As God continues to reveal His gospel to me (despite my stubbornness surely making it more difficult than it should be), I am becoming more and more aware of a fundamental truth in my life: I am not living a life which patterns that of Christ. I find throughout the bible that all of God's people MUST endure suffering in order to be brought into fellowship with Christ. Abraham had to wait until 100 years old to see his promised heir. David was an outcast from his kingdom for years. Moses was ostracised from his people for forty years. Paul's sufferings for the gospel are the road-map guiding his ministry. The path to salvation is not paved with earthly blessings, for that is not what Christ experienced. The path is one of suffering, trial, and mercifully-bestowed faith. The path leads to Calvary!
What does this mean for the life of a child of God? What does it mean for my life? If I am living a relatively comfortable, stress free life (as I would say is the case), where do I go from there? It is easy in 21st century America to be distracted from the gospel by our lifestyle. I struggle with it EVERY SINGLE DAY! As Paul describes in Romans 7, I am torn between what I know I should do, and what my sinful flesh desires to do. Sin is an amazingly powerful force, is it not? The deception of comfort having its origin in "being a blessing from God" is seductive. God is not interested in our personal comfort, but only in our OBEDIENCE! Obedience comes from a place where we need God, and we need God in the "dark" times of our life. He promises never to give us more than we can handle, but He also promises that none come to the cross save through suffering.
That said, my prayer, as ridiculous as it my sound to some, is that God grant me the privilege of following Jesus to the cross; to be allowed as God's will dictates to suffer for the gospel, trusting only in the promises of God to come out the other side; to be able to emulate Christ's life and ministry. How will that look? I have no idea, but I know it is necessary to be one of the elect of God.
2 comments:
Hey Josh, do you think it is as much about suffering, or could it be more of a calling to quit playing it safe. If you look at David through the Psalms, he never asked to suffer. He just refused to play it safe and take the easy way out. Moses never asked to suffer, he just refused to quit risking everything for God until he took the easy way out and hit the rock. Paul was the same. It wasn't the suffering that drew him closer to God, it was the risk he lived by every day that drew him so close to God. The suffering was just a consequence of the lifestyle. I would say before you pray for suffering, pray some risks and see what happens. Just my thoughts, what do you think?
Yeah, it all goes back to the same idea, which is not being afraid to live the life God puts before you, even if it isn't comfortable or easy. I think it's essential to a full understanding of the Gospel to recognize that we are drawn closer to Christ when we go through the trials Christ went through, and being prepared and strengthened by the scriptures for those times is what God calls His people to do.
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