Serving God and the people can bring a great amount of joy and satisfaction into our lives. In all of us is a deep wiring to serve. We can't deny it: We were made for God's pleasure and to be a blessing to people around us.
But sometimes it can feel like we neither have the right nor the qualifications to serve God and His people.
Maybe you want to serve in ministry, get involved in a charity or start a small drive that will help the needy and glorify God through the process. But you just feel too burnt out or hurt to do so.
The weight of suffering can be a heavy load, but it doesn't have to stop us from serving.
2 Timothy 1:8 says this: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God."
Paul's charge to Timothy is one we can still respond to today. Even in our suffering, we have a testimony and we are called to live that testimony out by being a blessing to people.
Suffering Will Always Be Present
The thing about suffering is that it will always be there. As long as we walk through this sinful world in this broken age, suffering will happen. In John 16:33, Jesus says, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation..."
If you have to wait for all your suffering to fade away before you start serving God and serving the communities you are part of, you might never ever get started. You can still serve through the perpetual suffering that you face.
Suffering Makes You Grow
Romans 5:3-4 also declares, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope."
Suffering is not the only way that we grow, but it is a proven and effective way for us to get better.
Serving despite suffering makes us stronger, helps teach us to trust God's strength more, and reminds us to rely on His grace and not our capacity.
The Secret: Rely on God's Power, Not Your Own
The secret to serving God despite suffering is no secret at all: Our only hope to ever responding to the privilege that is serving God and His people is to serve primarily through God's power and not our own. It's amazing how, through God's great generosity, He provides us not just with the tools but even with the fuel to get us going.
God is in the business of setting you up to serve. It doesn't matter how broken you feel you are. God is willing and more than ready to use you today.
