Word for Today, Wed, 5 Nov 2003: Partakers of His Suffering
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
This particular message is not directly targeted to Christians
who are relatively new in the faith, nor is it targeted at those
who are curious or seeking. Today's message is intended
primarily for those who already believe and who earnestly desire
to be used by God in whatever tasks they are given to do. If
you're not quite there, but you'd like to be, perhaps this
message will be useful, if for nothing else than to ponder the
question, "What am I here for?"
For those who'd really like that question answered, perhaps this
message is for you, too. My friends, I can tell you that when
things don't go the way I like them to go, my first inclination
is to belly ache or complain about this or that not going "right"
- which simply and bluntly means that I didn't get my way. After
I'm done pouting, I finally start looking at God's purpose,
realizing that God has a plan for my life. Do you think that God
has a plan for you? Perhaps an appropriate thing for you and me
to do is to look for God's hand in everything that happens in our
life. When things don't go our way, how is God working them out
in our lives? Is He changing us in any way? Are we accepting
the changes, or are we balking at them? Is God moving us in a
different direction? Are we with Him or are we resisting Him?
Yours in Christ,
Brian
November 5
Partakers of His Suffering
. . . but rejoice to the extent that you partake of
Christ's sufferings... --1 Peter 4:13
If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a
number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at
all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to
enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of
others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by
what comes your way. You say, "Oh, I can't deal with that
person." Why can't you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to
learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not
heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time
that way.
The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He
suffered "according to the will of God" ( 1 Peter 4:19 ), having
a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only
through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can
understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it
comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want
to know God's purpose beforehand. In the history of the
Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being
identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have
sought to carry out God's orders through a shortcut of their
own. God's way is always the way of suffering--the way of the
"long road home."
Are we partakers of Christ's sufferings? Are we prepared for God
to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to
destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming
them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way,
because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never
realize at the time what God is putting us through--we go
through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we
come to a place of enlightenment, and realize--"God has
strengthened me and I didn't even know it!"
Oswald Chambers was born in Scotland and spent much of his
boyhood there. His ministry of teaching and preaching took him
for a time to the United States and Japan. The last six years of
his life were spent as principal of the Bible Training College
in London, and as a chaplain to the British Commonwealth troops
in Egypt during World War I. After his death, the books which
bear his name were compiled by his wife from her own verbatim
shorthand notes of his talks.
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/
=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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