Obedience through suffering...

"Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which he suffered."--Hebrews 7:8.  The Hebrew writer giving us the second of what I consider to be the three most notable characteristics of Christ that made Him our perfect high priest.  Christ is our perfect high priest because He learned obedience through suffering.

Obedience through suffering.  Obedience through suffering should be a familiar concept to nearly all of us.  If you  are a parent, maybe you had to spank your children causing them to suffer for a little while so that they will learn to be obedient to your will.

Obedience through suffering.  This passage in Hebrews tells us that Christ learned obedience to His Father through suffering.  Of course it wasn't something like a spanking but rather it was suffering on the cross so God could save you and me from our sins.

Obedience through suffering.  Obedience through suffering of course is not isolated to the disciplinary measures every good parent exercises with their children.  But obedience is also learned through other forms of suffering.

Obedience through suffering.  Suffering may come in the form of many struggles that are becoming more and more common in today's world.  What we must learn to do is to practice obedience to God's will in the face of suffering.

Obedience through suffering.  Is there anything you are suffering with right now? Obey God.

Obedience through suffering.  Are you suffering financially as a result of these hard economic times? Obey God's will and figure out how to a better steward of God's money.  That's right, our money is God's and He expects us to be wise with it.  A lesson I am still learning. It is because of some of my own financial suffering that I am learning to obey God.

Obedience through suffering.  Are you suffering as a result of the loss of a loved one? Obey God and look to your brethren in Christ for comfort and lean on Him for comfort as we know from 2 Corinthians 7:3-7 that God is a God of comfort.

Obedience through suffering.  Are you suffering because you have had a disagreement with a spouse/boy/girlfriend or loved one? Obey God and go to him or her and resolve the problem as instructed in Matthew 18:15-18.  Quite personally, I believe this is an area where many of us that are Christians fail.  We have a problem with someone and rather than resolve it, we do things like quit talking to each other and let the  suffering be worse than it needs to be.

Obedience through suffering.  So in addition to the above, my encouragement to you is this.  Don't let suffering become an excuse to neglect God or assembling with the saints as instructed in Hebrews 10:25.  As long as we are in this world, we are going to suffer in some form or fashion but take encouragement in the fact that NOTHING, I MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS! This according to Romans 8:38-39.  Also consider Job who lost it all but never disobeyed God.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!