Spiritual Sundays

Hello everyone and welcome to my Spiritual Sundays post. I have been away for a couple of weeks and I have missed you all. Thank you Charlotte and Ginger for hosting SS every week. Please click on the link to visit all the participants and these lovely ladies. http://bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/

One day the question was asked, "Why is there so much suffering in the world?" The answer is quite simple really. We live in a fallen world!

Jesus taught that the world seen from God's viewpoint is tilted in favour of the oppressed. This teaching emerges in the Sermon on the Mount and other statements of Jesus: the first will be last {Matt. 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30}, and he who humbles himself will be exalted {Luke 14:11; 18:14}. But why would God single out the oppressed for special attention?

1. Suffering helps us realize our urgent need for redemption.

2. Suffering helps us experience our dependence on God and our interdependence with one another.

3. Suffering helps us distinguish between necessities and luxuries.

4. Suffering helps us respond to the call of the gospel because we may have become so desperate that we cry out to God.

The poor, the hungry, the mourners, and those who suffer are blessed {Matt. 5:3-6} because their lack of self-sufficiency is obvious to them every day. They must turn somewhere for strength. People who are rich, successful, and beautiful may go through life relying on their natural gifts. But people who are needy, dependant, and dissatisfied with life are more likely to welcome God's free gift of love.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit." Why? Because "theirs is the kingdom of heaven" {Matt. 5:3}.

- Phillip Yancy from Our Daily Bread

THE WEAKER WE FEEL, THE HARDER WE LEAN ON GOD.

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi