Note to Self: Suffer Well

Below is an excerpt from Joe Thorn’s new book, Note to Self. This is from chapter 44 on suffering well. I REALLY recommend this book. I will post some other great nuggets in the days and weeks to come.

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

ROMANS 5:3–5

Dear Self,
God does not promise to rid your life of affliction and difficulty. He does, however, offer to give you the grace needed to suffer well, and through grace to discover the riches and beauty of the gospel.

When the world strips away your comfort and confidence in things temporal, when friends become enemies and attack you, when in the providence of God suffering enters your life like a flash flood, you are given an opportunity to see very clearly where your ultimate dependence lies and where you find your identity. And it’s not just something that reveals truth about yourself; it is also something God uses to sanctify you.

Thorn, Joe (2011). Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself (p. 128). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.