Are You Willing? 4

1 Peter 4:12-13

I recall a teen-age girl at our previous church who had a pretty good life. She and her family had a nice house, drove nice cars, and she was popular in school. Then one day her father became ill and she was absolutely devastated. How could God be so cruel? Why was life suddenly so hard?

And I wondered at her lack of faith. I wondered why she was so surprised when something bad had happened.

It isn’t that we should never hope for good in our life. It isn’t that we shouldn’t desire a comfortable life. But neither should we be surprised when bad things come along now and then. In Matthew 5:46 Jesus tells us, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Things happen in life. Some are good and some are bad. But we who believe in God and try to follow the teachings of Jesus, we who try to live a righteous and holy life will indeed encounter opposition. Those who do not have our faith may be confused by our beliefs and may be against what Jesus teaches. The evil that exists in the world will always work against those who try to do good.

So, Peter has a comment on our attitudes. What does he say about suffering? How should we react?

This is not to say that we should delight in troubles. Rather, we should not be surprised when bad things come along. And we should expect that our attempts at living as Jesus taught is going to bring some challenges.

We shouldn’t rejoice in every problem that we encounter, but we should rejoice when we encounter trials as we live out a holy life. It shows us that we are in fact doing good or the evil that exists wouldn’t be working so hard to stop it.

If we experience hardships because of our faith it can be an indicator that we are indeed on the right path. We should rejoice, not in our troubles, but in the knowledge that we are doing what is right.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you rejoice in the trials that come from living out your faith?

Our Crucifixion 2

1 Peter 4:12-13

This was one of the devotions we shared while we were in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during our mission trip. We gathered in the evening and this passage was read after a particularly difficult day of hard work and exposure to the quality of life we were seeing around us.

What should not be a surprise? Instead, how should we react?

Life as a Christian is no bed of roses. There is certainly a joy and peace that comes in being a child of God and a servant of Christ. The death and resurrection of Jesus should be a comfort and an assurance to each of us.

But to truly follow Jesus means that we must imitate Christ in every way. This means that we share love as Jesus did; we offer hope and comfort as Jesus did; but we also endure hardships as Jesus did.

It is unlikely that we will suffer in the same way that Jesus suffered on the cross, but we should suffer that longing and desire to bring hope and joy to others. We should be willing to be uncomfortable – physically and emotionally – to serve God.

That was what we were going through in Haiti. We were certainly out of our comfort zone in many ways, but we did it willingly because we wanted to be servants of our Lord. We wanted to do good work for fellow human beings, and we were willing to give up comforts, at least for a little while, for the ultimate good of others.

This should be our attitude as Christians. The gift of salvation and eternal life that Jesus has given allows us the freedom of living a good and holy life. But it also comes with the responsibility of doing what Jesus did – sacrificing, enduring pain and discomfort, persisting through trials and hardships, and doing it all so that others may benefit.

We will likely not be crucified as Christ was on the cross, but we should be willing to crucify our own sinful desires and selfish wants, to put them to death so that we may serve.

DAILY CHALLENGE: What painful trial might you endure for the service of God?