God does not send suffering upon us, He calls us and sends us into suffering equipped with His life. (From AELM ADT Manual)
Paul had strong flesh. The verses below will show you God breaking his self strength so that he relied completely on Christ.
Philippians 3:4-8, 10 –
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish so that I may gain Christ. Verse 10 That I may know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to his death.
II Corinthians 1:8 – For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction, which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life, indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He of whom we set our hopes. And He will yet deliver us.
II Corinthians 3:1,3 – Are we beginning to commend ourselves? …such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.
So will we experience brokenness?
I Peter 4:12-13 – Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes among you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you, but to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exultation.
Philippians 1:29 – For to you it has been granted for Christ sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
I Peter 2: 21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.
Hebrews 5:8 – Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.
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