Tag Archives: suffering

I Don’t Have To Be Happy About It

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - I Don't Have To Be Happy About It

Sometimes I feel bad for being beat to hell, for being sad, and not being happy about it.

It feels like if I were just better—if I were more holy, if I were more thankful, if I were less selfish—the pain shouldn’t affect me, that I should be happy and able to carry on as though I’m not in pain.

But, I am so thankful for the moments of humanity in the Bible, especially that of Jesus,

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name.”
— John 12:27-28

“My soul is troubled…” This is so deeply helpful to me. It, and passages like it, show me that I can register the full range of human emotions and still honor God.

The key, Jesus demonstrates, is loving God, desiring His Kingdom and concentrating on God’s glory—not allowing the feeling to make me put down my cross or cause me to deviate from the path of Calvary—dying and living again for the reconciliation of everything in my sphere.

I don’t have to be happy, but I can be honest and honor. I can carry on doing the things that are profitable for the purpose I am sent.

In that, there’s help, there’s rest, and there’s always joy.

“Father, glorify Your name.”

#sometimesithurts #buttheresalwaysjoy

Sometimes It Hurts

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Sometimes It Hurts

Sometimes it hurts.

“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

Christianity is not some magic protection against misfortune, being mistreated or things going wrong. And, I can’t do enough good things to prevent bad things from happening to me.

Jesus called John the Baptist “the greatest one born of woman” (Matthew 11:11).

Not a good one, the greatest.

He’s walking in his calling. He’s innocent, having done nothing wrong.

Yet he’s sitting in prison, about to be murdered by having his head cut off.

In this account in Matthew 11, John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to Jesus.

Does Jesus respond to John the Baptist’s wrongful imprisonment by some heavenly miracle to release him?

No.

Not in this case, at least. (Acts 12:5-16, 16:25-34)

How does Jesus respond?

“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.'”
– Matthew 11:4-5

What is Jesus doing?

He assures him.

In other words, Jesus tells John, “Your hope in Me is not in vain.”

Jesus is fortifying John’s soul.

A vicious lie, a half-truth at best, often peddled by the industrial church and Cultural Christianity is “Everything will be alright,” as to say, “Things will eventually work out the way I want them to in this life.”

We’ve been deceived to believe that our heavenly conversion exempts us from the earthly consequences of sin being in the world. (John 16:33)

But, disaster, hardship, violence, injustice and suffering can and does befall believers as it does people throughout the whole world. (Romans 8:22)

At this very moment there are believers who are:

losing their jobs,
not able to keep the lights on,
losing their homes,
terminally ill,
disabled,
suffering abuse,
persecuted,
hungry,
in prison,
grieving,
dying
…

And, it may not be resolved on this side of heaven.

Suggesting otherwise is a complete denial of people’s suffering or implies that they are somehow doing Christianity wrong!

But Christianity is not about denying pain, escaping reality, or pretending everything is fine.

It’s not a coping mechanism or an exercise in cognitive dissonance. It’s real power. (2 Timothy 1:7, 3:5)

Sometimes there’s simply seasons of suffering.

God is completely able to change any circumstance.

But, He may choose not to. (Daniel 3:16-18)

What we can always be assured of is His purposes will be achieved.

And, His purposes are good. (Romans 8:28)

And, you, your suffering and everything concerning you are accounted for in His good purposes. (Matthew 10:30)

Regarding seasons of suffering, a part of God’s good purposes is making your soul able to weather them all. (Matthew 7:24-26)

A part of His good purpose is to make you like His Son-steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. (Philippians 1:6, 1 Corinthians 15:58)

That’s all well and good, but back to John, what good is a steadfast spirit or assurances when I’m about to get my head chopped off?!

If there’s not anything beyond the here and now, it means nothing.

But, if what we believe of Jesus is true, it means everything.

And, it is on this point where the sheep and goats are divided. (John 10:26-27)

Goats may follow up to a point as long as they’re getting what they want.

But, sheep follow to the end. (Revelation 2:10)

Here is where true faith is revealed, or the lack thereof which is not for condemnation but is an opportunity for reevaluation and repentance. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

In the darkness of the eleventh hour is where we’re confronted with what we truly believe and who we will ultimately serve. (Luke 22:61, John 21:15-19)

Here is what Jesus says in His eleventh hour,

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’?
But for this purpose I came to this hour.
Father, glorify Your name.
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.'”
– John 12:27-28

Suffering is not only allowed sometimes to test and to steel us, but it is in the darkness of the eleventh hour where we can shine the brightest, giving glory to God.

When we are asked for “a reason for the hope that is in you,” (1 Peter 3:15), it is usually in dark, difficult places.

If you can bear it, John is being glorified. Just as we are being glorified when we choose, as disciples of Christ, to commit our lives, including our suffering to God’s purposes. (John 17:22)

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
– Romans 8:16-17

When we commit it to Him, God achieves His glory through us. (Romans, 12:1, 2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

This is how our glory mainly appears in this life. (Matthew 5:16, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Revelation 3:8-11)

So, horrible things can happen to me, and sometimes I can and should seek deliverance from them, but whether I am delivered or not, I have to decide whether I will commit it to Him, whether I will follow Jesus to the end.

And this is the end: the whole world delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God where we will enjoy Him together without hindrance forever in complete safety because Jesus is King. (Isaiah 11, Romans 8:21, Revelation 22:3-5)

My hope is to see a glimpse of the Kingdom now, but my ultimate hope is not here. My ultimate hope is to be a part of its full consummation with you in the world to come. (Psalm 27:13, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28, Hebrews 11:16, Revelation 21)

When we confront hardships, including death, Jesus assures us as He did John the Baptist.

“Though you may not see it, the Word is true. I’m liberating the world.”

“Your work in My name is reconciling people from darkness to light.”

“Your hope in Me is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Therefore, I must strive to follow Jesus to the end, and embrace the path even when it is marked by hardship and suffering.

#sometimesithurts

Stress Test

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Stress Test

Under what conditions does love stop being love?

This is what this life is designed to test:

our love for God,

and under what conditions does the love we have fail? What thing, if lost, would cause our love to end?

We are not subjected to fiery trials to test our love for God because God is a sadistic megalomaniac,

but because the first commandment:

‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
— Mark 12:30

is necessary to perform the second commandment:

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
— Mark 12:31

and is the only bond strong enough to accomplish God’s grand design: His ever increasing glory through Oneness, making us inseparably one with God.

“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.”‘”
— Mark 12:29

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
— John 17:23

The love that you love God with is the source of the love for everyone else, and however strong your love for God is, it is the limit of how strong your connection is to the person dearest to you.

If the love you have is less than God’s love, everything supported by it, everything built around it and everything connected to it will fail at some point.

There are some weights in life that anything less than love will not survive.

And there’s a coming day, the great and terrible day of the Lord, where whatever is within anything less than love will be destroyed.

So, our love is tested FOR OUR GOOD, so that our love is perfected,

because God’s love never fails
— 1 Corinthians 13:8

so that we, and everything built on and connected to that love lives and not dies, that our communion as One may be perfect

all for the wonderful glory of God.

What an amazing thing it is that we can be a part of that!

So, I encourage you to count every hardship you’re enduring as all joy! Remembering the point of the test.

Achieving Greater Enjoyment By Not Allowing Its Obstruction

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Achieving Greater Enjoyment By Not Allowing Its Obstruction

The sun is massive.

Yet, it does not take much to obstruct its view.

Whether the sun’s light is obstructed can be the difference between whether something thrives or dies.

I’m talking about God.

There is so much good.

But whether we see it depends on whether we allow something to obstruct its view.

And, Satan is an obstructionist.

Satan can not stop the good, but he can hinder our enjoyment of it by focusing our attention elsewhere.

Even when Man was in Paradise, Satan was able to convince them that it was NOT paradise. And amazingly, Satan did not achieve this by pointing to a real existing problem -because there were no problems, he did it using only an idea, a hypothetical, something that wasn’t even real.

Satan was able to ruin paradise simply by focusing our attention elsewhere, obstructing our view of God which is the beginning of sorrows.

Romans 5:14 says that “death reigned from Adam to Moses”, the consequences of which are devastating and far reaching.

But, God.

Because of God’s goodness, lovingkindness and His faithfulness to His original purpose, God moved toward us even after we moved away from Him!

God moved!

God moved to overcome the obstruction for His glory, that a right view of Him would be had throughout the cosmos, the result of which is Life!

Isaiah 11:9 put it this way,

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.”
— Isaiah 11:9

Today, we have plenty of actual problems to point to because there is still sin in the world and the death that results from it, but there is now a refuge in Jesus Christ —a place where there is more life than there is death in the world.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:6

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
— 1 John 4:4

Because God who was a far off has been brought near through Jesus Christ and accepted by faith, I now have so many wonderful things.

I now have a place of love, joy and peace that I can even bring others into which makes it even better!

In my Christian walk, I find a duality where there is simultaneously the suffering of deep pain and the enjoyment of depthless love.

The ancient wisdom for enjoying the good even in the face of real and significant suffering is to deal with my suffering in the context of that good.

I refer to this as “grieving in context”.

Satan is an obstructionist.

Every moment of every day, Satan attempts to place something in our view, very often using the real and significant pain we are suffering, to block of our view of God, so that we die because we lose the life-giving benefits that come from a right view of God.

But rather than allow Satan to use our suffering to turn us from God, what if we turn WITH our suffering to God, obeying 1 Peter 5:7 “cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you”? Then we can enjoy, Philippians 4:6-7,

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Yes, we experience hardship.

But there is so much good that is far greater.

We can live with so much greater joy and satisfaction if we keep this in view.

Our moment by moment battle is to reject the obstructions that Satan attempts to put in our view and instead believe God and enjoy Him.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
— James 1:16-17

#joy #suffering #spiritualwarfare

What’s In Your Hand?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What's In Your Hand? Questions That Help Me Refocus And Move Forward

“So the LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ He said, ‘A rod.'”
— Exodus 4:2

“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.'”
— Exodus 14:15-16

I often lose focus looking at what’s happening around me.

As of late, I’ve felt inadequate, out of place and unwelcomed.

The Holy Spirit has given me these questions to recalibrate:

What’s in my hand? (What do I have that I can use?)

And, how can I use it to glorify God? (Exodus 4:2, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:17)

To benefit the Body? (Romans 12:5-6, Ephesians 4:11-13, Galatians 6:10)

Or, to reconcile creation? (2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

These questions in this order help me to re-center my focus and to get back to being what God created me to be:

Fruitful.

Before the problem existed, God provided everything I would need to move forward…

to His victory.

“as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue”,
— 2 Peter 1:3

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
— 2 Corinthians 2:14-15

We Must Fight And Fighting Never Stops Being Hard

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Fighting Never Stops Being Hard

This is something every believer needs to know.

The chipper, everybody’s happy, dry tooth Christianity milled by the industrial church does not prepare believers for the reality and horrors of war they WILL face everyday.

In the world we are always in enemy territory and we are always under attack.

“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
—1 John 5:19

The lies of the world hurt.

And those lies come through real hurtful events and real hurtful statements at the hands of real people with an aim to establish real hurtful outcomes that contradict the truth of what God says, how His kingdom operates and His desire for our lives.

So, we fight.

In the world, Satan’s kingdom is the default, and we are in the world, so we fight to establish God’s kingdom -in our hearts, in our homes, in the church, in our spheres and in every interaction that we have with others.

Faith in Christ is an embassy in hostile enemy territory. We can run to it and find shelter in it, BUT IT DOES NOT STOP THE PAIN of the lies or the difficulty of warfare that we must face every day.

Without knowing this, a believer could be tricked into thinking that God is not with them, that He’s displeased with them, that they’ve not done something right or that faith in Christ is not real.

No, beloved.

We’re in enemy territory.

We must fight.

Fighting is hard.

It never stops being hard.

But, there is power available to us.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
—Philippians 4:13

But above all, we win.

We who are in Christ always win because He has won.

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
—2 Corinthians 2:14

As we speak, the enemies of the kingdom of God are being subdued where there will be no kingdom besides His and where our King, Christ, is fully established as Lord of all.

“For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

For ‘He has put all things under His feet.’

But when He says ‘all things are put under Him,’ it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted.

Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
—1 Corinthians 15:25-28

Then, finally, we can rest and war no more.

Until then, we must fight.

Fighting never stops being hard.

Life can be hard and good.

Placed In The Dark

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Placed In The Dark

Sometimes, God will put me in the dark to show others in the dark The Way.

“Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” —2 Corinthians 1:6

Those with a heart ready for heaven, who love God and are called according to His purposes, glory in their suffering, rejoicing to be counted worthy to suffer for His name.

“Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.” —1 Peter 4:16

And for those, like me, who are not there yet, God uses all things, including that same suffering to get you there. Instruction in the Light and lessons in the dark facilitated by the Holy Spirit is how I’ve gotten this far.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…” —Romans 8:28-29

“Though He [Christ] was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” ——Hebrews 5:8-9

“Why Lord?” is an excellent question, if I’m listening for His answer.

I have not already attained but I press.

#GloriousSuffering

Same Suffering Different Outcomes

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Same Suffering Different Outcomes

If I go to church,
If I pay my tithes,
If I do good things,
bad things will not happen to me.

That’s not true.

That’s witchcraft.

You can be perfectly in the will of God and suffer the same conditions created by original sin as everyone else:

need – 2 Corinthians 6:10, 2 Corinthians 12:10
hunger – Philippians 4:12,
sickness – Philippians 2:27, 1 Timothy 5:23
distress – 2 Corinthians 6:4
disaster – Acts 27, Romans 8:35
injustice – 2 Corinthians 6:5
crime – 2 Corinthians 11:26
violence – 2 Corinthians 6:5
torture – Hebrews 11:37

death – John 19:10

The difference is, for those who belong to God and are in His will, our suffering —our grappling with the various manifestations of death caused by original sin, produces life.

So then death is working in us, but life in you.
—2 Corinthians 4:12

#GloriousSuffering

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So then death is working in us, but life in you.”
—2 Corinthians 4:7-‬12

“But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
—2 Corinthians 6:4-‬10

Glorious Suffering

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Glorious Suffering

God is teaching me about suffering.

The message given to me was:

We can do more than know about God.
We can know God.
We can be with God, now.

Now, the Word burning on my heart is:

We can make God known.

As I pressed into this, and dug to unearth the marvelous treasure of this revelation, the first means of making God known that the Spirit began to tutor me in was suffering.

It has been put on my heart to dispel several prevalent yet errant notions about suffering.

One being that because I may be suffering, that something must be wrong, that I’ve done something wrong or that I must not be in the perfect will of God.

But “living right” or “being in the will of God” does not give us a pass on suffering.

Bad things have happened and will happen to even God’s most faithful elect.

In that sin has entered the world it made it so that everyone will suffer, even the best man, the perfect man, Jesus, was not excepted.

We do not have a choice whether we will suffer, but we can choose who our suffering will serve.

It may very well be that you are suffering not because you’re not in the will of God, but precisely because you are, and He has entrusted to you the honor and privilege of making Him known through the ministry of your suffering.

Consider Job.

Not only do I hope to share how to survive these inevitable seasons of suffering, but to thrive in the midst of them, by God’s grace being plump grapes in the desert —a fig tree producing in incompatible seasons, giving life and bearing fruit abundantly for the saving of souls to the glory of His name.

In the coming days and weeks, I hope to unpack that and share what God reveals about how to suffer in a series called Glorious Suffering.

#GloriousSuffering

The Prescription For Discouragement

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Prescription For Discouragement

Notes from my time in the Word this morning:

Psalm 42 reveals that the prescription for discouragement is praise.

But, it requires remembering.

“O my God, my soul is cast down within me,
Therefore I will remember…”
-Psalm 42:6

It is essential to chronicle the true good you’ve enjoyed.

If I don’t celebrate the good, I am more susceptible to discouragement, readily deceived into believing that I’ve never had any.

And above all, it is essential to recognize Who is responsible for that good.

From there, true praise emerges as our hearts are lifted to where He is, and not long after our circumstances.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.”
-Psalm 42:11