No Pain, No Gain? - Is. 53:10a

"But it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and fill him with grief..." Is. 53:10a

This is just a really hard statement to read. Every time I read that God designs suffering for my own good I kind of cringe. I don't want to suffer! We spend our lives in an attempt to build to a point where we can avoid difficulty and hardship, and this forces me to accept that there is some aspect of God's plan that necessitates my suffering. No matter how I want to try to spin scripture, there seems no getting away from this fact. So what does this look like in reality? Because I view suffering as bad, how do I know when what I am going through is simply "the Lord's good plan"? That I shouldn't be running from it, trying to minimize it or avoid it, but rather willingly enduring through it, knowing that God has a plan on the other side? I guess this comes down to knowing God's will. Wow! Another easy thing for a mere human to attempt to discern! What all this tells me is that my relationship with God is a very critical thing. The more time I spend with him, the more I KNOW him. The more I know him, the more easily I can understand and discern his will. Funny how it always comes back to basics.

God, thank you for the way your word always reveals the truth I need to grow into the person you want me to be. Give me the strength to embrace hardship when you send it my way.

Today's reading: Is. 53-55; 2 Pet. 2