In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted… 
2 Timothy 3:12

Jesus did not promise us comfort and peace with our earthly circumstances, but he did promise suffering. In this part of the world, none of us thought we were signing up for suffering when we became a Christian. Suffering hurts! But isn’t it in suffering where we grow the most in our faith? 

Suffering is a journey of the heart, and while we want the strong faith, we often don’t want to walk the path to it. And yet, the result of suffering is coming to a place where what we want most is God himself, not so he can change our circumstances or even give us comfort, but simply so we can experience the sweetness of delighting in him.

There’s something the persecuted church understands that maybe we don’t. When they ask Western Christians and churches for prayer, they don’t ask for an end to their present circumstances. They ask for prayer that they would remain steadfast in the Lord. Could it be that in your deepest pain, you find the richest blessings by handing over control to your heavenly Father? If we’re willing to let God work in our suffering, he will purify our hearts so that he is our one desire. 

Heavenly Father, help me to pray as Christ did, “Not my will but yours be done.”  Father, calm my restless spirit, quiet my anxious heart, still my troubling thoughts with the assurance that you are in control. I release to your will all that I am trying to manipulate; I release to your authority all that I am trying to control; I release to you all that I have been striving to make happen. Father, may your will be done in my life, in your time, and in your way. Amen