5:10:45 AM CDT
> To: steveheesen at aol.com
> Subject: The Seminary of Suffering
> Reply-To: noreply+sj at feeds.desiringgod.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Seminary of Suffering 
> By John Piper 
> “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
> 
> This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less reliance on self and the world. I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort.”
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> But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him has come through suffering.”
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> The pearl of greatest price is the glory of Christ.
> 
> Thus, Paul stresses that in our sufferings the glory of Christ’s all-sufficient grace is magnified. If we rely on him in our calamity, and he sustains our “rejoicing in hope,” then he is shown to be the all-satisfying God of grace and strength that he is.
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> If we hold fast to him, “when all around our soul gives way,” then we show that he is more to be desired than all we have lost.
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> Christ said to the suffering apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul responded to this: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).
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> So suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine. That is precisely what faith does: it magnifies Christ’s future grace.
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> The deep things of life in God are discovered and magnified in suffering.
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> 
> LISTEN TO JOHN PIPER'S READING OF THIS MEDITATION
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