"12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed." 1 Peter 4:12, 13
Verse 13 stood out to me, "...but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." Of course, the one verse I'm most intruiged by doesn't have one of those explanation thingies in my study Bible. Why would it? Maybe God wants me to actually have to think. Laaame. But this verse has me so interested that it's worth donating part of my brain.
You know, when we run into those rough spots of our lives we tend to look at it as something bad. And why not? I'm not gonna lie, when we do go through tough trials, they don't look good. I can say that the first thing I look at when going through a time of tough trial is the bad and the ugly of it. But is that how God wanted us to look at our problems?
The answer to that question is, no. "But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings..." Do you think that Christ suffering on His way to the cross to die for our sins, for us, was bad? Sure, it was not a pretty and painless way to die, but that didn't stop Him. He didn't stop to say, "Hey guys, I'm thinking that going through all this pain and suffering was a bad idea *poof* (insert God power to stop pain)." Why? Because, in the end, God promised to reveal His glory and Jesus would live again.
One question that gets asked a lot while we're trying to overcome our obstacles is, "why?" I know, I've asked it many times. We wonder why God would allow us to go through this. Most of us wonder what we did to desrve something like this. Philippians 3:10 says, "...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." How can we have new and restored life if we don't die, spiritually, first? My Bible says that "we can't know the victory of the Resurrection without personally applying the Crucifixion."
God didn't change Jesus' circumstances, but in the end, after everything He had been through, He lived again. In the same way He allowed Jesus to suffer, He will allow us to suffer so that His glory, and His plan for our lives may be revealed. Could He make it so that tomorrow when we wake up everything will be perfect and dandy? Yes, He most definitely could. But what an honor it is to suffer along side my Saviour knowing that, one day, God will bring me out of this mess a stronger and better person. We'll never see God's glory in this rough season of our lives if we don't allow Him to take us through this process of spiritual life and death.
Remember, when you think you can't go one more day, one more step, Jesus is right there with you; every step of the way. Don't give up. God is bigger than the problem in front of you. He'll be there to give you new life. :)
2 Timothy 2:12
Jeremiah 29:11
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