"NO COMPARISION"

"I consider that our sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 

Romans 8:18(KJV) 

  Cancer! Heart-attack! Bankruptcy! Unrelated items have in common? They all identify suffering of one kind or another. We see these suffering all around us. Friends, relatives and even we ourselves may have experience them in our lives.

  The Apostle Paul was well acquainted with sufferings. He tells us, "Five times i received from the Jews forty lashes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was ship wrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea." Yet in spite of all these problems, Paul was not discourage or fed up with life. He looked beyond his present situation. to the glories which would be his in heaven. For Pau there was no comparision between his present suffering and his future glory. All the pain,grief and heartaches of ths life were quickly replaced as Paul though of sharing in Christ's glory in heaven.

  Is our life much different from Paul's? We may suffer under different circumstances than Oaul did. Nevertheless, suffering and grief in varying degree have affected all of us. We cannot escape it in this life. The cause of all suffering, sin, is as much a part of our world tiday as it was of Paul's world. Ever since the fall of man into sin, sufferinghas been an ever present part of man's life. At times though it receives too much attention. We rob oursekves of the joy which is ours by faith in Christ.

  While sin has brought suffering into this world, Christ has made us heirs of a glorious inheritance in heaven. Through faith we have become the children of God. Just preceding our verse St. Paul reminds us that "we are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his suffering in order that we may also share in his glory." To share in Christ's glory is beyond description. Everything that we consider beautiful and glorious today is still infected with sin. How much more beautiful and glorious eternity is, we shall simply have to wait and see.

  Apostle John described some of the beauty of that eternal glory when he wrote, "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." There's no comparision! As we endure the suffering of this life? Let us look forward to future glory in Christ