Molded

Thursday for my quiet time I was reading in Hebrews and there was a particular verse that stuck out to me.  Honestly, I didn't even know why it did at first.  I've been mulling it over for the past day or two just trying to make sense of it in my heart and let God show me what He was trying to show me through that verse.  Here it is:

"For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering."  Hebrews 2:10

I ended up leaving for work quite a bit early (because of meeting with the guys that I meet with on Thursday mornings), and I sat for about an hour and read through a sermon on this exact verse that was preached in 1826 (or so) by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  Enlightening to say the least.  Spurgeon spoke about the fact that it was not Christ who was made perfect through suffering (because He already was) but the sacrifice itself that was made perfect.  Here's the thing - I don't really understand how all of that works.  But I know this:  If Jesus was making a sacrifice that was perfected through suffering, then it only makes sense that suffering in our lives has some purpose (whether we can see it or not) and that this suffering is molding us more and more into the image of Christ.


C.S. Lewis said in his book The Problem of Pain, "Tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless."  I tend to agree with Mr. Lewis, especially after this reading of Hebrews 2.


So, I think God is reminding me that pain hurts.  A lot.  But that ultimately His purposes are served through that pain and He's using it to make me more like Him.


I think He's also showing me that if I find myself in situations where I'm not being challenged to be more like Christ, then I need to run away as hard and fast as humanly possible.


And so I ask myself (and you) - Am I being molded into the image of Christ?  Is God perhaps using the pain I may feel at times to draw me more into Him and His will for my life?  Is God showing me something that I need to run hard and fast away from?


Lord, help me to humbly face the answers to these questions and give me the strength to change my life accordingly.