Have You been Suffering?

© 2018 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

When I was young, I would sometimes suffer from colds.  When I did, it often settled in my lungs making it difficult to breath.  I remember one occasion in which I had become very tired after days of restricted breathing.  I would periodically hold my breath for a few seconds just to rest.

The Bible describes a man named Job.  He had suffered even greater loss and excruciating physical problems which God had allowed Satan to bring upon him.  Consequently, Job also craved rest.  He even despaired of life from which he longed for God to deliver him.

“Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?  Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?  For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,…” (Job 3:11‑13)

Yet in the middle of all his suffering, Job expressed his faith in God with the following remarkable declaration.

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” (Job 19:25‑27)

Even back then, Job knew that Christ the redeemer lived and was coming.  God the Son, Jesus Christ, came as the sacrificial Redeemer to pay the sin debt for His people.

Those who come to Him, seeking forgiveness of their sins, will have the same hope that Job did.  They shall experience eternal blessing which we can’t yet even imagine.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

But those who reject Him, and never seek His forgiveness, shall face increased and eternal suffering, forever, in a place,

“…Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:44-48)

Have you ever suffered or been depressed?  Has your situation ever seemed hopeless?  Do you share Job’s eternal hope, or have you rejected his Redeemer?

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