Endurance

If we are distressed, it is for our comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. -2 Corinthians 1:6

Paul is testifying to the fact that he knows suffering! Just because we submit our lives to God in obedience and seek to live a Christ-like life does not mean that life gets easier or that suffering stops. In fact, the way of Christ often leads to more suffering; it led Christ himself to the cross. Paul says that the Christian life does not end suffering but it does comforts us in the midst of suffering.

If suffering ended the moment we submitted our lives to Christ, everyone would submit. But this would not be submission born out of love; it would be submission born out of our own self-serving motives. God wants us to submit to Him but only out of our great love for Him. His promise is that He will comfort us- give us the strength to endure struggles when (not if) they come.

May God grant you the grace to submit your entire life to Him out of love. May you be prepared and strengthened for whatever struggles lie ahead.



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If you're interested in reading through the Bible in a year, tomorrow's readings are 2 Corinthians 3-6.