Suffering as Sons

Did you know that God's children suffer?  I don't mean just in the usual sense of having a bad day or losing a job or even suffering a financial reversal. I'm talking about the fact that in the last century, there have been more Christian martyrs than in all previous centuries. 

Christians are being arrested and left to die in dungeon-like conditions. They are being taken from their families and executed. Their houses and their houses of worship are being burned. They are being persecuted, they are suffering and they are faithful children of God. 

And we wonder why God would allow us to suffer loss of any kind, as if it were strange that a child of God would ever suffer. Do we not realize that we live in a fallen world, that our very existence is lived out behind enemy lines in a global war with the Evil One and his followers?  

Heaven will be a place where no sorrow, no pain, no loss, no death will be known, but this is not heaven; this is planet earth. And while we have the victory guaranteed, we are still at war, where battles must be fought and loss will be encountered in til that final victory. 

This was true, even of the Son of God, Jesus himself "Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered" (Heb 5:8).  Jesus suffered, even to the point of death on a cross. Is it too much to think that we might be called to suffer or sacrifice for the same reason that our Lord and millions of God's children have before us?

Jesus' suffering resulted in our salvation, the suffering of saints before us has resulted in our freedom in Christ, what good might your suffering cause - if you keep the faith in the midst of the pain and loss you are going through at any given time?  Jus' Askn.