Seven Degrees of Me

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Trust in the Lord

A week isn't nearly long enough to illustrate all of those who suffered greatly throughout the Bible. Christ suffered for all of us, bearing the full wrath of God for our sins. Paul suffered constantly for his faith, as people do even now in other countries, yet he wrote to the Corinthians:

For our light affliction,

which is but for a moment,

is working for us a far more exceeding

and eternal weight of glory,

2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV

No matter what you're going through, it will pass, and you'll come through stronger for having endured. I'm not in any way minimalizing our daily sufferings; after all, suffering is suffering. But, I want to encourage you to pray and to dig deep into His word for encouragement and for answers. Trust in the Lord, with all your heart.

Consider helping those who are suffering for their faith. There are people imprisoned who could use some words of inspiration and/or there are financial needs in those countries for the families of martyrs and for those who are risking their lives to spread the Gospel. There are prayer needs. *Visit the Voice of Martyrs website to see where you can help.

*I do NOT earn affiliate money. This link is just being provided for convenience and to help those in need.

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Please join me this week in praying for someone who is suffering, whether it's physically, mentally, or emotionally. Pray that they are comforted by God's love and find strength and hope through Him.
I'll post daily reminders on:
twitter @7DegreesOfMe
Instagram @archadia27
Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

Friday, October 11, 2019

Assurance in suffering

I love that when I'm in the Word, God provides information from it as research for our prayer group. I'm in multiple bible study groups and each one of them has seemingly overlapped the past week or two. This week, our Women's Group is studying from the "Seamless" book/videos and the author, Angie Smith is talking about suffering. God's timing is perfect.
First of all, I want to share 2 bible verses that she shared:

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

John 9:1-3 NKJV

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

Psalm 103:10 NKJV
Remember those whenever life seems to be getting you down, and draw hope from them.
I'm probably repeating myself, but when my late husband discovered that his cancer was stage 4 he just kept saying that God hated him. God didn't hate him. God used his disease to save other people's lives, to draw me closer to Him, and I believe to draw my late husband closer to Him, also. There were several other "reasons" that I feel it happened and after the fact was able to see how God used this for His plan in His time. The other part of it was that since we have free will, our decisions can have a huge impact on the things that happen to us. We can't just wander around without consequences if we're going to go against what God expects of us. Kenny drank a lot and that predisposed him to colon cancer. He felt like something was wrong for years but never went to see a doctor about it. Those kinds of decisions lead to unfavorable consequences.
I draw reassurance in knowing that whatever is going on in my life, God will ultimately use it for good.

P.S. as for the photo for today, I searched for "assurance" just to see what would show up and I got a lot of images that looked like they were more for "insurance", but when I came across this car, I thought, "Yes this is bad, but, no one was injured." (I try to be a "glass half full type of person".)

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Thursday, October 10, 2019

Jesus has your back

I just finished watching "The Case for Faith" on PureFlix. It's a documentary based on Lee Stroebel's research for his book of the same name. It deals with suffering extensively.
Here's a sermon on the subject by John Piper
I'm a bit under the weather this week with some sort of cold or sinus infection, so hopefully, I'll feel up to writing more tomorrow.

These things I have spoken to you,

that in Me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation;

but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33 NKJV

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God will restore you

And after you have suffered a little while,

the God of all grace,

who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10 ESV

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Joseph suffered

I don't want to approach this week of prayer with the question: "Why does God allow suffering?" Instead, we're here to look at it from a different viewpoint. We're going to look at it from the perspective of "Why God allows suffering." I believe that the question represents our disapproval at how God handles things whereas the statement shows our confidence in God's sovereignty.
The best example of this is Joseph. Here was a teenager (17), the youngest of eleven who was favored by his father, Jacob. His siblings despised him and after he shared two dreams with them where they bowed down to him, they just couldn't take it anymore. They sold him to some passersby who sold him into slavery (that's the short version), he ended up in Egypt and eventually found favor with the Pharoah and through a series of events that you'll have to read about on your own (read Genesis 37-48 for the full event), ended up saving everyone, including his family, from starvation during a 7-year famine. Did he suffer? Yes. Did God use his suffering for His plan? Yes. If he hadn't been sold into slavery, so many people would have died during the famine.
I know this is an extreme example, but it's one where we can see it from a distance from beginning to end. If we could do that in our own lives, we might better understand God's purpose for our suffering.

And we know that for those who love God

all things work together for good,

for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 ESV

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Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Testing of Your Faith

Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters,

when you meet trials of various kinds,

for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full effect,

that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4 ESV

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Monday, October 7, 2019

Pray for the suffering

Our sufferings have a purpose. Think of a time when you or a loved one suffered. Were there any positive outcomes from it? Maybe even years later?
An example would be my late husband suffered from colon cancer and died three years later. Initially, I asked God "Why? Why did he die?" but after spending some time praying on it, discovered the question I should have been asking was "Why did he live?" I was able to reflect on the aspects of his life that were a blessing to me and my family and on those who knew him. He touched many lives. Because he got colon cancer, so many people decided to get colonoscopies who wouldn't have before that. Many of them had pre-cancerous polyps removed and lived longer lives, with each of their lives touching many more lives.
While he was sick, he gave encouragement to others by his attitude and perseverance. In the last few months of his life, he was drawn closer to God and spent a lot of time in prayer; something he hadn't done for decades.
My point is, instead of focusing on the suffering itself, look at how God is using that suffering in your life and in other people's lives. We don't live our lives in a vacuum. Our actions and reactions affect numerous people each and every day.

My favorite Bible verse regarding suffering is:

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings,

knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope,

and hope does not put us to shame,

because God's love has been poured into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5 ESV

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