The 5 P's of Discipline and Suffering

Reaching for words to comfort our girls facing really tough times far far away, Jack and I came up with the 5 P’s of suffering. The Scriptures speak for themselves:

• Suffering is not Permanent: trials come and go, even though when we are in the middle of them, it feels like they mostly just come. “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, …. Later on, however…” Heb 12:11 promises there will be a later on..when these tough times are behind us. “Blessed is the one you discipline, LORD, .. you grant them relief from days of trouble.” Psalm 94:12
• Suffering is Painful: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful”. Heb 12:11 ”Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death”. Psalm 94:17
• Suffering is Purposeful: “but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness”. Heb 12:10 and “when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold”. Job 23:10
• Suffering Produces fruit: “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful”. John 15:2, and ”discipline produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it”.
• Suffering brings Jesus Praise: “These trials have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”. I Peter 1:7