Sunday Sermon Question

Today we were onto the 2nd church, the church of Smyrna. There was a lot of great information about the city of Smyrna and the history. The people of the city worshipped a lot of different gods. In the message from Jesus to the church, they were given no rebuke! They were told that they would "suffer" in the upcoming times, and were told to "be faithful, even to the point of death." In the sermon we touched on suffering in people's lives which is always a tough question and it actually has once again gone along with the devotion I picked up from Kay Arthur called Teach Me How to Live which I have been going through. We were given an outline on how to suffer with a smile on our faces with some great information.

I however, only realize how blessed I have been and when I think of things I that I have "suffered" in my life they have no place with true suffering. I know I needed to hear this information, and can use it with the things in my life so far that I have considered to be horrible, but the truth is that I have to look at this and realize that I have not endured true suffering.

I go to bed almost every night with the last thought in my mind of Corrie Ten Boom and parts of her book I read called, The Hiding Place. I am grateful beyond words to have not experienced something so horrible in my life as what they went through during the Holocaust. I think about how cold and hungry they were and just say thank you for my blanket (ok 3 blankets!) and that my children are safe in the next room in warm beds. The things I have read about that time in history truly haunt me, and I see that as true suffering, as some of the most horrible things any human being could experience.

The question today was, "How do you truly suffer with a smile on your face?" Well, I can't even answer that, I can only feel guilty for the times that I have wallowed in any self pity taking for granted how good I have it. I can only be grateful that my family has been protected from certain unthinkable horrors and I can bank on the promise of God to be there with me should I have to walk through one of those valleys in the future. Today I think of people all over the world actually dying for believing in Jesus and wonder if I would have the strength to "be faithful, even to the point of death." Today I am grateful for the freedom of religion we have in this country and thankful that for now, I don't have to answer that question.