Suffering: The Way of The Cross
Suffering: The Way of The Cross
Did you know there are churches today that have no room for pain and suffering? Those who say they have been healed by God get the microphone, while those who continue to suffer are shamed into silence or ushered out the back door. The Apostle Paul had a different viewpoint. In Philippians 1:29, he said, “You have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.” And in Acts 14:22, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Shouldn’t we trust these promises as much as we trust John 3:16?
While the wisdom of the world offers a gospel of temporary escape from problems and hardships, the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers the promise of suffering. In fact, if you are looking for no wounds, no pain, no sorrow, no tears, no hardships, no afflictions, then you are not looking at Jesus or His cross! If pain and suffering were not to be the experience of His followers, why would Jesus use the cross, the primary instrument of Rome for inflicting pain and suffering, as the object of the believer’s predicament when He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24)? C. H. Spurgeon answers that question by saying, “The greatest blessing God can give us is not a comfortable life, but a cross because it is the cross that makes us like Jesus.”
Beloved, the true gospel is shaped by a suffering Savior whose followers are people shaped by His cross. People who journey with Jesus down thorny, narrow roads. People who embrace an identity with the cross of Jesus that drives them to know nothing amongst men except Christ and Him crucified. People who are not strangers to pain and suffering, because they know that suffering is the way of the cross. Spurgeon was right. God gave His children a cross because He wants His children to become more like Jesus. If you are a disciple of Jesus, rejoice in your sufferings, because it is through your sufferings that God is making you more like Jesus every day! Hallelujah!
This is Laine Wilder for Carry the Light Ministries, bringing you Insights From an Elder.
by Laine Wilder
Author of “Insights From an Elder” for
Carry the Light Ministries
