“But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” - 1 Peter 4:15-16 (ESV)
Suffering is not in itself all that great. Most of the time, we suffer because of our own disobedience (of the law), foolishness, recklessness, or carelessness due to ignorance. If we end up busting rocks in a chain gang due to violating the law of the land, we can not expect a blessing for the suffering that comes our way. We should not take comfort in suffering that we bring on ourselves for sinning, in contrast to suffering that we experience "as a Christian," because we take a stand with Jesus Christ. In our verse of promise yesterday, we learned that being insulted or rejected by society is the suffering that brings the glory of God upon us and we are blessed in the midst of what we are suffering. Kicked out, banned, fired, turned away, not counted, ignored, branded, and seeing your witness and testimony posts on social media taken down. These and others are ways we suffer for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The world hates God and hates the name of Jesus even more. If we carry that name, we will suffer and we are promised that we can glorify God in that way.
-197-
No comments:
Post a Comment
We do appreciate your honest comments, thank you. However we do not permit links or sales offer pitches of any kind in the comments. Comments with links and offers will not be approved and will be removed. Thank you.