When we are enduring a trial we need to remember that it isn’t about the suffering it is about what we gain.  WHAT?  What an odd thing to say.  What we gain from the suffering?  "How do we gain anything in suffering" is most likely what you are thinking right now.  I will be honest, I didn’t always think I would gain anything in a trial either-it was a lesson learned through suffering.  Yet it is a lesson I learned-that there is something to be gained in suffering.

If we look at Christ and what He endured for us on the cross, we have to say–it was much suffering!  When we look at Matthew 26:36-46 Christ asks not to endure this suffering.

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

Christ asks the father if the burden that is about to be placed on him can be taken away.  He is deeply troubled, deeply sorrowed, and yet he still tells the father that he will do the fathers will.  He knows what He is about to endure, the pain that will come with it, and He is feeling the human emotions that come with that knowledge.  Those emotions are felt with an intensity we can never feel because they are pure from sin, and yet he still tells the father that He will do the fathers will.  Pain, sorrow, and intense suffering will come from doing the fathers will.  What can come of that?

We know that since Christ was willing to do as the father asked we are able to be forgiven through Gods mercy and grace, because that was the Lord’s plan, for us to once again come into fellowship with Him.  For God that is joy, and for us the only way to experience joy.   So out of terrible suffering, the worst suffering in history, the suffering of Christ, comes the greatest joy.  So if that is the case then how can we say that suffering is worth nothing.  Christ, who would endure the greatest suffering, was willing to follow the father’s will because He knew God’s plan would bring the greatest joy.

The question for us becomes how we find joy in suffering.  If, through the greatest suffering ever there was joy, should there not then be joy in our suffering.  We are told in James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. " (James 1:2-3 )  It isn’t automatic, we must consider it so.  Even for Christ it wasn’t automatic.  He asked to have the cup removed, he had to choose to do the fathers will, choose to follow the father even in suffering, choose to see Gods plan over the suffering.  That is what we must do.  Choose to do the fathers will regardless of our suffering, choose to follow the Lord even in of our trial, and choose to see what the Lord is doing in our life through trials and suffering.  That is when we find joy in trial-when we choose to see what God is doing in and through the suffering, when we focus on Him and what He is doing.

Ping ping ping ping THUD.  Over and over the hammer falls, hits its mark, and a sound is heard.  The sound that is heard depends much on what material the hammer is hitting.  Have you ever built anything and listened to the hammer as it hits the nail, then misses?  What sound is heard when the hammer suddenly misses it mark?  Most often a thud is heard, usually because a hammer is used to hit nails into wood.  Now if you happen to hit your thumb, that ensues quite a different response.  If you are hammering a nail into a wall to hang something, you might even hear a slightly hollow sound as the hammer makes a hole in the wall as it sinks into the surface when it hits.  If you take a hammer and pound on brick or stone and you will hear a chip chip chipping sound as pieces come off with each point of contact.

As the hammer does the job it is meant to do-hitting things-it always makes some kind of noise.  It doesn’t do its job silently because it always has a point of contact, that moment when the hammer comes into contact with the object we swing it at.  A hammer cannot do its job when there is no sound because that would mean it made no contact with its intended target.  God uses hammers to mold us: His word and His will.  If we are expecting to have those do their job without having some noise in our life then we are fooling ourselves, because a hammer cannot do its job without some noise.  If Gods hammers are making contact in our lives there is going to be some noise, because that is what happens when a hammer makes contact with its intended target!

Now a physical hammer may go ping, or even thud, when it hits its target, but what kind of noise will God’s hammers make?  First we must look at what God is using His hammers to do.  God intends to mold us into who He desires us to be, transforming us into a new creation intended for His glory.  (Eph 4:22-24 , 2 Cor 3:17-18 )  For this process to take place He must remove the things that are not like Him, and replace them with the things that are like Him.  1 Peter 2:9 tells us "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."  We are called out  darkness!  Verse 1-3 says "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."So what is that hammer being used for?  To replace our nature with the things of the spirit.  Looking at this we can only do that if crave spiritual milk-if we seek God, if we are craving spiritual milk we are allowing Him to mold us, to use His hammer to shape us.

So what does Gods hammer sound like?  That depend on us really.  If we are avoiding the hammer, God is still going to use His will and His Word as His tools, however the noise it makes in our lives is going to be much different then that of a hammer hitting its mark!  Think of not only the sound of an actual hammer missing its mark, but the feeling made in your body- rhythmic when it hits its mark, but when missing the mark the vibration of the hammer feels completely different, even hard, harsh or painful.  When we are avoiding God’s hammer that is what happens in our lives.  The molding process still occurs, but it will begin to feel harsh, hard, or even painful.

If you are hard, like a piece of wood, then you are going to hear and feel a hard thud in your life.  The molding process is going to feel like a constant pushing, banging, and pounding.  This is when you need to allow God to soften you through time in prayer asking Him to help you realize His will for your life.  If you are empty you are going to hear and feel a hollow sound.  The molding process may seem useless, like it is taking you nowhere because you do not understand the hope of His calling.  This is when you need to pour your time into Gods word allowing it to fill your mind and soul with His promises.  If the molding process hurts like the hammer hitting your thumb, that is when it is time to remember Gods promises by reading them, and by going to Him asking Him to be your strength, shelter, comfort, and healer.  As the molding process goes on in our lives we will feel a chip chip chipping away in our lives, at the same time those things will be replaced with the things God desires us to become, and He will complete the process to the end.

God is going to mold us, change us, and make us new, what that sounds like in our lives will depend on how we respond to the hammer.  Ask yourself what sounds you are hearing in your life through the molding process.  Does what God is doing sound like a thud,  does it sound hallow, feel painful?  If you are avoiding the hammer in any way,  go to God and ask Him to help you change the sound it is making in your life so that the molding process can become one of joy.  That is the sound God wants the molding process to make in our lives, the sound of joy! For there is no better model for our molding process than Christ!  Being molded by God’s hammer can be a joyful process if we are not avoiding it and we allow God to do what He desires in our life.

I know the title seems like a very odd statement.  How can suffering lead to comfort? Suffering is a bad thing in the eyes of man, something we would choose to avoid at all costs, we would rather do without our entire lives.  Unfortunately it is not possible for us to go without suffering.  All of us have and will experience suffering to some degree in our lives, and some of us are experiencing it at this very moment.  But the idea that it can lead to comfort might seem like a rather bold statement until we look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."  (2 Cor. 1:3-4 )

God comforts us in all our troubles.  So in our troubles we receive comfort.  In addition to that we can receive comfort from others who have received that same comfort in their troubles.  Once we have received comfort in our troubles from God, we are to be sharing that comfort with others.  So available to us in our troubles is comfort from two sources.  God, the God of comfort, and others who have known this comfort.  The passage goes on to say "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." (2 Cor 1:5 )

When we suffer we recieve comfort in the same measure through Chirst.  God is a God of comfort.  He wants to comfort us in all our troubles.  He is able to do so because He has compassion that is immeasurable.  We have seen this demonstrated when He sent Christ, and we can recieve the comfort we need when we open our hearts fully to Him. Go to God in prayer, allow Him to give you your comfort in your time of trouble.

We know God is always molding us on His anvil, He is always doing that even when we are not facing trial, He is consistent in that endeavor.  He is going to mold us into the people He wants us to be.  So what are we gaining in trial that we would otherwise not gain?  Perseverance, and it is possible to gain joy.  That we learn from James 1:2-3 .  Why do we need this perseverance?  And is it really possible to gain joy in a trial?

Maybe we say I don’t want perseverance. If this is what I have to go through to get it I can live without it!  The first part of that answer as to why follows in verse 4 .  We also find out in Hebrews 12:1-2 that we need that perseverance to run the race that we are running.  Perseverance gives us the ability to keep running, to endure the race.  Better yet, we receive what we need as we run, as we are enduring the trial.  God will give us what we need to persevere through it if we ask it of Him.  This we learn from Matt 21:22 .  If we are asking God for things that we know He desires us to have, He will give them to us, and perseverance is one of them.  Along with that He desires for us to experience joy in the trial.

Back to James 1:2, where James tell us to "Consider it all joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (Jam 1:2-3 NIV).  God intends for us to have joy in the trial.  He does not want us to be defeated. If we are getting the very thing God knows we need to run the race and endure it to the end–that is our source of joy in the trial.  God is giving us what we need!  We need to view our race as Paul did when he wrote to the Philippians.  He said "but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14 NIV).  With that goal in mind, we will see that God is giving us what we need to get there, the very thing that we need to endure the race, to make it to the end.

It is not an easy task to view things from that perspective, but with God we can.  We need to be asking Him to give us what we need, asking Him to give us what He desires for us, not what we desire.  For this to happen we need to be spending time with Him in prayer doing what 1 John 5:14 says, asking God for things according to His will, not ours.