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SUFFER FOR HIS SAKE
SATURDAY, JULY 9
Philippians 1:29

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

 

“With my whole heart

have I sought thee…”

 

SUFFER FOR HIS SAKE
 
The child of God is often called to suffer, because nothing will convince onlookers of the reality and power of true religion as suffering will, when it is borne with Christian fortitude. And how great the compensations are! God can keep us in such perfect peace. He can make lonely times, when it seems no one is near, so full of sweet fellowship and communion. He can give refreshment to the spirit when the body is deprived of sleep.
 
Not everyone can be trusted with suffering. Some cannot stand the fiery ordeal. They would speak rashly and complainingly. So, the Master has to select with careful scrutiny the branches which can stand the knife; the jewels which can bear the wheel. It is given to some to preach, to others to work, but to others to suffer. Accept it as a gift from His hand. Look up and take each throb of pain, each hour of agony, as God’s gift. Dare to thank Him for it. Look inside the envelope of pain for the message it enfolds. It is a rough packing-case, but there is treasure in it.
 
And can you not minister to other sufferers? Can you not write letters of comfort, or pray for them, or devise little alleviations and surprises for those who have not what you have? Suffering is on Christ’s behalf; it must, then, be intended as part of that great ministry for the world in which He, with His saints, is engaged. There is a sense in which all suffering, borne in the spirit of Calvary, helps men, not in the way of atonement or propitiation, of course, but by the exhibition of the power of God’s grace in the sufferer.
(F.B. Meyer)
 
THOUGHT: Is my suffering a gift from God?
PRAYER: Father, may I see Thy loving Hand even as it sends pain, difficulties and calamities.

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