Suffering...a road to blessing?

On a recent post I said that I don't desire suffering. Honestly, I don't. However, there are beautiful things that I believe only come through it. Through suffering, I have gotten to know my Savior, my Healer, in ways I wouldn't otherwise. God has done deep things in my soul that wouldn't have been accomplished any other way.

Butterfly resting on SweetHeart's hand

Do I dare call suffering...a road to blessing? It doesn't mean that I desire it any more than I desire to go through the labor pains of child birth. But I do desire the life that is brought about through it, because of Him. And He always heals.

I don't have to seek out suffering, but I don't need to be afraid of it, or avoid it at all costs.

I read this today in "My Utmost for His Highest" (one of my favorite devotionals):

"As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires. If we try to evade sorrow, refusing to deal with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life, and there is no use in saying it should not be. Sin, sorrow, and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them. Sorrow removes a great deal of a person's shallowness, but it does not always make that person better. Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me...
If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people."

I know I'm reiterating things from previous posts, but I need to remind myself of things over and over! I hope that if you are reading this in the midst of suffering, that you will look to Jesus...that you're suffering may not be in vain! May you grow in greater intimacy with Him, and be transformed.