Today In The WORD
Joyful suffering!
Verse for Today: Friday, June 15, 2012
2 Corinthians 1:5 – For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
God’s children who are called into His fellowship are partakers of all His blessings in the heavenly places even while they live on earth. As they fellowship with the Triune God in the heavenly experience here on earth, they also openly declare their allegiance to the Lord Jesus. They make use of every opportunity to live for the Lord Jesus on His pathway which is the way of the cross. Life with Jesus here on earth begins with a wicket gate and is followed with treading the narrow way carrying the cross. The cross that we carry is the embodiment of shame, despising, ridicule, loss and rejection which the world sends our way. We carry the cross to follow the Lord Jesus and declare that we are willing to be crucified with Christ in every walk of our lives. We confess our willingness to suffer for the Lord Jesus and thus allow these sufferings to be the test of our love to Him who demonstrated His love for us on the cross. This is the fellowship of sufferings that we are called upon to go through. We are not to loose our joy as we suffer and are to praise God for each moment of suffering that we pass through. It is suffering for righteous living. It is suffering because we openly testify to the cause of Christ and stand for truth and justice. It is suffering because we keep the principles of the Word of God each day of our lives. When we take such a stand for Jesus, the enemy of our souls will put trouble on our way to frustrate us away from following Jesus. The more zealous we are for Jesus, the greater will be the persecution and sufferings we will experience. As these sufferings increase, there will be abundance of comfort and joy flowing into our souls from our Lord to strengthen us. The more the sufferings, the greater will be the comfort from the Word and the Spirit of God. The comforts of the Lord are renewed every day in abundant measure to compensate for every suffering that comes our way. When sufferings flow into us, comforts come to fill us to overflowing so that we can comfort others who go through sufferings.
Dear reader, are you going through physical, social and emotional pressure because of your faith in the Lord Jesus? Is there increased pressure day after day and is the heat rising moment by moment? Each moment of your sufferings for the Lord Jesus is your privilege to share in the fellowship of His sufferings. It is your way to respond to the persecution He suffered for you on the cross. He had no one to sympathize with Him and all His dear ones deserted Him. He was rejected and despised beyond measure. If you are experiencing such persecution, poverty, deprivation, ridicule and despising, it is your way of sharing in His suffering though His sufferings are far beyond what any human mind can understand. When you suffer for His cause, He will fill your heart with His grace, patience, strength, peace and joy to take it all with praise. In fact, the Lord will fill you with His comfort which will multiply in your heart as you share it with others who need to be comforted. When you share your God-given comfort with others, it multiplies in geometrical proportion and their pain and misery downsized. Your comfort will spread around those who suffer so that they will have songs in the night and sacrifices of praise on their lips. Your heart will thus be the source of rivers of comfort which will flow to the parched and painful lives of others and make it fertile ground for the fruit of the Spirit for the sake of others to whom they will be able to minister unto. Let us today seek God’s comfort and allow it to fill our hearts as we are filled with His Spirit. Let this comfort govern our hearts and minds and give us rest in the Lord Jesus each day of our lives as we suffer for Him.
1 Peter 4:13 – But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.
Thought for Today
When the world grumbles at sufferings, the child of God sings comforting songs to praise God for it.
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