Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial which is to try you, as
though some strange thing happened
unto you: but rejoice, insasmuch as
ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings:
that, when His glory shall be revealed,
ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
If ye be reproached for the name of
Christ, happy are ye:for the spirit of
glory and of God resteth upon you:
on their part He is evil spoken of,
but on your part He is glorified. but let
none of you suffer as a murderer,
or as a thief, or as an evildoer,
or as a busybody in other men's
matters. Yet if any man suffers as a
Chritian, let not be ashamed: but
let him glorify God on this behalf.
1Peter 4:12-16
Christians suffer not due to giving to God anything for how can a man add to the well when taking a drink of the water? You cannot think that suffering is God's plan for your life. You suffer not to give but because you are living a life according to God's commandments and precepts which the world hates. Those evildoers hate God and do not want anything to do with Him as they desire to live autonomously. A Christian knowing that they will suffer is to know that they are living the life of Christ for He too suffer innocently. If you are reproached for living according to the life of Christ, be happy for you are not one of the evildoers that blaspheme God, and the Son of God (that word "blaspheme" is the word in Greek that is translated "He is evil spoken of"). Yes, we know that it is wrong to murder, to steal, or to be an evildoer, but Peter adds not to be a busybody and this is a problem for many love to gossip (the Greek word means to be an overlooker of other people's matters). We are as Authentic Christians to glorify God, no matter the circumstances.
Do you want to be used by God? Well, He will use you for God uses means to accomplish His purposes. To be used by God will by the grace of God take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all, they are meant to make you useful in His hands, to enable you to understand what transpires in other souls so that you will never be surprised at what you come across. God does use you like a puppet and allows your humanity to remain intact, but He will take you by the hand (if you let Him) and lead you through whatever comes your way. Peter in addressing the act of being a busybody is important as it is thrown in alongside of murder, stealing, and evildoing, but many feel that they cannot deal with that person, the person they do not like or even may not know (which is the case more often than not). We must remember that God gave to us the opportunity to be that one that comforts, and speaks with, others even if it seems stupid to do so. Do not be the one who barges off because it may seem stupid, wrong, or just to leave it to others who you may feel are better equipped. God will equip you so do it!
Jesus Christ suffered as no man has suffered for He was innocent and did no wrong. Jesus Christ suffered according to the will of God for He came to die and for that to happen evil men must cause suffering leading Him to His death. We suffer by not from that point of view that our suffering is the will of God, it is due to the evil of this world. When we are rightly related to God, to Jesus our God in the flesh, then we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. Authentic Christians strive to know what the aim of God is and not to evade being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Too often men and women have sought to procure the carrying out of God's order (that order is to take the Gospel to the world, and for us to live according to His commands) by short-cuts of their own. This suffering is a "long, long trail," to endure is to be in a right relationship with Jesus Christ.
Are you suffering as a partaker of Christ's sufferings? Or are you suffering due to you own shortcomings? Are you prepared, or are you preparing to be that witness for God,f or Jesus Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you? If so then you must stamp out all your personal ambitions and allow God to destroy by transfiguration or individual determinations. Will we know exactly what God is allowing us to go through? No! If we did know then we would become a person who is self-righteously concerned with observance or things as some denominations teach. We often feel as though we must understand the will of God before we act but this is wrong for we must act as we go through this life with all its circumstances in our life misunderstanding Him for how can we know the will of God perfectly? We cannot! But, when we go through circumstances, sufferings, we look back and see that God has girded me, you, through it all and we did not know it.
Peter ends this discourse about suffering in this manner: "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (1Peter 4:17-19).
The secret things belong to the
LORD our God, but the things
revealed belong to us and to our
Children forever, that we may
follow all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29
A right relationship will take you through
Richard L. Crumb
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