Suffering for a Cause

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

1 Peter 4:12‭-‬13 KJV

It's amazing the things that God can and will reveal to you during prayer. After our church prayer meeting last night, the Lord dropped this little nugget on me and today I fully understood EXACTLY what it means.

We all have suffered. We've all had our faith tried. We've all gone through trials. The question is, have we all allowed those fiery trials to refine us? Have we resisted them or have we accepted the trial as an opportunity to grow in faith? Have we really gotten honest with God and asked him what HE wanted us to learn from it? Or have we escaped prematurely before God ever had the chance to work on our hearts?

The suffering that Jesus faced was NOT for naught. It was NOT so that we could live this life in a care free comfort zone. It was NOT so that we could just coast through our walk with him and never have to face hardships. Jesus suffered so that WE could have the absolute freedom to KNOW him. I mean REALLY know him. To know his character, to know his ways, to know his LOVE for us.

There's one part that we sometimes don't fully grasp though. In order to truly be CHRIST-LIKE, we also have to know him in his pain and suffering. That's the hard part. That's the part we resist. That's the part we try to escape. That's the part we feel sorry for ourselves about. That's the part we think we shouldn't have to go through. Honestly, how could we ever KNOW him, if we never faced hardships?

To suffer is to be even more so like Jesus. To feel pain, is to feel how he felt. To be betrayed, is to walk in his shoes. To be lied on, is to experience just a moment of what he faced. To be in agony, is to share in what he faced going up Golgotha's hill. To invest in someone or something and then have it thrown back in your face, is to feel what he felt when the crowds screamed "crucify him!"

Think it not strange. Don't be surprised. Don't feel sorry for yourself. Don't resist it. This is what it takes. Yes it hurts at times, but if we TRULY want to be like Jesus, we will go through pain and suffering. We should consider it an honor to KNOW him in his pain and to KNOW him in his suffering. To FEEL the agony he felt. And JUST LIKE HIM, we can't RISE without first DYING to our sinful flesh.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Philippians 3:7‭-‬10 KJV