Suffering turns to worship in Laurel's Prosebox journal book

God has so many good purposes for our suffering, our mourning and our pain. He does this with everyone who loves Him, and it is always for our good and our joy, because of His great love for us. This increases our love for Him even more and we see Him turn our suffering into worship.

All the fathers of our faith in the OT suffered and all of them, even the ones killed for their obedience to God, ended up worshiping and giving glory to God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ embraced His suffering, praying and entrusting Himself to His Father, all the way to His death. Now resurrected from the dead, all the glory that has ever existed and ever shall, belongs to Him, as granted to Him by God our Father. He is the King of Glory.

The apostles suffered greatly and all their pain was turned to worship. The Christian saints, some of their lives recorded for us in history, had their suffering turned by God into worship. And now it is our turn to proceed through this process as we walk out our life in Christ

Our suffering often comes from our own sinful flesh. God in His mercy and great faithfulness to us, allows us to suffer the miseries of the results of our own sin for a time but then He brings us to repentance by His Spirit. He disciplines us, drawing us even closer to Him and increasing our love for Him. He does this because He is our loving and faithful Father. He does this because He is faithful to His promises to us to work in us sanctification that our flesh and “self” may decrease and that the Spirit of Christ in us may increase. This is a loving gift of grace to us, His own children.

Our suffering also comes from those who know not Christ and it comes from the kingdom of darkness as they pour out to us persecution and and venom and malice. Thus the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance. The lost people of the world and the forces of darkness are “breathing out threatenings and slaughter” to us even as they did to Christ, to the apostles and to all the saints that have gone before us.

Now, entering in to the sufferings of Christ, with Christ, and entering into the promised sanctification of our souls, our God and Savior turns all of this to worship. And our worship to our God shall increase and know no end. And this worship will extend to every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them.

And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “ Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “ To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped. Revelation 5: 11-12