For the record, no one ever posts 1 Peter 4:12 as a sign for their church growth campaign! Rejoice in your fiery trials! The church has been avoiding that message for some years now. We try and keep suffering at an arm's length, for understandable reasons!
But suffering is a part of life. And if your faith doesn't prepare you for suffering, then I believe the church has done individuals a disservice. If we believe that a comfortable life is evidence of God's favor, then suffering shatters that illusion and leaves us in pieces, which is a shame, because we're all going to suffer at some point.
But if our faith points out that suffering is a part of life, and that God loves us enough to enter into our world and suffer on our behalf, that's something different entirely. Then suffering isn't a sign of God's displeasure. Suffering is simply the remains of something that is wrong with life, but that God is trying to set right!
Jesus lived the perfect life, and he suffered more than anyone else has ever suffered. So we can't say that we don't deserve suffering. But we can say that suffering is not the end of us, because of the suffering that Christ did on our behalf. In that, we can rejoice!
No comments:
Post a Comment