attitude of suffering

By: Abigail DeWitt 

This morning I was sitting in a coffee shop working and reading the Bible on my laptop. I began to feel the presence of the Lord with me and was reminded of the fact that Jesus is truly our friend and close to us. What a better friend than one who would hang on a cross to save us. The cross is POWERFUL for us, but even beyond the mighty gift of salvation that came through Jesus’s great sacrifice. 

See, if Jesus was sitting across from us, we’d see His scars but we’d also see that He is healed. We would see His calmness and His great peace. Jesus suffered one of the most gruesome forms of torture and death and yet He’s full of peace and covered in glory. If Jesus can suffer and be seated by God in Heaven, interceding for us, truly we can trust Him to lead us in our own suffering and pain. 

Take a look at 1 Peter 4:1-2NLT:

“So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God”. 

Did you notice these two things from those verses? 

1. There is a continuation of life after the suffering. 

2. We will be set free from the bondage of our desires and brought into a passion for God’s desires. 

Sometimes when we are suffering for Christ, it can feel like the suffering is the end of the story. And yes, Jesus died from the suffering on the cross- but the cross was not the last page in His story. Because we are in Christ, even if we die, the suffering DOES NOT WIN or end our story! We will be resurrected in Christ Jesus and will get to share in His glory in Heaven. 

Once we allow the attitude of Jesus to replace our worldly attitudes, we will be set free from our own desires! Now you may be asking, “what’s wrong with my desires?”. Our desires are feeble and subject to be infiltrated by sin. God’s desires are stable, strong, and solid and cannot be infiltrated because God is not under the curse of sin. When we surrender our desires and only take up the will of God in our everyday actions, we will walk into a freedom that we can’t even dream of! 

If you are going through suffering right now and need help seeing the character of Jesus and picking up His attitude, send us a message today. We’d love to cheer you on through your suffering so you can walk in the life on the other side of it.