Text: Hebrews 5:8 NKJV

Further Reading: Hebrews 5:6-10

though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

Hebrews 5:8 NKJV

MESSAGE

Since God does not do things without a purpose, and will not allow His children to suffer without a greater glory head, there is always a reason why God allows your sufferings. There are lessons He wants to use the situation to teach you.

The Bible highlighted a few lessons that we can draw both from the suffering of Christ and the many saints who have gone ahead in triumph.

Today we want to look at obedience as a lesson that God may be teaching us through our suffering. To do this we will look closely at our Lord Jesus Christ whose mind the Bible admonishes us to have (Philippians 2:5).

Jesus was obedience personified, He always do the will of God. At the most difficult point of suffering at Gethsemane, Jesus will still do the will of His Father by going to the cross. But the submission of Christ was not to God alone but His earthly parents also.

Our text says that though Christ was the Son, He learned obedience through suffering. His suffering involved tears and strong crying. God uses suffering to bring us into His will.

Because Christ was obedient unto death, God gave Him the greatest name ever. In His name, every power must bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. This was the result of the obedience that came at the cost of His suffering.

There are some Christians who will not surrender to God’s will because of their strong will, but because God loves them, He may use suffering to break such into His plans.

Do you remember Jonah and how God had to send a storm and then a whale to break him into obedience. Jonah was running away from doing God’s will but when he encountered suffering, he turned around to do what God wanted him to do (read the book of Jonah).

Could God be using that suffering to teach you obedience? Watch out and see if that is what He is doing in your life.

REFLECTION

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2:8 KJV

Your suffering might be a tool in the hands of God to shape you into doing God’s will. Identify it quickly and do what God wants you to do.

PRAYER

Father, please help to learn every lesson you want me to learn in my suffering, including obedience.