Why We Must Rejoice in Our Suffering

I’ve had a nagging headache for the past two days. It’s been so overbearing that I couldn’t muster enough strength to even write or post any new pieces for The Christian Chameleon. I’m usually very persistent with sharing some inspiring or motivational stuff with you all, so this was frustrating to say the least…




The weight of the world has been on my shoulders lately to push forward in spite of circumstances that want to hold me back, so I knew that the headache was just from stress.

Of course, I prayed for God to cover me with peace as I release the weight from my shoulders to His. I asked him to forgive me for worrying about tomorrow when He clearly said in His Word to focus on today and let Him worry about tomorrow. In the midst of having a heart to heart with God, I was led to read the whole book of Romans.

In chapter 5 of Romans, Paul speaks about being justified by God through faith and therefore receiving peace from Him. That’s what I call a “right on time” word. Anyway, it goes on to say that we should rejoice in our sufferings (my headache for instance) because we know that suffering produces certain things when we just take time and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God in our lives.

In this blog, I want to share with you the things that suffering will bring to us:

·         Perseverance: Our sufferings will teach us how to maintain hope in the midst of, and it enables us to be determined about getting through instead of just praying to get to.

·         Character: When we persevere through our suffering, that resiliency gives us a distinctive mark to God, for He sees that we will stand strong and have faith that He will come through and BLESS!

·         Hope: Lastly, there’s hope…when we persevere it produces our character, which produces hope. Hope doesn’t disappoint us because God’s love will sustain us in our sufferings. He doesn’t want us to suffer; he wants us to have hope that He will have something better waiting for us on the other side.

I’ve learned in the past few years that our latter will indeed be greater than our former. Most times it is suffering that produces the greatest success, so it’s important to hold on. Iyanla Vanzant, spiritual life coach, said “All difficult, challenging, painful experiences and relationships provide us with an opportunity to heal some part of our consciousness.”

Rejoice in your suffering; there’s something greater on the other side!