The Furnace of Suffering

Are you suffering?  Do you find yourself in a situation that is causing you great pain, either physical or emotional, or both?  Are you afraid of what tomorrow may bring?

No one likes to suffer.  We were not created to suffer.  We were created to enjoy God in all of His fullness and to live in joy and peace.  But sin entered the world and thwarted our original destiny. Hence, our suffering.

But suffering is not the end of the story.  Jesus Christ came to deliver us from suffering. The Word of God says that Christ died and rose again from the dead "to destroy the works of the devil" (I John 3:8).  Jesus Christ came to give us abundant life (John 10:10).

So, why do we continue to suffer?

One reason is that we are still in this world, and the world is infested with sin.  But I believe that the main reason for our continued suffering is to bring us to the point of total dependence on God.

We humans create for ourselves bastions of false security in which we place our trust.  We trust our jobs to give us security. We trust our governments to give us security. We trust our own strength to give us security.  But there is nothing and there is no one who can give us security but God.

The Lord uses suffering to unfasten our tight grip on our false securities.  He wants us to depend totally on Him. But we are so attached to our false securities that God must sometimes use drastic means to wrench us from them.  Hence, we suffer.

Are you now in the furnace of suffering? Then rejoice! God is pruning you, cleansing you, purifying you.  He is transforming you into the image of His own dear Son. 

Be encouraged by these words from our wonderful heavenly Father: "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).
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Copyright 2014 by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. All rights reserved.
Photo by Jon Sullivan. http://www.public-domain-photos.com/

Living in the Supernatural

There is a place where you can live in peace.  That place is above your emotional pain and in the realm of the spirit where the Kingdom of God is.  But the only way to get there is through Jesus Christ.

There are two realms that control life: the natural realm and the supernatural realm. The natural realm is subject to the laws of the natural world; the supernatural realm is subject to the laws of the supernatural world. 

The supernatural world has both a good aspect and an evil aspect. The good aspect is the supernatural realm inhabited by God and His angels. The Bible calls this supernatural realm of God "the third heaven". The evil aspect is the supernatural realm inhabited by Satan and his demons. The Bible calls this supernatural realm of Satan "the second heaven".  The supernatural realm of God is far more powerful than the supernatural realm of Satan.

Man was created and designed to live in the supernatural world of God, but sin relegated man to the confinement of the natural world.  Jesus Christ came to set man free from the confinement of the natural world and to restore him to the supernatural world of the Kingdom of God.

When man enters the supernatural world without Christ, man will encounter the supernatural curses of Satan and his demons. This is the realm of the occult with all of its attendant dangers.

When man enters the supernatural world through Christ, man will encounter the supernatural blessings of God.

So how does this apply to your life and to your emotional pain?

If you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are still a prisoner of the natural world. In practical terms, this means that you are still in bondage to sin and its torment, including emotional torment. You may have tried to free yourself from emotional pain by entering the supernatural world of Satan and his demons. If so, you may have found a false and temporary relief, but you soon learned (or will learn) that Satan offers only trickery and bondage, never truth and freedom.

But if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are no longer a prisoner of the natural world nor the supernatural world of Satan.  Instead, you are a resident of the supernatural kingdom of God and a child of God whose inheritance is healing in every aspect of your being.

You cannot free yourself from the natural world nor from Satan's supernatural world. You need a Savior to free you. Jesus Christ is that Savior.  Accept Him today into your life. Ask Him to be your Savior and Lord. Ask Him to free you from the pain of emotional and psychological torment.  Then expect Him to do so.