Blessed Happy New Year to each one of you and your loved ones! While I'm not one that makes New Year resolutions, I am impressed of the Lord this 1.1.11 with this exhortation from the Apostle Paul. I pray that you would join me in this declaration and ambition - fueled by the Holy Spirit. "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death...But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus"(Philippians 3:10,13b,14).
We are call to know/be one with Christ in both the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings - often we would like to only share in His resurrection power...But, that is not possible. If we are to experience the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit (who raised Him from the dead, and who lives in us!), then we must also share in the sufferings - the cost of discipleship - the cost of what it is to live in this world but not of this world. When you and I stand up for Christ, or lay down (walk in humility, be humiliated, persecuted, chided, picked-on or picked over) THEN we at the same time will experience the power of Christ within.
Power (of Christ) and Suffering (in /of Christ) go together. And the Power is much greater than the sufferings! We don't choose our own sufferings...the Lord chooses them for us and if He chooses them for us (allows them or orchestrates them) then He WILL give us His Power to endure and triumph in them!
So, as this year unfolds, with it's joys and sorrows, successes and failures, challenges and mountain-tops - please join with me in seeking to know Christ in His fullness - in His resurrection power and in His sufferings - that we would be made mature and complete here and in eternity!
"Lord, let it be, let it be - stir our hearts toward You, and the strength in You to stand with You in all things. Thank You Lord."
Blessings of Joy and Love in Christ to each of you and yours!
Showing posts with label sufferings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sufferings. Show all posts
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Pressing Toward the Goal
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sufferings and Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:5-7
This is such an important part of Scripture - as many of us wonder about the troubles of this life...the why's and wherefore's. We wonder 'how come this is happening to me?" Or, "how come that is happening to them, or in the world?" Many times we will not have a specific answer..perhaps we will in eternity...however I'm thinking we won't have the same questions then. So let's look at a few of these verses individually.
"For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." Paul is telling us that there is a relationship between the sufferings we experience in this life, and the comfort we receive from Christ. We will receive the portion of comfort needed...actually abundantly...to the sufferings. Thank You Lord. Note something else. Paul experienced tremendous, abundant sufferings...for Christ sake. As he preached and taught the Scripture, and followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, and exercised the gift of the Spirit given him (healing, prophecy, wisdom, exhortation, rebuke, teaching etc.) he experienced sufferings. ....What are my sufferings related to? How many of them are related to the cause of Christ?...What about you?
I'm thankful to the Lord because the sufferings I experience here, even if I bring them on myself, through confession,repentance, receiving forgiveness and cleansing...God's comfort abounds. He may not take away the earthly consequences, but He carries me with His grace and mercy and does a Romans 8:28 (look it up if you aren't familiar:)).
"If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer." Wow, Paul as minister of Jesus, states his distress is for believers he is ministering to. His distress is used for their comfort because he shares the same comfort he receives from God, with them when they are distressed. He also is distressed/persecuted for (Christ sake) them so that they may know the way of salvation! He then states that when they are comforted by God, it helps them endure, with patience, their trials - their sharings of the sufferings that Paul suffers. Brothers and Sisters - and so it is with you and me. We experience distress in walking with and ministering in Jesus, we experience comfort from the Lord in the distress, we pass that on to others, and we are helped to endure with patience, sufferings of this life. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Comforter (the Holy Spirit)!
"And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort." We receive hope which is firm, in this reality! The reality of the relationship between the sufferings for Christ, the sufferings of this life, and the comfort we receive. For ourselves and for others. This is part of what it means to be the Body of Christ, such as we are, the church.
"Thank You Lord. Help us to see with Your eyes, the sufferings and comfort from You of this life. Let us share Your/our sufferings and Comfort, producing patient endurance for this life on earth....and for what awaits us in Glory!"
This is such an important part of Scripture - as many of us wonder about the troubles of this life...the why's and wherefore's. We wonder 'how come this is happening to me?" Or, "how come that is happening to them, or in the world?" Many times we will not have a specific answer..perhaps we will in eternity...however I'm thinking we won't have the same questions then. So let's look at a few of these verses individually.
"For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." Paul is telling us that there is a relationship between the sufferings we experience in this life, and the comfort we receive from Christ. We will receive the portion of comfort needed...actually abundantly...to the sufferings. Thank You Lord. Note something else. Paul experienced tremendous, abundant sufferings...for Christ sake. As he preached and taught the Scripture, and followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, and exercised the gift of the Spirit given him (healing, prophecy, wisdom, exhortation, rebuke, teaching etc.) he experienced sufferings. ....What are my sufferings related to? How many of them are related to the cause of Christ?...What about you?
I'm thankful to the Lord because the sufferings I experience here, even if I bring them on myself, through confession,repentance, receiving forgiveness and cleansing...God's comfort abounds. He may not take away the earthly consequences, but He carries me with His grace and mercy and does a Romans 8:28 (look it up if you aren't familiar:)).
"If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer." Wow, Paul as minister of Jesus, states his distress is for believers he is ministering to. His distress is used for their comfort because he shares the same comfort he receives from God, with them when they are distressed. He also is distressed/persecuted for (Christ sake) them so that they may know the way of salvation! He then states that when they are comforted by God, it helps them endure, with patience, their trials - their sharings of the sufferings that Paul suffers. Brothers and Sisters - and so it is with you and me. We experience distress in walking with and ministering in Jesus, we experience comfort from the Lord in the distress, we pass that on to others, and we are helped to endure with patience, sufferings of this life. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Comforter (the Holy Spirit)!
"And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort." We receive hope which is firm, in this reality! The reality of the relationship between the sufferings for Christ, the sufferings of this life, and the comfort we receive. For ourselves and for others. This is part of what it means to be the Body of Christ, such as we are, the church.
"Thank You Lord. Help us to see with Your eyes, the sufferings and comfort from You of this life. Let us share Your/our sufferings and Comfort, producing patient endurance for this life on earth....and for what awaits us in Glory!"
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