God Intended Suffering

This were the few words that had encouraged me for the day (Tuesday 9/11/2004). (Taken from Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.)

"Jesus warned us that we would ahve problems in the world. No one was immune to pain or insulated from suffering, and no one gets to skate through life problem-free. Life is a series of problems. Every time you solve one, another is waiting to take its place.Not all of them are big, but all are significant in God's growth process for you. Peter assures us that problems are normal, saying "Don't be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual think that is going to happen to you."

"God uses problems to draw you closer to himself. The Bible says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit." Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days-when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you're out of options, when the painis great-you turn to God alone. It is during suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest-to-God prayers. When we're in pain, we don't have the energy for superficial prayers."

Problems will happen in our life whether we like it or not. It is normal. The truth of the matter is not about the problem, it is our response towards it. A choice to run back to God or away from Him. A decision we have to made for ourselves. I choose the previous.