Sufferings

From the least of these to the greatest, they can never be called Friend.  Sufferings go all the way back to the beginning, with the first progenitors of the human race.  It appears that while God spoke to us on that day, we did not listen.  Consequently, we were driven from Paradise.  It couldn’t have been very long afterward that the man and the woman became acquainted with sufferings.  But fortunately for us, our God is a God of great grace, not to mention plentiful mercies.  Through these He has made it so that we would learn from our sins and our evils and all of our wrongdoings.  He beckons us to come to Him still today – to be washed of Him; yes and to be forever changed.  And is there now any more need for Him to allow sufferings to come our way?  While we are still bound to this earth, there will always be a need for trials and testings to come into our lives; it is through them that we grow wise and we grow strong.

It is always a good idea to see what the scriptures have to say about its subject matters.  When it comes to the topic of suffering, there is no shortage of verses.  Philippians 3:10 says a powerful lot – and in only a single verse.  It reads, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Every believer most certainly should want to come to know the Son of God – and to know Him more and more with the passing of time.  Shame on us if this is not the case.  And believe it or not, to know Him in His sufferings will be to know Him more intimately than if we came to know Him in resurrection form only.  Why is this?  It is because when people suffer together, they then become more bound to one another.  It is the way of soldiers, who together fight side by side with their brothers, so that their freedom may not be taken from them.  In the years to come they remember one another – both the living and the slain.  What once bound them together will never be taken from them.

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;” And so, in the depths of our hearts, have we chosen to be crucified with Christ?  Have we chosen to die to our earthly man, so that we may cling to the nail pierced Son of God – He who has been lifted up from this world?  He bids us come – that we may die to self and embrace Him only.  And so, have we now broken free from ourselves and the ways of this world?  Have we found in Him a resting place – so wonderful a place so that our sufferings no longer grip us as they once did?

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”  Do you know what the believer’s problem is with this verse?  They are attracted to the resurrection side of it, while hardly, if at all, to the crucifixion.  The bad news for the one whose thoughts are only on what the resurrection offers is this.  There is no way that such a one can live out resurrection life before spiritually hungry people, without first going by way of the cross.  Every time, and without fail, will trials and testings and troubles and heartaches precede the life that is from   above – the life that our God longs to shower upon us.  Even as our blessed Lord once told us, “I have come to give you Life, and that abundantly.”  We only must remember that the life that He spoke of to us, most assuredly needs to begin with death.  Always does crucifixion go before resurrection.

Hear Romans 8: 16-17.  “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”  Listen to Paul in Galatians 2:20.  “ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. . .”  I don’t know about you, but I somehow get the impression that not only didn’t Paul look for escapee from the crucified life, but instead felt honored to be called to our beloved Saviour’s cross. 

What does it read in Matthew 10 : 38?  And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”  In other words, Jesus is our Captain, and we are on His team.  He desires to know us.  How so?  He longs to know us in the fellowship of His sufferings.  It is then that He knocks on the door of our hearts.  He wants to be let in.  This is so that He may meet with us and give us hope and comfort, peace and rest, in the midst of our storm.

There are many in the church who will tell you that as believers, we should not have to suffer.  We simply need to walk in faith and break suffering’s stronghold.  No one had more faith than the apostle Paul.  Ironic, that he had suffered more than all.

J. Pecoraro