Fortitude for the Sake of Christ
Embrace a deeper courage as you discover how every hardship — great or small — can become a willing offering of love and loyalty to Christ.
“For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29).
Suffering is a part of life in this world. It can’t be avoided. Some of a Christian’s suffering will result from his relationship to Christ, and some will just be the pain that everybody experiences. Yet no matter what kind of suffering it is, the Christian has a decision to make: with what attitude will our hardships be endured?
It would be beneficial if we chose to suffer simply for the sake of Christ, as Paul recommended in the text above. This means adopting an attitude that says, in effect, “I will bear this hardship for Him, desiring above all to glorify Him by the way in which I bear it.”
When Christians were persecuted by the Roman government in the early days of the church, unbelievers often marveled at the way Christians went to their deaths. Just as the soldiers were amazed at how Christ died (Mark 15:39), many people were moved by the manner in which our brothers and sisters in the days of the apostles embraced their persecutions. They were able to be so brave only because they wanted to suffer their hardships in the same way their Lord had suffered His. They counted it a blessing and privilege “not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”
I suggest that this attitude can be applied to any kind of suffering. We don’t have to be persecuted or put to death before we can think this way; we can decide that whatever we have to endure, we will suffer it in a way that glorifies Him. We will be strong for Him, accepting every pain and difficulty because we love Him, offering our steadfastness to Him as a gift we are glad to give.
When Paul found out that his thorn in the flesh was not going to be removed, he accepted the verdict admirably: “Most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). That, my friends, is an attitude to emulate!
Today, we have it pretty easy. We don’t have much opportunity to glorify Christ in hardship. But before we die, we will all suffer a little, and when we do, we should want, like Paul, to “fill up in [our] flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24).
“Hast thou no wound? No scar? Yet, as the Master shall the servant be, and pierced are the feet that follow Me; but thine are whole: can he have followed far who has no wound nor scar?” (Amy Carmichael).
Gary Henry - WordPoints.com