Sharing in His Suffering

CALL TO PRAYER

 Title: Sharing in His Suffering

By:  Daniel Peter

Date: 11.04.2022

 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. 

(Romans 8:17 NLT)

 The early disciples knew something about the life of glory that the Church of today needs to learn. Suffering for the sake of Christ was something the early disciples did with rejoicing. Their rejoicing was not necessarily because of the pleasantness of suffering, but an awareness of its rewards.

 God has destined every one of His children for glory, for the scripture says, “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Rom. 8:30). The way to this glory was modelled by our Lord, who needed to endure a painful death at the cross, which was an end to a life filled with persecution. But we see how at the end of it, He was elevated by the Father to His right-hand side (Phil. 2:9), a place of glory. That is, Jesus Christ endured suffering before He was glorified.

 The understanding existing in some parts of the body of Christ about the sufferings Jesus Christ endured is that it was a sacrifice for us. That is, He did so in order that we do not have to go through the same thing. Despite this sounds true, especially when considering some of the benefits of His sufferings from scriptures like “by whose stripes (what He suffered) ye have been healed (1 Peter 2:24)” and “… for your sake he became poor (what He suffered) so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9)” etc., yet, it is not the whole (the complete) truth, for His sufferings and His victory over the trials was also to give us the empowerment to be able to endure the same thing (Heb. 121-3, 1Pe. 2:21). However, this suffering is only permitted for a while (1 Pe. 5:10)

 This is the reason scriptures admonished us to follow the example of Jesus Christ (1Pe. 2:21), for the same way He was persecuted, we will be persecuted. Again, we may have to experience things contrary to our redemption benefits like Apostle Paul, who was tormented by a messenger of satan (2 Cor. 12:7), or like Epaphroditus who almost died from sickness (Phil.2:27–28) etc. But setting our eyes on the glory ahead (Heb. 12:2), and entrusting ourselves to Him (1Pe. 2:23), the trials will pass and the life of glory will appear. And like Apostle Paul, we can boast about our weaknesses, so that Christ’s power (the glory) may rest on us (2Cor. 12:9)

 Prayer Point:

 Let’s thank God for His word today. Let us also ask Him to help us to keep a positive attitude during trials, so that we can partake in the glory that comes after trials.

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