Why Christians Suffer...

[GenLovesDen4ever]

I found this on another christian website. I think it is a very good teaching message. Very very good. I didnt write this. I found it... and its good.


Why do Christians Suffer?


The first and foremost answer is that Satan is the ruler of this world:

John 12:31 (Jesus speaking) Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

John 14:30 (Jesus speaking) I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming , and he has nothing in Me.

John 16:11 (Jesus speaking) “…the ruler of this world is judged.”

Furthermore, it is Satan’s nature to kill, steal and destroy.

John 10:10 (Jesus speaking) “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Also remember, Satan hates God. He will do anything he can to hurt God. By extension, he will do anything he can to hurt God’s children. Isn’t this the best way to hurt a parent, by hurting their kids?

How did Satan become the ruler of this world--how did he get that authority? He stole it. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were given authority to rule the earth:

Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them (Adam and Eve), and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

When Adam and Eve fell, their authority was usurped by Satan. We know this because of the conversation Satan had with Jesus when He fasted in the wilderness. One of the temptations was to have authority over the earth without having to go to the cross:

Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."
Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you , Satan! For it is written, ’You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

Satan had those kingdoms, Jesus did not deny this. Instead Jesus resisted Satan, with the word of God. Satan left.

In all this, Scripture, there is this hope: although Satan is the ruler of this world, Jesus said in John 16:11 that the ruler of this world is judged, and in John 14:30 that Satan has nothing in Him. That is, that Satan has no authority over Jesus.

Here is our hope: when Jesus went to the cross, all the requirements--all the legal consequences that were against us were nailed to the cross, Col 2:14. Therefore, in Christ Jesus, we may have life and life abundantly, John 10:10. Furthermore, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us, Romans 8:37.

Still, Christians suffer. Satan attacks and comes to steal, kill and destroy. Sometimes he is successful, sometimes not. Why?

The following is a list of reasons of why Christians suffer. I have arranged these from the easiest answers to the more complex.

Please understand. I do not have a complete understanding of this topic myself. I can only offer what I have garnered from years of study. Still, I offer these answers in hope that they may help someone who is under the attack of the evil one, our foe and adversary Satan.

Christians may suffer because of one of the following reasons:

[GenLovesDen4ever]

1. Sin.

It is clear in Scripture that there are consequences of sin:

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

What is less clear to Christians is that when they sin, they are opening the door for Satan, or more precisely his demons, to attack them.

Psalm 94:20 Shall the throne of iniquity which devises evil by law, have fellowship with You?

The “throne of iniquity” is Satan. To “devise evil by law” means that he has to have a legal reason to attack. Sin gives him this, see Gal. 6:7, quoted above.

But Satan is canny enough to know that if every time a Christian sins they immediately reap the consequences then there would be a lot less sinning! “Sin profits for a season,” Scripture says. For a season, there is enjoyment and no seeming consequences.

But if that Christian becomes aware of their sin and turns back to God, then it seems the consequences catch up with them! Suddenly they are under tremendous attack!

I had a friend who came out of witchcraft who experienced this. She got saved one night while watching television. She repented of everything and turned to the Lord. But from that moment onward it seemed as if Satan attacked her on every side: her disintegrated, she lost her job, her family turned against her.

I went to the Lord to pray for her, and also to ask for wisdom. Here is what the Lord told me: that although my friend’s sin had been forgiven, the consequences were still there. Is this Scriptural? Yes! For example, Samson lost his eyes when Delilah tricked him. He eventually repented and regained his strength. But he never regained his eyesight. Sometimes there are consequences of past sin that we are still dealing with! The sin is forgiven, but the consequences continue.

I asked the Lord how to pray. He said, “Pray for an attenuated harvest.” I had to look that word up, attenuated. According to Webster’s it means, “to reduce the severity, virulence or vitality of.” The Lord was telling me to pray for crop failure! Yes, my friend had sown unrighteous seed through years of witchcraft. But I prayed for crop failure of that seed. The Lord also told me to pray for a quick harvest of the good seed she was now sowing. I did. My friend’s health and finances improved greatly.

In addition to consequences of our own sin, we need to realize that there can be consequences of sins of the generations before us. Here is where examples in Scripture help, because several of the patriarchs prayed for forgiveness not only for their own sin, but also for the forgiveness of the generations before them:

For example, in 722 BC, the northern kingdom Samaria fell, in large part because of idolatry. In 586 BC, Israel fell, for the same reason. The Israelites had been told by Moses that there was set before them a blessing and a curse, and that the result of the curse was that they would lose the Presence of God and His protection, Deut. 30:14-19. They sinned anyway. In fact, Israel never fully gave up their idols, even carrying those idols with them as God took them out of Egypt, Amos 5:25-26.

Yet in about 423 BC--more than thirty years later, Nehemiah prayed for his people and the generations before him to be forgiven:

Neh. 1:6-7 "please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, the You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.”

Similar prayers asking for forgiveness of the sins of the generations before them can be found in Daniel 9, especially 9:20, Ezra 9:5-7, Jer. 3:22-25, Psalm 106:6-7. The reason for the effectiveness of this kind prayer is found in God’s instruction to Moses:

Lev. 26:40-42 But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me--if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt--then I will remember My covenant with [them] …I will remember the land.


What to do if you suspect the attack against you has come because of sin.

First, repent! Scripture reassures us that no matter what, no matter how deep the sin, or how prolonged, we can be forgiven:

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Ask God to search your heart as you do this, Psalm 139:23-24. Propose in your heart that you will not only ask to be forgiven, but turn from sin. Ask God to help you see the consequences of sin and hate it.

Second, ask God if there are any sins of the generations before you which could be the cause behind this attack. It helps to know some family history here, but even without it, it is possible to ask God to make you aware of sin that needs to be confessed and forgiven.

Third, ask God if the attack against you is the result of past sin, seeds which were sown in unrighteousness and now are producing a harvest. Ask for crop failure for any unrighteous seed that you or others have sown, and for a quick harvest for the good seed--righteous deeds--which you are now sowing.




The people who were slandering my pastor knew who I was, though. And they came against me with vehemence, tearing me down to others in the church. Here I was new, and my church was coming against me. I did not know until a long time later that my pastor had put me on speaker phone, when he told me what he had done.

As the situation grew worse and the hatred more manifest I went to the Lord, now in tears. I will never forget what He said to me: “Grow up.”

That seems like a harsh word, but it was the word I needed. I realized that I could not continue to be emotionally hurt every time someone came against me. I needed to stand my ground and continue to believe in the Lord and His goodness. Here was a challenge. Would I obey God, and die to self? Or would I continue to allow the arrows of the enemy to penetrate my shield? I chose the first.

If I had chosen to continue to entertain thoughts of hurt and discouragement, the enemy would have won. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to die to self.

[GenLovesDen4ever]

Here is a postscript of that situation. I did stand my ground. As for the growing up part--I am still working on it. Our pastor continued to serve our church for two more years before the Lord moved him elsewhere. The man who had come against our pastor started his own church with some of his friends--people in our church--pulling our little church apart. We eventually got some of those people back. Then, years later, this man was convicted of a felony and sent to prison.

Here is what I learned--

Inevitably, a Christian who is going on with God is going to pierce through the darkness with the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and inevitably that offended darkness will try to pierce us in turn. If we allow those fiery darts to penetrate our hearts and minds, then we will suffer needlessly.

We need to die to self. We need to change.

Paul said it well, speaking of himself:

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

But Paul also addresses all Christians later in the same epistle:

Galatians 5:24 “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

We need to crucify our flesh with its passions and desires.

In part some of this is done as we each die to our old self and put on the new man, Col. 3:1-10; Eph. 4:22-32. We leave our old sinful patterns behind and act more like Christ. We begin to look more like Christ as well, as we worship and come into His presence, 2 Cor. 3:18. As we walk in obedience, not giving way to the flesh and dying to self, the fruit of the Spirit becomes manifest in us. Instead of sin, there is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Gal, 5:22-23.

This process continues as we walk in the discipline of the Lord, fixing our eyes on Jesus, Heb. 12:2, seeking those things above, Col. 3:1, setting our eyes on the goal which is Christ Jesus our Lord, and laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles, Heb. 12:1.

This process also continues as we learn to tear down every thought that exalts itself against the Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 10:5, and guard our minds, thinking on what is “true, notable, just, pure, lovely, of good report,” looking for good things which are praise worthy, Phil. 4:8.

We go on with the Lord. We learn to guard our speech, realizing that death and life are in the power of the tongue, Prov. 18:21. We learn to shun evil and “pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart,” 2 Tim. 2:22. We learn to walk in holiness, seeking to be holy, because our Father is holy, 1 Peter 1:15; Lev. 11:44.

We learn to forgive, realizing that if we don’t forgive we will not be forgiven ourselves, Matthew 6:14-15; Matthew 18:21-35.

We learn to hate sin, because we realize its consequences, Gal. 6:7, and the legal hold sin gives Satan when we enter into sin, Ps. 94:20.

We change. We must change, if we are to go on to the victory which is in Jesus Christ, and live in that victory here on earth.

“The Lord is my Shepherd,” David says in Psalm 23. Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ is our Shepherd. But let us also remember that this same psalm also says, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

God may not take us out of every dark time in our life. Instead, He may take us through. It is during these times that we learn to cling to Him, and to not be afraid, because He is with us.

It is during these times that we change the most.

God does not cause the evil that comes into our lives. We live in an unsaved world, a world which was cursed from the beginning of times, Gen. 3:17; Rom. 8:19-21. We have been warned that Satan is the ruler of this world, John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11. Jesus Himself said that in this world we would have tribulation,

John 16:33 (Jesus speaking) “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.“

Yet with this warning Jesus gives us hope. He has overcome the world! In Him, we can too. But we must die to self.


Diana Clancy
Copyright November

To my readers--I give you permission to use these notes for Bible studies and classes. Please include my name. Be blessed!

[GenLovesDen4ever]

You know what I was wondering the same thing when I was trying to post it. It was so long it wouldnt let me post it all in one reply and I might have missed it. Ill get back to it and edit it. it is a good read.

gen

[GenLovesDen4ever]

Ive tried to edit but they 'system' isnt letting me edit again. Anticlimax or What! anyway. When I can edit it Ill do so.

[HLButterfly]

Gen,

If you find that you cannot edit it here... maybe you could just post the link that you found it in to share with us?

Thanks for sharing and trying to fix this!
God Bless, Heather

[GenLovesDen4ever]

It is a very good message. Ill have to repost it when I get a chance in a seperate post because the link would lead to another christian forum and a section that you would need to be a member of before you viewed it. lol. Silly me. I will get it up there tho.

[GenLovesDen4ever]

Where did you find the missing parts!?

[GenLovesDen4ever]

ok. Thats where I got it from. I wasnt sure if you were a member there too. Its a very big christian forum. If you do check it out again check out the deeper fellowship section. They are very good. Thank you btw.