We read in Acts that the apostles taught new believers that it would be through many tribulations that we will enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22) It is not the message most western ‘nurture’ groups stress today, but Paul hints at something very far-reaching when he writes to the Colossians saying,

Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the Church. (Col. 1:24)

What does he mean when he says this? Most of us find it hard – peculiar even! – to rejoice in our trials, but as we know, this is what James urges us to do and it is what Peter and Paul did. (Jas. 1:2) In fact, Paul even goes so far as to say that he wants to suffer with Christ and to share in His death. (Phil. 3:10) He has such a deep love for the Lord that he longs to fully identify with Him, even unto death.

Paul has reached a place where his love for God, and his longing for his fellow men, combine to make him willing to suffer any tribulation for their sake. Far from making him retreat into a ‘safer’ practice of his faith, as so many people do, Paul viewed his sufferings as a means of identifying more fully with his Lord.

Now, this was not a morbid quest for martyrdom, nor Paul seeking to escape from the challenges of his circumstances, but rather a profound heart association with Christ. As the American writer AW Tozer wrote,

God will not force this kind of suffering on us, nor embarrass us with riches we do not want. Such a cross is reserved for those who apply to serve in the legion of the expendables, who love not their lives unto death, but who volunteer to suffer for Christ’s sake, and follow up their application with lives that invite the fury of hell . . . The marks of the cross are upon them and they are known in heaven and hell.

Paul did not set out to find hard things to do, but he was entirely willing to take up his own cross and offer to the Lord the sufferings that came his way, knowing that they did so because the Father had sanctioned their coming.

I have often suggested that the Lord weighs things on His scales before allowing them to come our way – but His weighing scales are so calibrated so differently from those we are used to that that in all probability we might not even recognise them as weighing scales at all.

It may well be that we have read stories of martyrs and heroes of the faith, and thought, ‘I could never cope with that.’ But, to take suffering out of the arena of wild beasts and the Colosseum, the Lord is so generous that He accepts even the offering of our small inconveniences. He really does see when people fast or make some other offering to Him.

Suffering brings us right into the enemy’s domain – he enjoys injecting our minds with the fear of suffering in the desire that we should be overcome rather than overcomers. But, paradoxically, suffering can also brings us into the Lord’s domain, but only if we handle it well – in which case it is transformed into ‘suffer-reign.’ Jesus never takes His eyes off us. When our hearts are eagerly desiring Him, we can trust Him to give us all the strength we need to keep on going. All that matters is that we have the faith to leave the next minute to the Lord. He may even refuse to permit the events we dread from coming to pass!

Even if He does not, we must get out of our minds altogether the idea that suffering with Jesus means being sad and melancholy. There is joy in the Passion, and the consciousness of Christ’s power and victory with us. So far from this making them gloomy and morbid, the overwhelming impression we are left with from reading the Acts of the Apostles is that of a joyous and contagious faith which has experienced much suffering, but which considers it of little consequence when compared with the surpassing joy of knowing Christ! Praise God for the multitudes who have entered the kingdom of God throguh many tribulations and who shine in glory now!

I think you will find the chapter ‘The Principle of Suffer-reign‘ in Intimacy and Eternity refreshing too.

Photo by Duncan Sanchez on Unsplash