Do I Consider Suffering As a Blessing and Delight?

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Philippians 1:29-30

I am sure you all have come across the roly-poly toys. You may not recognize it with this name but I am sure you know these toys. These toys had it a face painted on it. And no matter what you do to that doll, it always comes up, upright, because it's weighted. So you can punch it. It'll fall down but it comes right back up. You can kick it. It'll fall down, come right back up. You can do it repeatedly. It keeps coming back up.

I picture Paul like that. Lock him up in prison and he'll say, "I'll preach to the guards". He comes back up. Get him out of prison and he'll say, "I'll go visit the Philippian church and encourage them". He comes back up. When they are ready to kill him he'll say, "OK, kill me. But before you do, let me tell you about Jesus". He's like the roly-poly toy that keeps coming back up.

Paul beautifully phrases these verses. It has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe but to suffer. There's two parts of that. And the first part always guarantees the second part.

If you believe in him, that's the first part, Then you'll suffer for him, that's the second part. Paul said, all those-- who live godly in Christ, Jesus, shall suffer persecution.

Paul writes, it's been granted to you. It's been given you the privilege. He is saying, God's doing you a favor. And what is the favour? He's going to let you suffer. Frankly speaking we always think and desire "can I not have that favor, please"? Could God give that gift to somebody else, but not me? I like God's other gifts.

Paul sees suffering far differently than we see suffering. We think it's just the evil of all evils to suffer anything. Paul says, if you suffer well and you suffer for the right reason, it's a privilege. In fact, the word he uses, granted, comes from the word grace. Just as God has given us the grace to believe, God has given us the grace to suffer. The grace to suffer.

I know we don't see it as a gift. But I'll tell you. This gift will do more to build up our life and make us strong and bless us than just about anything else. It will.

Timothy Keller in one of his sermons challenged his listeners to become like popcorn. What he meant by saying so is that, most grains, when we heat them up, shrivel up and get hard. Not so with popcorn, right?

When you put the kernel of popcorn on a hot pan and in a little while we see the inside of that kernel.It pushes out. The hard exterior now cracks and it becomes enlarged and it becomes a blessing, a delight to people. In the same way Paul is saying, suffering will do that for us? It will enlarge our life.

It will make us a delight to other people as we are tempered by that suffering and we become more valuable by that experience if we do it well and we do it for the right reason. In fact, in Philippians Chapter Three, Paul prays “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering and even be shaped by death.”

Suffering orients us to heaven. It brings us patience here. And it also gives us a sensitivity toward others who are suffering. Paul writes that it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake. When you suffer, it should be on his behalf, for his sake.

Isn't that exactly what our Lord said? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. You know Jesus never said blessed are the persecuted? It's not a blessing to be persecuted if you're just being persecuted for no good reason.

God’s Word makes it clear that He has graciously given; He has allowed for His glory and His good pleasure; He has permitted for our sanctification and because of His great love for us; He has granted us the privilege of suffering for His name’s sake.

Instead of viewing suffering through the lens of what it might cost us, we should view suffering through the lens of what it has already cost the Father. It cost the Father the humiliation and death of His one and only Son, Jesus. And the Son is infinitely more precious, beautiful, and valuable to the Father than all of humanity combined.

Dear Friends, Whatever we, as Christians are unwilling to suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ is evidence that we value our physical lives more than the honor and glory of our Lord and King, our Master and Messiah, our God and Savior. And whatever loss we are unwilling to suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ is, at the moment of refusal, is, for all intents and purposes, is our god.

God Bless you.