Word of hope

 God has never planned to leave the righteous ones unguarded:

1 Peter 4

19. 'So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.'

This is the confidence true Christians must always bear. I don't know from where do Christians derive the assumption that being Christian must prevent oneself from suffering of any kind! In scientific terms, we are conformed to a conditioning life experience (the Pavlovian kind of induction) denoting that a Christian must live problem free life, with no iota of suffering. This no suffering kind of experience must manifest in the form of not falling ill at any time, not lacking provisions at anyone given time, no death of relative or self (suggesting one must perpetually  live in their physical body), and be free from anything that inflicts pain (physically, emotionally, physiologically etc,) to the body which houses the spirit man. Our perceptions are constructed around life without suffering. We don't make sense of why our Saviour, Jesus Christ, though He was God, had to suffer physically, emotionally, psychologically, shamefully, etc! Unless we understand why our Lord, Jesus Christ, suffered a shameful death on the cross, we remain detached from being called true sons and daughters of the living God who wonderfully made us in His own image and character (Genesis 1:26)! James 1:2-3 say a lot about the joy which fills someone who suffers for the sake of Jesus. Is it that we are selective of which scriptures to read that we fail to appreciate the importance of suffering for the sake of giving glory to God's name? Paul cutely put it this way in 1 Corinthians 10:13; whatever life experiences we encounter, it is to tell us that such is not new, and when one gets into such uncomfortable life experiences, God will be waiting to provide a concrete solution for one to be victorious. True Christians always praise God and give Him honour whenever they are overcomers over many tribulations. Christians who remain in a rather formative stage of their faith journey despite having ceremoniously given their life to Jesus Christ for many years oscillate between believing and doubting, thus suffering is not among the vocabulary they would ever want to hear or talk about. It is common knowledge to hear people talk about life being a struggle. In a struggle one learns the art of fighting with determination to win. With God's promise never to fail any true worshiper of and believer in Him, true Christians must not feel afraid to experience suffering. This shows (suffering while doing God's work), God is faithful to us, and He has very good plans He cautiously made for each one of us, Jeremiah 29:11-12, and that His plans about what we should be have not been crafted after our births, instead they (the good plans) were made long before any conception took place, (Jeremiah 1:5). Train your senses to say all is well whenever you encounter hardships in your life, you are being formatted with Christ's life template which does not give in to sin and fear. Just meditating on God's unfailing love and faith must give you the confidence to be a victor to every trial and tribulations placed along your faith journey as you trust God is in control. Suffering is the assurance God has set up stepping stones upon which you will leap on to your eternal life destination without fear of slipping backwards, (Galatians 6:9). Pain and suffering endured while serving God qualify Christians to be called by His glorious name. Don't be afraid when difficult situations visit you, you have to believe God is implementing His training programme on you so that you are qualified to be partaker of the heavenly kingdom.