Too Proud To Repent

My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees. [Psalm 119.71]

Is suffering a blessing? Yes and no.

First suffering is a curse. The curse comes because of sin. So, in this regard, suffering is bad.

Second: suffering is an indicator of blessings being taken away. It is a sign that something is wrong and needs to be corrected. So, in this regard, suffering is good. However, suffering is not something to be embraced!

God has no intention for His children to suffer. Period. Anyone who buys into that theology has completely ignored the character of God as the Bible teaches it. Look at verse 75 in the same chapter: I know, O Lord, that your regulations are fair; you disciplined me because I needed it. Suffering is a tool designed by God to bring us to repentance. Yes, it could be seen as a loving tool, but that opinion ignores the fact that God is just and that unrighteousness cannot exist in His presence but is consumed (destroyed) by His holiness.

Suffering is only good for us if we heed the warning it so aptly provides. If suffering re-directs our attention back to God's Word and the error of our ways, it is indeed a good thing.

Here's the problem with the doctrine of suffering: for the most part, it denies guilt on the part of the sufferer. Furthermore it denies the power of God to forgive and relieve the suffering at the sufferer's repentance. It makes suffering out to be something the Bible does not teach!

It is time for the Church to throw out stupid doctrines that are simply not Biblical! It is time for the Church to repent. No longer can we continue our proud denial of guilt - our suffering is resultant to our sinfulness! 

If it is "suffering," sin is at the core. 

Now, make no mistake however in believing that suffering and persecution are one and the same. The lines between the two are not vague. Don't even think for a minute that suffering and persecution will require "discernment" to distinguish between the two. Cancer is not persecution for being a Christ-follower! Cancer is a curse resultant to sin. Yes, we live in a fallen world, but we are in the world (although not of it) and that makes us part of it. As part of the world, we share the responsibility for sin seen in the world even though we may not be participating. Repentance is necessary. 

But also, faith is necessary. Faith is necessary to receive grace. Even though we live in a fallen world, grace (obtained by faith) provides redemption from the resultant curses for disobedience. If however, we are faithless, then we are graceless. If we are graceless, then we are under the curse. Once again, whether we sinned by sinning or sinned by lack of faith (yes, it is a sin), "cancer" (or any curse/suffering) has every right to remain untouched.

Oh, I know the implications of this are not very appealing. Our suffering makes us guilty (whether for direct disobedience or for failure to believe) and in need of repentance. So why not just start repenting? I'll tell you why! Because we are too proud to repent!

Father, it remains evident that repentance is necessary. Oh God, please forgive me for my disobedience and my unbelief!