I was greatly encouraged this week by reading about the suffering and death of others! That sounds a strange thing to say but its true, my heart was lifted to new joy and my mind gained great peace from reading about those who followed Jesus and were criticised and condemned as a result - even at the cost of their lives.

The Scriptures teach us that suffering will come to our lives if we truly are following God’s will and doing what is right in His sight. The disciples all experienced suffering, of one kind or another, because they were doing exactly what God wanted them to do: which was preaching the gospel and following Jesus. Although some of us may have failed in life to achieve the accolades of the world, we can succeed in becoming qualified to suffer for Jesus.

Living the Christian life is no easy thing. The world dismisses you as being an inadequate person, who is probably feeble minded and of weak disposition and therefore in need of a crutch like Christianity.  Satan will oppose your every step as you endeavour to achieve God’s will for your own life and encourage others to do likewise with theirs. It is even highly likely that fellow Christians, in supposedly an attempt to help, will cause you to suffer as they say or do things that result in you becoming hurt in some way.

When we read the Scriptures we soon learn that suffering is the intended path of the Godly. It refines the soul, digging deep into the recesses of the human heart and removing the dross of indifference, impurity, deception, maliciousness, selfishness, hard heartedness, jealousy….and replaces them with qualities of righteousness, holiness, purity, peace, maturity…. Those who have been tried by suffering gradually begin to realise that our suffering can actually benefit us, and work toward a greater fulfilment of God’s will in our lives.

Jesus said these encouraging words about suffering in Matthew 5:10-11 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Those words certainly put a new light on suffering - we should rejoice if we are considered worthy to suffer for the Name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, and sat down at the right hand of the Father.

May you suffer much for His Name for it is the true path to Christ-likeness.