Partakers of His Suffering

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner. – 1 Peter 4:12-13 (Message)

I just wish I didn’t need so much refining.  Maybe if I learned these spiritual lessons quicker and better I wouldn’t constantly be in difficulties.  Obviously I am a poor student.  Although true, I say these things in jest.  God has us where we are, how we are, when we are, and who we are so our faith will grow and/or the faith of others around us will grow (assuming we are actively trying to submit our heart to God and follow Jesus).

Oswald Chambers comments the following regarding our experiencing the sufferings that Christ experienced as referenced in verse 13.

“If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all.  They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others.  

“The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered ‘according to the will of God’ (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours.  It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us.  When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand.  ... God’s way is always the way of suffering— the way of the ‘long road home.’

“Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings?  Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them?  It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding.  Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— ‘God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!’”

Am I ready for God’s grace and power to work in that part of me that wants to be hurt, that deserves to be hurt, that seeks revenge, and that wants to not love?  Am I willing for God to supernaturally transform those natural tendencies into His thoughts, His actions, and His love?  Jesus suffered brutally before He was put on the Cross.  Brutally.  Yet, as He hung there, He prayed to God to forgive them “for they know not what they do”.   And so it is with us.  Those around us are the same.  Am I willing to do as Jesus did and ask God to forgive them?  If I am, it is only through God’s grace and power that I can.  

I must be willing to follow Jesus, otherwise I am dying and not living.  God specifically wants us to live and only in Him is there life.  I pray that we would all be about the Father's business today.  And may we see our suffering in joy, knowing that He has great lessons for us and we are living ever closer to our Savior.