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Even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t be afraid and don’t worry. 1 Peter 3:14

It is easy to peddle a gospel of “happy ever after,” but in suffering we discern who we are and what we are made of:

• Suffering connects our hearts to Christ’s. “But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:20-21, NIV)
• Suffering purifies and forges our faith. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7, NIV)
• Suffering is used by God to put his glory on display. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14, NIV)
• Suffering builds intimacy into our relationship with God. “But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction.” (Job 36:15, NIV)

On those “bad days,” think of the payoffs: a closer God connection, a more pure faith, a life that puts God on display, and a God who will speak to me in my affliction.