The Meaning of Suffering

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. (Hebrews 11:26)

We do not choose suffering simply because we are told to, but because the One who tells us to describes it as the path to everlasting joy.

He beckons us into the obedience of suffering not to demonstrate the strength of our devotion to duty, or to reveal the vigor of our moral resolve, or to prove the heights of our tolerance for pain, but rather to manifest, in childlike faith, the infinite preciousness of his all-satisfying promises — the all-satisfying greatness and beauty of his own glory as the fulfillment of all of them.

Moses “[chose] to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. . . . For he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:25–26). Therefore, his obedience glorified the reward — all that God is for him in Christ — not the resolve to suffer.

This is the essence of Christian Hedonism. In the pursuit of joy through suffering, we magnify the all-satisfying worth of the Source of our joy. God himself shines as the brightness at the end of our tunnel of pain.

If we do not communicate that he is the goal and the ground of our joy in suffering, then the very meaning of our suffering will be lost.

The meaning is this: God is gain. God is gain. God himself is gain. That’s the meaning of our suffering.

The chief end of man is to glorify God. And it is truer in suffering than anywhere else that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

John Piper 

Got integrity? Here’s what you risk…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:48

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

As Christian citizens, we must abstain from all that’s wrong and approve all that’s right. 

It is character that produces liberty. The reason Americans live in freedom today is because they began as people of character. Don’t let that go past you.

Responsibility and character are two ways of saying the same thing. They’re inseparably linked with liberty. For example, a little baby has no responsibilities. He doesn’t have to worry about anything. Everybody takes care of him. But he has no liberties. He does what he’s told to do. He eats that bland oatmeal and those strained beets. He is bathed and put to bed. No responsibilities…but no liberties.

As he grows in responsibility, he gets more and more liberty. There will come a time when his father will give him the car keys. But if he acts irresponsibly with the car, the father takes the keys and his privilege away. If he acts really irresponsibly, he may wind up in jail and all his liberties are taken away. Liberty is responsibility assumed.

ACTION POINT:

A republic is a government for people with character, and only people with character can maintain it. If we lose our character as a nation, we are going to lose our liberty. If we want to remain free, we must be men and women of character, and raise young men and women of character.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Rejoicing in Pain

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” (Matthew 5:11–12)

Christian Hedonism says that there are different ways to rejoice in suffering as a Christian. All of them are to be pursued as an expression of the all-sufficient, all-satisfying grace of God.

One way of rejoicing in suffering comes from fixing our minds firmly on the greatness of the reward that will come to us in the resurrection. The effect of this kind of focus is to make our present pain seem small in comparison to what is coming: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:16–18). In making the suffering tolerable, rejoicing over our reward will also make love possible.

“Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great” (Luke 6:35). Be generous with the poor “and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14). Confidence in this promised reward cuts the cord of worldliness and frees us for the costs of love.

Another way of rejoicing in suffering comes from the effects of suffering on our assurance of hope. Joy in affliction is rooted not only in the hope of resurrection and reward, but also in the way suffering itself works to deepens that hope.

For example, Paul says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4).

In other words, Paul’s joy is not merely rooted in his great reward, but in the effect of suffering which solidifies the hope of that reward. Affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces a sense that our faith is real and genuine, and that strengthens our hope that we will indeed gain Christ.

So whether we focus on the riches of the reward or the refining effects of suffering, God’s purpose is that our joy in suffering be sustained.

John Piper 

A 3-cent pat of butter cost him a promotion…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I heard about a man who was an executive in a company. They were going to move him up and make him one of the chief executives. The Board of Directors had talked it over, and it was a done deal. It was a monumental advancement. But in the company cafeteria one day, the owner of this company just happened to be behind this man in the cafeteria line. Unbeknownst to him, the CEO saw him take a pat of butter costing about 3 cents, then put a slice of bread over the butter so the cashier couldn’t see it. The CEO went back to the Board and told them they had the wrong man—he didn’t have integrity. And for 3 cents, the man lost a monumental promotion and multiple thousands of dollars!

If you have integrity, how much more will your heavenly Father be able to bless you! But if you live like this almost-executive, your Father must say, “I can’t bless him. He doesn’t have integrity in the small things.” God help us to be faithful.

Be faithful in the small things, the secret things. What you are in secret is what you are, nothing more, nothing less.

ACTION POINT:

Are you faithful in the little things? Let this be the beginning of a new day of faithfulness in your life. Remember the little things. God is watching to find you faithful.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Cry Out To You Lord

I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.  - Isaiah 43:11

"You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.  - Isaiah 43:10

15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. 

16 All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together. 

17 But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. 

18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other. 

19 I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain.' I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right. 

20 "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. 

21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. 

22 "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 

23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.'  - Isaiah 45:15-23

1 With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. 

2 I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him.  - Psalm 142:1-2

I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."  - Psalm 142:5

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! 

2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 

3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 

4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;  - Psalm 130:1-5

13 But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 

14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?  - Psalm 88:13-14

1 O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. 

2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! 

3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.  - Psalm 88:1-3

Christ’s Sufferings in Us

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Colossians 1:24)

Christ has prepared a love offering for the world by suffering and dying for sinners. It is a perfect sacrifice. It pays in full for all the sins of all his people. Nothing can be added to make a better gift. It is lacking in nothing — except one thing, a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world.

God’s answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ (people like Paul) to make a personal presentation of the afflictions of Christ to the world. In doing this, we “[fill] up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” We finish what they were designed for, namely, a personal presentation to the people who do not know about their infinite worth.

But the most amazing thing about Colossians 1:24 is how Paul fills up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

He says that it is his own sufferings that fill up Christ’s afflictions. This means, then, that Paul exhibits the sufferings of Christ by suffering himself for those he is trying to win to Christ. In his sufferings they are to see Christ’s sufferings.

Here is the astounding upshot: God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people.

God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we proclaim the cross as the way to life, people will see the marks of the cross in us and feel the love of the cross from us.

John Piper 

Why is our nation so troubled?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel. Psalm 128:1, 5-6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Right now our nation is sick unto death because she has forgotten God. But listen to this and let it burn into your soul. In 1821 John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, said, 

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. From the day of the Declaration, the American people were bound by the laws of God.”

The principles of civil government and Christianity were linked together in an unbreakable bond. Nearly all citizens acknowledged Christian, biblical principles as the rules of their conduct.

In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson said, 

“America was born to exemplify the devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from Holy Scriptures.”

In March, 1931, Congress adopted “The Star-Spangled Banner” as our national anthem. Do you know what the fourth stanza says? “Blessed with victory and peace, may this Heaven-rescued land praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must when our cause it is just. And this be our motto, ‘In God is our trust.’”

ACTION POINT:

God blessed America because she was rooted in spiritual principles and truths. Praise God that the Christian and Judaic heritage was written into our very fabric. And pray for your nation according to 2 Chronicles 7:14—“If My people who are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray, seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers