James Is Your Friend

Everyone suffers.  It could be from circumstances, feelings, physical pain, or just life.  Life is hard and painful at times.  Sometimes we feel as if the world is strangling us and we can’t breathe.   Sometimes storms come and cause us to start drowning, painfully gasping for air.  Death happens, betrayal happens, depression happens, breakups happen, poverty happens, evil happens……
life happens.

However, in the midst of the struggle and in the midst of the storm, there is someone who changes everything….He changes how we see suffering…He changes how we view life….He changes life.

This someone is Christ.  Christ is the answer, Christ defeats evil, Christ changes life.

So, whenever you suffer and are going through a hard time, look to Christ.  He is the only one that you truly need.  He is the only one who can truly fulfill and satisfy you to the point where trials and storms in life will not break you down or destroy you.  You can get through it all if you just look to Christ:

1.  Look to Christ who knows what its like to suffer.

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are….Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Hebrews 4:15, Luke 24:26

2.  Look to Christ who suffered, yet was innocent.

“Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 1 Peter 2:21-22

3.  Look to Christ who is victorious over evil sources of suffering.

“Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand, with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” 1 Peter 3:22

4.  Look to Christ who will bring you through suffering with strength in Him.

“The Lord said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

5.  Look to Christ who will comfort you in the midst of suffering.

“For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:5

Life is full of suffering and it is not always easy.  However, we can be thankful that we have a Christ who has suffered & been persecuted, will give us comfort, power, & victory, and at the end say “death, crying, and sorrow is no more” (Rev 21:4).


(Written by both James and Keri Witmyer)
Posted on 06/21/11 at 9:40pm