We Get to be Co-Sufferers
Though I count it a great privilege to pray for the many needs that are sent my way via email or other means, there are times I feel overwhelmed at the magnitude of suffering endured by my fellow believers around the globe. The old saying that the devil never takes a vacation is certainly true, and yet.
Dare I suggest that sometimes suffering can be a positive thing? I don’t wish it on anyone, of course, and when I hear of it, I pray for the relief of all involved. Still, didn’t Jesus suffer—more than most of us can even imagine, let alone experience? Is there some reason, therefore, that we think we should be spared even a hint of what He so lovingly endured for us?
Philippians 3:10 includes the Apostle Paul’s desire to know (have intimate, life-producing relationship/partnership with) the risen Christ, but also to experience the fellowship with Christ that comes only through suffering. Not only Paul but the other apostles as well considered it a privilege to be counted worthy of suffering for the One who had died for them. The late Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs, felt the same way. He wrote that being a Christian “means to become a co-sufferer with Christ. The more of his pain we are ready to share, the more truth we will receive.”
Interesting. Have you at some point prayed to receive more of God’s truth, to know Jesus (who is the Truth!) better? And are you suffering now? May I suggest that your situation just may be part of God’s answer to your prayer?
I will never make light of anyone’s suffering or fail to pray for relief in the midst of it, but I am also coming to realize that many of the struggles and challenges we face in life aren’t so much attacks of the enemy as they are gifts from a loving God who wants to enable us to know Jesus better and to love Him more through the fellowship of His sufferings.
If this describes where you are today, beloved, know that I am praying for you, but know too that I rejoice that God counts you worthy to suffer for Him, even as He draws you closer to His great heart.
PRAYER: May any mild or major suffering of my day bond me even closer to the One who suffered on my behalf.
“…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,” Philippians 3:10 KJV.
Today’s devotion is by Kathi Macias, award-winning author of nearly 30 books, including Mothers of the Bible Speak to Mothers of Today. She penned the best-selling devotional A Moment a Day and assisted with Zondervan’s New Women’s Devotional Bible. A mother and grandmother, Kathi and her husband, Al, call California home.
