The evidence of God's favor

We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I heard Bonhoeffer quoted on the radio today and have not been able to verify the quote, but it was to the effect of We must learn to rightly relate to suffering....suffering is not a curse, it is the evidence of God's loving favor upon a life.

Doesn't make sense. Or does it....it is, as mentioned in my previous vampire post, that it is promised for those that follow Christ. I understand sacrifice...I understand that Christ sacrificed for us and that we are called to sacrifice all for him. I mean, heck, we even had an entire Youth Summer Camp dedicated to the theme SACRIFICE '90! But...it turns out that to obey is better than sacrifice. What gives?

Romans 1:5 says that obedience comes thru faith. Interesting that Paul discusses bringing people to OBEDIENCE. OBEDIENCE seems to always require SACRIFICE. Either of time, will, desires, posessions, etc. OBEDIENCE to the gospel is OBEDIENCE to lay it all down, to SACRIFICE your way for his way, your life for his. It requires the SACRIFICE of your life...you are to share in the suffering and death of Christ. Seems like Paul should be calling people to SACRIFICE. Didn't the rich young ruler have to SACRIFICE his stuff?

But Paul specifies OBEDIENCE. Didn't the Old Testament (I Sam 15:22) teach us that to OBEY is better than SACRIFICE?

The OBEDIENCE part is difficult. SACRIFICE feels easy because we can measure it. We are able to accomplish it, it is immediately apparent and we can often pat ourselves on the back for "suffering for Jesus".

True OBEDIENCE tells you what, when, where how and how much to share in Christ's SACRIFICE and that kind of OBEDIENCE takes a serious amount of FAITH.

SACRIFICE is never a substitute for OBEDIENCE, but when done by FAITH, thru OBEDIENCE it can become a very spirtual act of worship.