Experience Encourages

“For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested.” (Hebrews 2:18 CSB)

Experience is a great teacher. We, therefore, seek experience so that we can learn, so that we can deal with tasks as they come, and so that we can teach others what we have learned.

Some experiences we would prefer not to have, though. The experiences that involve suffering and pain, or those that lead to extreme distress, are the ones we would rather not go through. Who wants pain? And yet, such experiences are there, and we all go through them from time to time. Certainly, we wonder why we have to.

Though this is far from a complete answer, at least one of the results of the suffering or testing we experience is that they have a way of making us stronger, and the difficulties that we encounter enable us to then become encouragers of others who go through similar experiences.

In the Philippines there were two young teenagers who both contracted the same virus. It put them both in wheelchairs. The mother of one of the boys essentially had to become his servant and did everything for him. The mother of the other boy, however, did passive exercises for her son every day, and eventually forced him to do his own exercises. The first boy is still in a wheelchair. The second boy got stronger and stronger, little by little, and was able to get rid of his wheelchair.

Not all stories turn out quite that way, of course, but it does illustrate that the suffering and testing that we experience can serve a higher purpose if we will let it.

Jesus went through testing and temptation and suffering beyond everything any of us have encountered. Now, he is able to help us because of what He went through. Thus His experiences encourage us, and ours can encourage others as well.

Father, Today may the difficulties, problems, testings, and sufferings that we may have been through enable us to encourage someone else. Amen.