Day 28: Wake up and recover your life!
Scripture focus: By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That's what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice. Hebrews 11:4 (The Message)
Have you noticed anything else about the Cain and Abel story?
In a world where most of our movies have happy endings, it startles our senses when we realize that Abel, the guy who was the big believer with the better sacrifice, was murdered by Cain.
Shouldn't big believing result in celestial saving?
Wouldn't it be logical to think that God would put big believers in a kind of spiritual witness protection program?
Evidently, big believing doesn't exempt us from suffering.
Over the course of history, people seem stubbornly resistant to accepting the fact that suffering isn't necessarily a sign of punishment for disobedience. Remember Job's counselors? They couldn't handle the fact that a righteous man might suffer. Therefore, Job had to be at fault in some way.
It will require an act of faith to handle our suffering in a way that doesn't hinder our recovery. Some suffering is the result of wrong-doing – and we'll need to learn how to handle that circumstance. But that's not the only kind of suffering.
I wonder if it would be helpful to pause to prepare before judging the suffering of ourselves and others. May God give you fresh insights into suffering, so that we will be more prepared to carry each other’s burdens in the midst of suffering.
Recommended reading: Proverbs 21-23
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