Do you think suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian?

Do you think suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian?

  • Yes suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,

  • No suffering can't play a role in sanctifying a Christian,

  • Sometimes suffering may play a role in sanctifying a Christian,

  • Suffering never plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,

  • Suffering always plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,

  • I do not know if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,

  • I do not care if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian.


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MoreCoffee

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Many of the saints who the church has canonised suffered physical and mental anguishes in their earthly life yet some Christians contend that Christ's atoning death and resurrection are to bring healing of earthly physical and mental ills, do you agree with that, do you think that suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian?
  1. Yes suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  2. No suffering can't play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  3. Sometimes suffering may play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  4. Suffering never plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  5. Suffering always plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  6. I do not know if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  7. I do not care if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian.
 
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JCFantasy23

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Suffering is merely incidental in the sanctification of a Christian.

Suffering comes to a Christian like swallowing a bug comes to a happy bicyclist--it happens, but it's not an essential function of the ride.

Pretty much how I see. God can use the negative for the good of the person and their development, and trial can strengthen character, but it's not a golden rule people have to have extreme tragedy for sanctification.
 
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Citizen of the Kingdom

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Being conformed to His death takes a lot of suffering on our part, even if it's such incidendals as curtailing our pride. Necessary in that we wouldn't taste of His resurrected life not being conformed to His death.

edit: I think that's as much justification as sanctification in bringing them to a dispositional justification in which circumcision of the heart takes place.


okay nvmnd I'll go along with the bug in the teeth of the byciclist :sorry:
 
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Knee V

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If we can see Christ in our suffering, since Christ suffered Himself, then our suffering can bring us closer to Christ. If we see our suffering and, in our arrogance, only see ourselves, then our pride will prevent that suffering from benefiting us at all.
 
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Knee V

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it's not a golden rule people have to have extreme tragedy for sanctification.

No, but it is a golden rule that people will suffer. What, then, will we do with that suffering? Despair, or see Christ?
 
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RDKirk

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I keep seeing this scene from "Crocodile Dundee." At one point in the movie, Dundee is accosted by a would-be mugger weilding a pocket knife.

Dundee looks at the man's knife and says, "That's not a knife." Then he pulls out his own huge machete-sized blade and says, "This is a knife."

So hear someone say, "I'm suffering!"

And I get this image of Christ saying, "That's not suffering...."
 
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Citizen of the Kingdom

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I look at lots of it as the law of cause and effect. My nephew is suffering from a knife wound from New Years Eve party that was life threatening. He's just stabalised now. Is it part of his life lessons or the company he was keeping ...
 
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James Is Back

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I look at lots of it as the law of cause and effect. My nephew is suffering from a knife wound from New Years Eve party that was life threatening. He's just stabalised now. Is it part of his life lessons or the company he was keeping ...

Sorry to hear about your nephew. Said a prayer for him.

Now to the topic. Well I suffer though ROCD which affects my faith a lot but I don't give up on God regardless on what I feel or think.
 
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Citizen of the Kingdom

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Sorry to hear about your nephew. Said a prayer for him.

Now to the topic. Well I suffer though ROCD which affects my faith a lot but I don't give up on God regardless on what I feel or think.
Thanks James and prayers for you too. ( so many things in the world that are suffering)
Thank God for the faith that He gives us

KneeV If we can see Christ in our suffering, since Christ suffered Himself, then our suffering can bring us closer to Christ. If we see our suffering and, in our arrogance, only see ourselves, then our pride will prevent that suffering from benefiting us at all.
Good post
 
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seeingeyes

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Many of the saints who the church has canonised suffered physical and mental anguishes in their earthly life yet some Christians contend that Christ's atoning death and resurrection are to bring healing of earthly physical and mental ills, do you agree with that, do you think that suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian?
  1. Yes suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  2. No suffering can't play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  3. Sometimes suffering may play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  4. Suffering never plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  5. Suffering always plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  6. I do not know if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  7. I do not care if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian.
I think that through suffering, all of our theories and beliefs and assumptions are tested in the crucible of reality. What burns away was dross that was holding us back anyhow.

As a caveat, I would say that self-inflicted suffering does not have the same effect. Flogging oneself is more likely to build pride than destroy it. (This is also why Jesus told us to fast privately, without making a show of it.)
 
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James Is Back

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Thanks James and prayers for you too. ( so many things in the world that are suffering)
Thank God for the faith that He gives us

Good post

Thanks for the prayers. Appreciate it. God Bless you always my Sister in Christ!
 
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ChristsSoldier115

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Many of the saints who the church has canonised suffered physical and mental anguishes in their earthly life yet some Christians contend that Christ's atoning death and resurrection are to bring healing of earthly physical and mental ills, do you agree with that, do you think that suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian?
  1. Yes suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  2. No suffering can't play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  3. Sometimes suffering may play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  4. Suffering never plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  5. Suffering always plays a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  6. I do not know if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian,
  7. I do not care if suffering can play a role in sanctifying a Christian.

I don't like the promotion of "well if you aren't a homeless street preacher you aren't christian enough." Which sometimes I feel like this sort of thing is promoting.
 
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MoreCoffee

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I don't like the promotion of "well if you aren't a homeless street preacher you aren't christian enough." Which sometimes I feel like this sort of thing is promoting.

I haven't met a homeless street preacher.

Being homeless would be very uncomfortable. Many of the homeless people one hears about in Australia are suffering from mental illness of some kind which makes stability and predictability in behaviour difficult and that can lead to loss of rented accommodation and sometimes alienates family so much that the mentally ill person is expelled from the family home. Drug addiction can also lead to homelessness. Some are homeless because their home life is intolerable - violent spouse, violent and abusive parent or parents etcetera.

The street preachers I've encountered in Australia have mostly been either Hare Krishna, Mormon, or Jehovah's witnesses who do not seem to be homeless. I can't recall many Christian street preachers except for an occasional "closed brethren" mission in the streets, or people handing out hand bills advertising an inner city pentecostal church.

So I am inclined to think that suffering can lead to growth in holiness for a christian but that it does not always do so. Knee V answered well when he wrote:
If we can see Christ in our suffering, since Christ suffered Himself, then our suffering can bring us closer to Christ. If we see our suffering and, in our arrogance, only see ourselves, then our pride will prevent that suffering from benefiting us at all.​
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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Scripture teaches us to be humble; for it will be rewarded, maybe not till the next age though.

Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

James 4:6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

It is so hard to stay humble in this world without some suffering/loss. For when things go well we think ourselves to be deserving of it.

Note Jesus was the perfect example of relating suffering to humbleness.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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Suffering is merely incidental in the sanctification of a Christian.

Suffering comes to a Christian like swallowing a bug comes to a happy bicyclist--it happens, but it's not an essential function of the ride.

I would never say something so common to Christians is merely incidental.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
 
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