09/30/2023
Many devout Christians will reach a place in their faith where they will call out to the Lord asking that they join Him in the suffering He experienced. One feels that if God breaks our bread and pours out our wine that the relationship we have with Him will grow all the closer, but something unexpected happens... it isn't God who breaks us and pours us out.
“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 ESV
I had been through an intense period of spiritual growth in faith, and was strengthened in many ways through servitude and trial. In this place of sanctification I wanted to be even closer to God; to offer myself more completely. I wrote my pastor about this longing to suffer as Jesus had suffered and to follow Him further, and how I yearned for this experience. What happened next wasn't sudden nor was it the obvious spiritual happening that I expected it to be... and it wasn't by the hands of God.
I found myself under incredible attack by people I had called friends and orchestrated by a man serving his own greed and self-interest. My body was not spared during this time either, as I was also diagnosed with cancer. Over the next couple of years I was gradually ground down until at last I was broken and the disillusionment I felt in my friendships had poured out the life from within me. I prayed and cried out to the Lord as this was happening, and I asked forgiveness for those who were persecuting me, but it didn't feel like the suffering I was expecting to endure for God... it felt like betrayal, deceit, and wickedness. The physical attack felt personal and satanic. Every nick or cut in my skin was rubbed with salt and the suffering was immense. In the times when I thought I could suffer no more God placed angels in my life, one, who was quite prominent, bore the unlikely name of Savage, and there were others like Hughes, Saucier, McKissack, and more... they lifted me up in my darkest hours. Finally, I asked for relief, and I was led to abandon what I had been holding so tightly to. I let go of the prideful professional self I had worked years to develop, and became more like the image of Christ... and this outcome surprised me because I didn't realize the enormity of what was happening. When I found myself defeated I claimed victory. The joy and peace that I had lost during my persecution returned many fold, and suddenly I was in the arms of the Lord.
God doesn't cause us to suffer, He just allows it to occur. Job found this to be true, and Jesus did as well. I read a good description of this phenomenon written by Oswald Chambers; he described it in this way...
"This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being broken bread and poured out wine. God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom." - Oswald Chambers
If you are suffering today and you think that it will come to no good, don't be so certain. Call out to God in prayer. Ask that God comfort you and seek His forgiveness for those who might be persecuting you. Then look around at the angels who have come to lift you up. Sometimes we become so fixed on our own condition that we lose sight of what is being done to strengthen us... look for the angels.
“And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Luke 22:43-44 ESV
On the far side of your suffering there is a wonderful lifting up, and it isn't just for you... it is for all those around you, and it is for the Church. The suffering of Jesus was for us, and our suffering will benefit others as well. I tell all who will listen that my greatest moments of spiritual growth have come during those times I have suffered most.
My dear friend and angel, Chuck Savage, lifted me up during my period of suffering, and the correspondence we began at that time has become these morning devotionals that are shared around the world and across many churches and denominations. God allows you to suffer for His will, and His glory, not yours, and although you may feel blessed by it too, the true blessing is for the Church, and God's children.
"Keep right with God and let Him do what He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children." - Oswald Chambers
Are we looking for the angels in our lives today? Are we holding tighter to Jesus, and leaning more completely on our Father because of some suffering or tribulation? Is our dependence upon God, and our relationship with Jesus, blossoming as never before because of the rain we are receiving from within a storm that is battering us? Take heart in these moments of fear, and when the world has set upon us, because many are increasing in faith when they hear you say “Forgive them Father”, or “I believe”. And, when the crowd chants “Crucify him”, or says “curse God and die“, take strength from the angels, and hold firm to receive your just reward… even as God receives the glory.
“And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.”
Job 42:10-12 ESV
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for the cup you lift to our lips, and for your will, that we give of ourselves so others might live. We thank you for the suffering we find ourselves enduring because it is through that suffering others will find salvation and everlasting life. As we go through the pain before us, never let us lose sight of the enormity of the passion that Jesus endured. In our small way let us honor Him through our tribulations, and use us Father to benefit your Church. When our knees begin to buckle, and our spirit wains, send your angels to bear us up so that we will not fail you Father. Pour your strength into our cups so that we can serve you completely, and when our suffering has abated, let the glory you receive be our blessing.
We pray today for those angels you have sent into our lives. Some we know by name, but there are others that are unseen, unknown, and unnamed. We pray for those who suffer today as they seek to do your will around the world, and those who are placed in hardship and danger for your purposes; keep them safe Father, give them courage; fill them with your Spirit. We pray for your Church and its advancement; fill the pews and standing places with souls searching for you. In all these efforts may your name be glorified for Holy, Holy, Holy are you our God who was, and is, and is to come!
Rich Forbes