Fellowship of His Suffering
We’re all on a journey to intimacy with our Lord Jesus Christ. As men of God, our heart’s desire is to become just like our master. When we answered his call to salvation, we received his righteousness for Jesus Christ who was without sin became the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. According to Romans 8, “who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? ….Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Therefore, according to Psalm 134, BEHOLD, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD. 2. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD. 3. The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.”
Most people pray for God’s blessings. As a loving Heavenly Father, he is delighted when we approach his throne of grace…he has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The greater blessing is not when we ask him to bless us but rather when we bless the Blessor. Only because of His love can we bless the Lord in return. Therefore bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name!
The world will tell us that suffering, trial and pain are a cursing and not a blessing. However, Philippians 3 says, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death…”
Paul wrote these words from a Roman prison. According to Philippians 1:29, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;”. James 1 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
According to 2 Timothy 3:16, correction is God’s way of restoring us to an upright position. Therefore by His correction through trials we will know the meaning of patience. Through patience, we will understand God’s character. Billy Graham wrote a book called “Peace With God.” When Pete read about the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22 as a young Christian, he began to understand the meaning of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control. It’s one thing to read these words, it’s another to understand these things through the fellowship of his sufferings.
Pete was playing triple A ball for the Detroit Tigers when they summoned him to the managers’ office. They said, “we’ve sold you to another team. While sitting on the bench with his new team Pete was called up to pinch hit. He thought that this would be a good opportunity to get a hit and move up to the starting lineup. The Red’s pitcher struck him out. That night Pete was reading from Hebrews 12. The Lord disciplines every child he loves. God said to Pete, “you know how to be an all star, but you don’t know how to sit on the bench, cheer for the guy ahead of you to encourage him and to cheer for his success. You’ll learn humility by sitting on the bench. On the bench, I’ll build my character in you.”
A man of God is built through the trials and tribulations of life. Oswald Chambers’ devotional “My Utmost for His Highest” is about deep water Christianity. He is our life preserver in the deep water. On November 1, the devotional is from 1 Corinthians 6:19 that says, “Ye are not your own.” God will break up the private lives of his saints and will make them a thoroughfare for the world to tread upon. As the apostle Paul said, we are God’s epistles, his love letters known and read of all men.
The testing of our faith works patience according to Romans 5. No human can stand being a thoroughfare for the world unless his strength is in his Lord Jesus Christ. According to Bonhoeffer, when Jesus bids us come, he bids us come and die. We must die to self in order to live for him.
When Suzan’s brain cancer was discovered, God said to Pete and Suzan, either this trial will be the greatest tragedy of your lives or this will be your finest hour. Through the trials of life, He will teach us that as Suzan said, “Joy is not the absence of pain. Rather, joy is the presence of the Lord.”
When things happen over which we have no control, we can either be a hinderance and a clog in God’s redemptive plan or we can be a part of his plan to redeem His people as ambassadors of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God gives us a choice through trials to listen to the voice of the adversary or to trust in him. When Pete and Suzan lost their infant son shortly after birth, a pastor friend called Pete and asked, “Are you living in the joy of the Lord.”
Oswald Chambers says that during times of trial and tribulation, he will reach down to us with the grip of his son’s nailed pierced hands. He’ll say, “come unto me, Arise and shine. Thank God for breaking our hearts for what breaks his.” The question is, “are we more interested in our own comfort or in the furtherance of the gospel?”
Therefore thank God for molding us and making us after his will. When we’re gracefully broken, He’ll pick up the treads of our broken hearts and weave them together again. When we’re tested and tried, we will be approved of God. As Paul said, I press toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus… And when I have finished my course, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness that he has reserved for all who love his appearing.
Through the fellowship of His suffering, may we rise and shine, that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
MIchael