Suffering

Verse: Philippians 3:10-11 GNB
10 All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings and become like Him in death, 11 in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.

Devotion
Well isn’t that a cheery set of verses!? All I want to do is experience the power of resurrection (does this involve crucifixion? If so, I’m out!) and then share in some suffering, and be like Jesus in death, and then I can be raised from death to life. It took me some time with these verses to even start to form this devotional (and then if I’m honest, I totally rewrote it!) – I was really hoping for something easier this time, I mean my last one was on obedience, and now I’m dealing with suffering and death… 😊.

So, suffering – I don’t think God is asking us to intentionally walk into situations that are bad for us and suffer that way, but when we choose to follow God, He doesn’t promise us an easy road that is all green lights and no slow drivers. In fact, He promises suffering and hardship (sign me up, right?!). When we choose to follow His path there will be hard things for us to do, but the promise that follows that is that He will always be with us, and the best part is that we aren’t asked to do any of this by ourselves. We aren’t called to be strong enough, good enough, kind enough, forgiving enough, faithful enough, or anything enough without God. All of this suffering is intended to be done with God as our support, as our biggest cheerleader and coach all at the same time. When God calls us to do something, even when it is hard, even when we feel unequipped to do it or it will cause us to walk through hard times, He is committed to walk through all of it with us.

So, a fun story here, I have chronic migraines, and I’ve had them since I was 12. I’ve been to all the doctors, had all the prayer, and taken all of the medications and shots, but my body has its own idea on how it will function. I also have been a leader with our youth for quite a number of years, going to events near and far. These trips are hard for me and have a cost, I oftentimes will get a migraine while I’m there, at least one of the days, sometimes multiple, and not because of anything bad, just because that is how my body deals with good stress and bad. So before one retreat Christian and I were talking about adult drivers and I said I was willing, but I would need a designated back up in case I was unable to drive with a bad migraine. And I guess in all of our years working together, I hadn’t explained that they happen even when the excitement (stress) is good. He looked at me and said, “If you know that going in, why do you continue to do this every year?” And my response was simple, “This is what God has for me.” For me it really is that simple in the case of our teens, God’s place for me in youth ministry is clear, and I know the personal cost of each trip and I go and gladly pay it because the value of each kid and interaction that I have whether in our church or another is well worth the discomfort in my head.

Paul is asking to be part of Jesus’s sufferings so he can become like Him in death. Paul isn’t asking to be martyred, but asking for the lessons of hardship to teach him what Jesus knew. In death as in life, Jesus was perfect, something we can’t attain here on earth, but in being raised from death to life, Paul is asking for those lessons to be a part of him and change his heart and be closer to Jesus’s perfection. Each time I choose to put myself behind what God has asked me to do, even when there is a cost – and there almost always is – time, money, energy, pain, emotional output, there are good things that happen and I grow. When things are easy, it’s nice, but there isn’t much space to learn and continue to rely on God for things that are outside of our abilities. Is God asking a lot of you right now? Do you feel like you are suffering and are overwhelmed? I feel like today is a great time to ask God into your situation and give Him permission to partner with you in what He’s called you to.

Prayer
Father God, I pray right now for all of us who are feeling overwhelmed by our circumstances, and feel like the hardships are too much to bear right now. Lord, I thank you that You are so willing to come into those places and join with us, taking the weight and giving us grace, peace, hope, energy, wisdom, faith, patience, healing, and whatever else is needed to continue to press on.

Author: Candice Gifford