this present suffering

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Romans 8:9-25. In this passage, we hear Paul tell us one of the great truths of the Bible. He says that no matter how bad our suffering is in this life, it is nothing compared to the glory that awaits us in heaven.

That puts things in perspective, right? Because life can be pretty hard sometimes. It can really wear you down. Sometimes you even wonder if it's worth it, all the suffering that you and your friends and family go through.

But God assures us that no matter how bad our suffering is in this life, the joy that we have to look forward to is so much greater that it makes this present suffering seem like NOTHING.

We can already get a little taste of that, can't we? I know that for me, there'll be days when it seems everything goes wrong and I have a huge headache and work is hard and everyone seems down on me and life is just really not much fun. But then, two days later, everything is good again. My body feels good, I've got energy, work is fun and easy, my friends are happy, and life seems so great that I look back on the suffering of two days earlier and think, "That was nothing!"

If we can already get a taste of it in this life, imagine what it will be like when we finally get to see God face to face.

God, thank You for assuring us that the joy we will have when we meet You will make all of our sufferings seem like nothing.