1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian The Colours of Grace - Week 2 | Page 5

prayer time, His love and His grace towards you. That will, I’m sure, make a difference
to you as you face these challenges with Him remembering that you are never alone.

WEDNESDAY
2 Corinthians 12 v 7 – 10
Today, we continue our focus on the Apostle Paul by asking the question: Why is he
suffering?
In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul shares a little bit more about what form his suffering took
when he speaks about beatings, stonings, shipwrecks and imprisonment. But Paul, in
the verse above, is talking about a suffering that just doesn’t make sense. This “thorn
in the flesh” is something different to a form of persecution that comes from human
beings.
1 Timothy 1 v 17 (our passage from yesterday) gives us a hint as to why bad things
happen to good people. It is all for the honour and glory of God. This is not a popular
thought, and I do not want it to lay anymore guilt on anyone, but I do at the same time
want to tell the truth which is simply this: suffering helps to honour and glorify God.
This unpopular thought is for us the other side of the coin that we spoke about on
Tuesday. I do believe that the church in general needs a more balanced theology
when it comes to the subject of suffering. I know that just talking about this may bring
pain to many and I know that many who read these words will understand fully the pain
that happens as a result of broken marriages, unfaithful spouses, fatal accidents, death
of a child, or dread diseases. The question we battle with is simply: How do these
things, in and of themselves, honour and glorify God? The answer is: they don’t… BUT
your response to them and what these sufferings make you, does.
Pastor Peter was telling me of an incident where he heard Gary Player, during an
interview, say an intriguing thing. Player was asked, did he think that his son (who was
at that stage playing golf) would ever be better than him? Player’s reply was
interesting, he said, “My son will never be as good as me because he has not suffered
enough.” Gary was not being unsympathetic when he made this observation, but he
was simply telling the truth. Suffering has an incredible way of either driving us away
from our ideal, or driving us toward it. We can either fight with God over suffering and
never attain the character that God would want for us to have, or we can trust God with
it and become the people that God wants us to be. Who we are and what we are at the
end of the day is that which brings honour and glory to God.
Prayer Thought: Once again, won’t you consider the fact as you pray today that
suffering looks so different when you look at it through the eyes of God’s grace. God
wants the best for you and wants you to be the best for Him, and therefore God will, on
occasions, have to go to uncomfortable lengths to achieve this end.

THURSDAY
2 Corinthians 1 v 3 – 11