Thought of the Day

So here's what I'm thinking today:

It started in Romans 5:3. I was looking up some Bible verses that deal with being anxious and this one popped up, one that I've heard before:

"But that's not all. We also brag when we are suffering. We know that suffering creates endurance, endurance creates character, and character creates confidence."

And I was thinking, why is Paul bragging about suffering? The answer I came up with is that the kind of suffering that produces endurance and character, etc., is the kind that totally sucks when it's happening, but is ultimately happening to make something else happen further on down the road, something we don't see now, but we'll have needed to go through this stuff in order to get there.

And then I caught this verse, which I think is my favorite verse for now (these things are so subject to change):

"I consider our present sufferings insignificant compared to the glory that will soon be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18)

Wowzer! And so what I immediately think of here is the suffering that comes to us by Satan's hand. Last night at small group we were talking about how Satan doesn't try to knock us down in one fell swoop; no, he does it all sneaky like and chips away at us little by little, either by distracting us or discouraging us. Anything to keep us from what we are supposed to be doing for the Lord.

So I think to myself, what if all this anxiousness, this discouragement, these distractions aren't really about me right now at all? What if they're about the me I'm supposed to be, what if I'm destined for something amazing, and these attacks are Satan's way of dragging me away from that path, slow and steady so I don't see it coming?

What a sneak that little guy is!