{"id":25328,"date":"2019-03-19T03:30:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=25328"},"modified":"2019-03-14T14:17:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T21:17:09","slug":"march-19-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2019\/03\/19\/march-19-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"March 19, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201cBut He said to me, \u2018My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.\u2019 Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.\u00a0For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)<\/p>\n

Suffering\u2019s Purpose<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I have a relative who has lived for more than 40 years with chronic pain. This crippling pain is the result of an injury due to someone else’s irresponsible actions. It has resulted in dozens of surgeries and procedures. It also was the reason that he had to leave a career he loved. If you met this person today you would never know the amount of pain he lives with. He is friendly, active, and a blessing to many. In the few times that I have had intense pain I have been amazed at how draining and exhausting it is\u2014physically and mentally. And yet this person has learned to shine despite all of that.<\/p>\n

After his injury he asked God, \u201cWhat did I do wrong? Why were You trying to get my attention?\u201d Over the years he wondered, as many of us do when we suffer, \u201cWhat is the purpose in all of this?\u201d He prayed for healing and God has chosen not to heal him. God gave him the verse listed above. He knows that his perfect healing will come in heaven and he looks forward to that day when he will receive his perfected body. He knows that through his weakness, Christ is evident in his life.<\/p>\n

In talking with him recently, he shared that he recognizes that without his injury, life would be very different. His family would never have moved to another state. His daughter would have never met her husband and he would not have his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His current life’s blessings and joys are due to the tragic events that happened so many years ago.<\/p>\n

Even though we may not know why something has been allowed in our lives, we can see His hand working in our lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank You, Father, for working in our lives at all times\u2014even when we are completely unaware. Be our strength when we are weak. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-6Aw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25330,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25328\/revisions\/25330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}