The Big Idea:

I don’t believe there is anything that causes our spiritual roots to grow deeper than suffering. Most of us listening today have experience with reaching out to God in hard times. It’s here that we grow in our faith, we experience God’s grace, strength, and peace. In times of suffering, we learn that the promise is true. God will never leave us or forsake us.

Main Points:

1. No one wants to suffer. None of us want to go through hard times. Yet, we understand that the difficulties of life come to all of us, believers and unbelievers. Many things we face are unexplainable on this side of Heaven.

2. What we are discovering is that, in a spiritual sense, suffering produces some wonderful things in our lives. There is spiritual growth that we cannot experience any other way.

3. My prayer for you is that whatever you are facing today, you’ll give your questions to God. Even if you can’t find an immediate answer, you’ll hold onto to your faith. Recognize he is at work in your life and your roots are going deeper.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Philippians 1:29 - “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.”

1 Peter 2:21 - “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”

Romans 5:3-5 - “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.”

James 1:2-4 - “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

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