The Sufferings of Christ

Hope (Photo credit: baejaar)

2 Corinthians For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

The more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ.

We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

The miseries which we suffer for Christ, or which Christ suffers in us.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us. Are we called to experience the same sufferings which Christ endured; as we are called to suffer in his cause, and in the promotion of His cause?

Peter says of Christians, that they were “partakers of Christ’s sufferings.”

1st Peter 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Not only does it say that we are partakers, but that we ‘rejoice’ in as much.

All Christ’s followers, each in his own measure, must first suffer with Christ, that they may afterwards be partakers of His glory.   (Romans 8:17 ;  2Timothy 2:12)

Much of the suffering of the Man of Sorrows was due to the refusal of the world to accept his message.  Do you receive His message and believe that he is the Son of the living God?  think about that for a minute… Do you really believe that Jesus is who He claimed that He was and still is?  Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God?

If our God is not God in times of trouble, then He isn’t God at all.

With that thought in mind, could it be that suffering is part of Gods plan to grow us into Jesus-ones and provide us with a hopeful future? (Jeremiah 29:11).

We put huge amounts of energy into avoiding suffering, but God would rather we embrace it. Our objective is to faithfully believe that God will use our suffering to make us more like Jesus. He will heal our hurts and even use them for our benefit. When we finally see Him face to face it will be like looking into a mirror because our transformation’s end,  is to what He created us to be in the first place.  His image!

Many think that when God comforts us, our troubles should go away.  If this were true, people would only turn to God out of a need to be relieved of pain and not out of love for Him.  Like any relationship, we want to spend time with the one that we love.  Is He One that you love?  Do you spend time with Him?

We must understand that being ‘comforted’ can also mean receiving strength, encouragement and hope to deal with our troubles. The more we suffer, the more God comforts us.  Every time we are in need of comfort and He comforts us, He is teaching us how to comfort others when they need comfort too.

Suffering produces steady persistence, persistence produces character and character produces hope. Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. God in us…..  the hope of glory.

He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.