God can make good come from anything. While God can send us suffering, most of the trials we undergo come courtesy of the free will exercised by our fellow souls. What we do with that brokenness is up to us. Seeking and living God's will in the pain is one way to help Him bring good from it.
Excerpts from
Magnificat's Wednesday meditation:
"The truth of God's love was shown on the cross of his beloved son, Jesus.
And the way to grow in our relationship with God in times of physical or mental stress is to strengthen ourselves by doing the things that God desires.
It is a sign of great holiness when one is resigned in everything to the will of God. Everything that God wills is for our good.
He knows how to console us when we least expect it.
If anyone hurts you, look on him as someone of great value and, with the eyes of one who loves . . .
Even when things are at their worst, keep your peace of heart and accept whatever God sends you as being for your good.
God is your guide, your father, your teacher, your husband.
In everything that happens the best thing you can do is abandon yourself to his will."
Saint Paul of the Cross
Thanks for that quote the Magnificat. I don't know if I agree that God sends us suffering. I think He will allow us to suffer , sometimes as a consequence of our or someone else's free will and sometimes for reasons we cannot understand. God didn't send suffering to Job. He allowed it to happen to test Job. It is when I am suffering that I struggle to remember that God is suffering right along with me, and I need to surrender to His Will.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Melissa, that God allows suffering, and that most of of it comes to us from other people using their free will for ill. What we do with these situations results in growth or not. And yes, God is our refuge. That's the message I need--surrender myself to his care, and to discern and do his will in spite of pain.
ReplyDeleteI believe God can send suffering for our own good. Sometimes there is a good result that we don't understand. Might I be too prideful if I didn't have a particular weakness, for example? But again, I think most bad things happen because we are fallen people in a fallen world.