Some of the most mystifying parts of our walk with God, and, indeed, our insight into His Word have to do with expectation...hope, faith, etc. These, many times, preview our greatest tests. We think deference of these promises constitutes a trial of faith. Not true if faith is truly the substance. When will it come, Oh God? When, when, when? However, a single facet of our walk with Christ so often ignored is suffering. Suffering is ordained for all. Jesus tells us to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. Our cross is a component of our life that hinders, distracts, deforms our perception, or obstructs our ability to follow. Yet, Jesus knew this when He made the statement.Taking up the cross is to die, that Christ might live in and through us. It is not our power to live, it is His life that empowers. Without the cross we each bear, the following is impossible. Someone without a cross is without Christ. The cross reminds us who is our life. If we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him. II Tim 2:12

Suffering provides a foothold for faith to begin to operate in our spirit. We must determine to press forward to the prize, no matter the cost. Through the fire, through the floods, through the storms, through the pain, loss, aloneness. Here we find Christ, the life that fills us beyond all this world may offer. Only His power of life and love may assuage the suffering of this life. Herein do we truly know Him...He is in us, we are in Him.