We're admonished to actively engage our suffering. It's natural to become upset or angry when suffering strikes. This can turn to a bitterness toward God and create a barrier to Him. If tolerated, the believer can end up just stoically going through life thinking that they are enduring, while all they are doing is enduring the Holy Spirit! This bitterness needs to be confessed and repented of immediately.
Dealing directly with our suffering requires a degree of discernment. Is our hardship coming from the devil or from God (yes, there are several references throughout the scriptures that convey the fact that God can afflict His children!)? Here are a couple of ways to test those experiences: 1) if there is a sense of condemnation, it's an attack from the devil, and 2) if it's an overwhelming burden of sin, inability, or sense of personal failure, I believe that it comes from God. How we respond makes all of the difference. It's not only a waste to simply enduring the ordeal, but if we slip into a state of self-pity, that is also a sign of the flesh and needs to be STOPPED. The correct way to respond is to cry out to God (or rebuke the enemy in the name of Jesus, if it's determined to be an attack from the devil...I'll share more about doing battle with the powers and principalities in a later post).
thlipsis- suffering, pressure, affliction, distress of mind due to circumstances.
ekxew-(perfect, passive, indicative), "has been poured out", gushed out, greedily poured out.
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