Suffering IS Prayer

“God is love.” (1 John 4:8,16) “Love is longsuffering.” (1 Corinthians 13:4) Therefore, God suffers long.

And in the conversation that is prayer, when He is long suffering, we too suffer long.

We go through hard times.  Hard times that others would say we brought on.  Hard times that are brought on by our weaknesses, our mistakes, our own flesh and desires. 

But God is not outside of those hard times. 

When we make the wrong choices, when we slip… we change the conversation.

And our Lord, Who is Love, Who is Patient… Who does Suffer… doesn’t leave us to be alone… He suffers with us.

For those of us who might battle addiction… who might battles depression… who might find ourselves going down the same old path again and again and again… know that, so long as you remain in Christ, He receives that suffering as prayer.

It is often part of the conversation.

It is the part that challenges us.  The part that tests us.

You were not made in the image of an imperfect God.  You were made in the image of THE perfect God.

And so, in Christ, you are being perfected.  God has said, “Be ye perfect.”(Matt 5:48)  Things that are said are part of the conversation.  The conversation is prayer.

Whether you suffer physical, mentally, or spiritually… it can all be acceptable as prayer so long as you offer it up that it might, as the blind man, glorify God.

“And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” John 9:2-3

Whatever it was you went through… no matter how low you think you may have sunk… know that the comfort He gives you He wants you to give to others …

“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, [it is] for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, [it is] for your consolation and salvation.” 2 Corinthians 1:4-6

A word used in the Old Testament some 75 times for prayer is challah and it can be interpreted to suffer, to become weak.

Offering your suffering up to God, in the name of Jesus.  He’ll accept it as prayer.

He’ll accept it as part of the conversation.

SDG