Day 1: Resilient People Suffer Well
I Peter 4:1-2 NLT “So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For is you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God.”
Dr. Lehan Stemmet developed an interest in how people deal with the life’s challenges. He started a personal project called “Deal With It”. His TED talk, Change Your Brain and Resilience summarizes how resilient people cope and demonstrate raw coping power. We can all learn to suffer well and find the silver linings in life. People that are thriving don’t dwell on negativity. They forgive. From his study of resilient people globally, Dr. Stemmet found that they know the difference between a need and a want. They feel they can contribute now because they always have enough.
As Christ followers, we are told to be ready to suffer as Christ did, and be anxious to do the Will of God. God wants us to be resilient people. Ones that can adapt to life and adverse situations and quickly bounce back. Not only do we resist damage from suffering, we go on to thrive past sin and into the Will of God.
I Peter, as we study on in this devotional, tells us why we will suffer. God uses our pain to refine our faith and purify us. God allows life to happen, trials will come, and even persecution. As we suffer well, our faith can emerge stronger as we feel God’s presence in and through the trial. We become more like Him when sin is burned away with life’s challenges.
The Bible is God’s love letter and guidebook in our lives. It is alive and current; full of truth and applicable teaching to show us God’s plan to bounce back from the fire and refinement processes of life. His Word will teach us how to flourish, guide us on how to live a rich and satisfying life as He promised in John 10:10 NLT. Living this way, is known as a resilient life. You are someone that is thriving or living at the optimal level of well-being. This is how God wants us to live. Giving Him our troubles (I Peter 5:7), knowing He will be there with us in our trials and that in Him we will be satisfied. We are to forgive, as we have been forgiven by grace. See Ephesians 1:7 and Matthew 6:14.
