Range your sword

So you want to be a man or a woman of God ? If so, he will have served you a cup of suffering. You will cry because of something far worse than physical suffering. I am talking about the suffering of being hurt and rejected by friends, the suffering of parents when children trample their hearts and become strangers, the suffering of a husband and a woman when walls are built between them.

Oh, the tumult that follows, the nights without rest and without sleep - knowing that God is real, that you walk in His Spirit, that you love Jesus with all your heart and that you are nevertheless obliged to drink cut of suffering.

We can not get away from this cup. We can not be deceived and led to believe that following Jesus is only happiness. Scripture indeed says that our approach to life should be "a subject of complete joy" (James 1: 2), but it also says that "misfortune often affects the righteous" (Psalm 34:19).

Peter tried to divert the affliction from his flesh. He wielded a sword at Gethsemane, saying to Jesus : "Teacher, you do not have to go through all this. I will hold them until you can escape. "Many Christians today have the same attitude. They try to divert the afflictions, saying : "I do not have to face this. My God is a good God !"

I believe God is faithful. But Jesus tells us that we can not escape our cup of suffering. He commanded Peter : "Put up your sword in its place. This is not the way my Father works ; for all those who take the sword shall perish by the sword" (see Matthew 26:52). He added : "Shall I not drink the cup which my Father hath given me to drink ?" (John 18:11).

When you trust the One who serves you to drink this cup - when you see His plan behind your suffering - then you are able to drink it. Do not be afraid, for your Father holds the cup. You are not drinking death but life !

David Wilkerson