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What I have learned from Paul Grimmond's "Suffering Well"

1. God is entirely sovereign over suffering.
We fall into the crime of feeling shameful about what God is doing and a need to excuse God so to speak. Where we almost feel a need to account for his actions. Part of believing in a sovereign God involves believing that He is sovereign over suffering.

2. There are different sorts of suffering - General Suffering, Persecution, Discipline, Suffering as a result of seeing the world through God's eyes.

3. General suffering is the result of living in a fallen world. Whether a person is more sinful or more holy doesn't cause him or her to experience more or less suffering. This much must be clear. We fall into the trap of linking specific suffering to sinful actions. It goes against the very idea of grace.

4. Persecution is the suffering experienced precisely because we follow Christ. We share in Christ sufferings and we should expect suffering as a result of following Christ.

5. Discipline is experiences God's loving hand being involved in our sanctification. As we are redeemed more and more from our sinful state, it is natural to experience discipline as God is ultimately interested in our holiness more than our comfort.

6. Suffering as a result of seeing through God's eyes is an entire category altogether. We feel sadness and pain when we see our loved ones fall to sin. It brings about a different sort of pain than the aforementioned.

7. The Christian is called to persevere through all of these. It is difficult but God knows our hearts well and a huge part of the New Testament is devoted to calling the Christian to persevere.

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