Explain what this means please.?

Question

According to St. Paul, Christians should rejoice in suffering because it produces endurance, hope and character (Romans 5:3-5).

Still other Christians see innocent people suffering as evidence of the hard to make out will of a God who "works in mysterious ways" toward an ultimate but unknowable good.

Some Roman Catholics offer no explanation but seek to trust in God. In the past, Roman Catholic Christians were taught that they should "offer up" pain, with the idea that through faith, suffering that seems meaningless can be redeemed and transformed.

Answer 1

good question

Answer 2

As a Roman Catholic I am suffering from a bum knee as I write. I'm also offering up the pain for those in Iraq who are suffering much more than I am. I am also off erring it up in reparation for all my sins and those of my family and friends.

I agree with Paul, the Bible and the Pope in all things concerning faith and morality.

Shall I offer up my pain for the good of humanity, or curse the pain and assign it to the devil?

In the musical, "Tea house of August Moon", there is an Asian proverb that has always been of some help to me: "Pain makes men think. Thinking makes men wise. Wisdom makes the pain endurable."

Pray to the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Blessed Trinity, for help in understanding Scripture. The Lord is speaking to you in your search to understand His teachings. What does it mean? What are you going to do about it?
God wants to hear what you have to say.

Pray for the indwelling and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the giver of all good things.

Answer 3

To explain a concept??? How should I start? Rejoice in suffering. Do you laugh when the ax falls? Suffering, death and the misfortunes of others is not the will of God. There is no mystery, only the loss of understanding. If you can not conceive the answer than you blame it on God. Do you not know that God is getting pretty damn fed up with all this blame.

Answer 4

Paul was also an advocate of being content under ALL circumstances. He was constantly exhorting people in their faith, and guiding their moral development thru his letters. He wanted to encourage people to persevere thru the hard times and persecution they faced, in a what could be a very dangerous world for christians at that time. Someone once said, 'What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.' He was hitting on a similar point.

We are not to rejoice in seeing the suffering of others. That's not at all to what he refers. On that, clearly we are called to help where possible. The suffering of innocent people in the world is a wholly different problem, and gives us obvious ministries.

Answer 5

St. Paul to christianity is what Muhammad Ali Clay was to
cricket

The likely reasons for hardship in the order of prabablity are:.

1. One's sins which will be pardoned after punishment
2 A trial which will raise his status in the eyes of God
3. A reprimand to draw his attention to something wrong.

God is more kind to us than a parent is to a child. holy
Quran says:

'Whatever comes to you is due only to your sins and most
sins we pardon, any way!"


Javed Kaleem

Answer 6

Scripture (and Paul) say that when you suffer for doing well, for the cause of the Messiah, (when YHVH allows that to happen) it will bring more people to a knowledge of salvation, that proves that the Almighty can trust you to stay faithful during trials, and so can use you to bring good to many, and you can be glad about that.

Answer 7

I know that no one wants to hear this and will completely rip on me, but have you ever heard the term, the more you suffer the more you really care. I think that is what God wants in us. It might not be the actual act of suffering, but rather the intention to suffer for someone else or for God rather then giving in to your own selfish wants. Just like God gave his Angels a choice to follow Gods commandments out of love or choose their own ways and by doing so were cast out of heaven forever, so is he asking us the same question. We just make that choice over a whole lifetime. This life is a BIG choice to either Love God more or Love ourselves more. Gods choices are not always what we want, but they are best for us. Just like we ask our young children to do things even though they might not want to do it, we usually ask them to do it for a reason that is beneficial to them. When they don't do what we ask but rather what THEY WANT then they get punished. I believe that suffering is a direct result of SIN. Before the original sin, there was NO suffering in Eden. Since then we have had sin and suffering in this world. We all sin everyday no matter who we are or how good we think we are. We can offer up our everyday vices or suffering to God to make up for either our own sins or those around us. If you noticed the one man in all of history who did not have any sin, suffered immeasurably for our sins. He didn't have to, but he did because God asked him to. i.e. The agony in the garden: When Jesus said "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it." Then, a little while later, He said, "If this cup cannot pass by, but I must drink it, your will be done!" I always think of a simple way to explain it. Say you throw a rock through your neighbors window. You have to ask for forgivness for doing the act. Your neighbor (God) will forgive you EVERYTIME, but he still wants you to fix the window. That fixing the window is the suffering that we endure throughout life. If we offer up that suffering to God, then the everyday suffering that we endure can help rather then being waisted. (Also when I say everyday suffering, I'm not just talking about big things like a death or cancer or something like that, I'm also talking about little things like maybe missing that red light when we REALLY wanted to make it, or not eating that extra cookie and saving it for the next person or something like that...)

Answer 8

without human weakness and suffering, we would't need God.

Answer 9

Because the obvious answer is it is all nonsense

Answer 10

it's all a bunch of hogwash