OUR SUFFERING BRINGS GLORY TO GOD

 

 

Jesus is our role-model. He never sought His own glory or honor but the Father’s:

 

·       “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’” (John 8:54)

 

·       “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” (John 12:49-50; 14:10, 24; 10:37)

 

Jesus wasn’t a people-pleaser. Instead, His entire focus was on the 1st great commandment—pleasing the Father. In contrast to the Pharisees, Jesus claimed, “I do not receive glory from people” (John 5:41). When we fulfill this great commandment, we are also fulfilling the second one (1 John 5:2-3).

 

According to Jesus, the Pharisees and the rest of the religious leadership did everything to obtain the glory from man:

 

·       “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” (Matthew 23:5-7)

 

According to Jesus, this demonstrated that they cared little about pleasing God:

 

·       “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44)

 

If we pursue the praise and esteem of man, we demonstrate a lack of interest in the praise of God. Instead, we long to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant.” To pursue the empty praise of man. It is a psychological trap:

 

·       The fear of man [of his opinions] lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe. (Proverbs 29:25)

 

Nevertheless, my flesh still longs for that praise and approval. This is both humbling and embarrassing, but I have learned that the struggle against our dark-side, lurking within, is necessary and normal for the Christian:

 

·       We will struggle with the flesh unto we go to be with Jesus – For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:17)

 

This teaching helps me accept the fact that the Lord doesn’t remove our sinful impulses. In fact, we need them to grow. A butterfly must struggle to emerge from its cocoon. Without this struggle, they cannot develop properly.

 

Nevertheless, it is discouraging to see the evil that hides in our flesh like cockroaches in the crevices of our apartment. We never dreamed that we could harbor such evil. However, our Lord puts us in the caldron and turns up the heat to bring the evil, our nauseating impurities, up to surface:

 

·       For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17; John 15:2)

 

We recoil at the mess and wonder, “How can God love me? How can I merit anything good from Him?” We pray that this God is more merciful than we had ever dared to dream, and we find that He is! In gratefulness, we want to follow Him at the expense of our own tarnished dreams and desires. I think that this is what Peter meant when, enigmatically, he wrote:

 

·       Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1-2)

 

Consequently, I no longer want my own ways, even my own thoughts. I just want His words and thoughts. I pray for my daily bread to resist the indwelling evil, the temptations and fears that lust to take me captive. Stripped of any goals of self-glorification, our joy must be found in the glory of God.

 

“Ceased from sin?” Yes! We no longer seek our own glory, before all else, but His glory. When I view those in need turning to our Lord in prayer, I am moved to tears. Although our flesh still demands glory, He has taught me to say “no” to my own glory in favor of real nourishment:

·       But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4:32–34)

 

Self-satisfaction will never partake of this food—only those who long for it:

·       “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

 

Healing is a gift from God, but so too is suffering. While healing glorifies the power of God, suffering glorifies His love. How? As we suffer, we can respond in either of two ways. We can bitch, complain, feel sorry for ourselves or get angry at our unwanted fate. Or we can praise God, knowing that suffering is one of His provisions. He had required the reluctant Ananias to lay hands on Paul to receive his sight. However, Ananias had complained that Paul was the great persecutor of His Church:

·       But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15–16)

 

Although Ananias might have interpreted these words to mean that Paul would be required to pay for His persecution of the Church, Paul later discovered that suffering had been given to him as a gift (2 Corinthians 1:8-10; 4:7-11; 12:9-10). In Don’t Waste Your Sorrows, the deceased revivalist Paul E. Billheimer had written:

 

·       All affliction is intended to drive one to God. It is intended to work a fuller submission, a more utter devotion, an increasing patience, a greater of beauty of spirit, a more selfless love toward both God and man. When it accomplishes this, then it may be classified as suffering with Christ and for His sake because it has enabled Him to achieve His end and purpose in that one.

 

Consequently, both suffering and deliverance from suffering are gifts, even though death might serve as our ultimate deliverance. Yet suffering is ordained for all His children:

·       and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:17)

 

Billheimer reasoned agape, selfless love could only be learned through suffering. He also pointed out that through faith, many had been miraculously delivered. However, afterwards, the writer also cited the many who, by faith, hadn’t received a miraculous deliverance:

·       Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:36–38)

 

Could it have been that those required to suffer more had been given the greater gift and testimony? How so? Perhaps their character had been refined to a greater extent?

·       …but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3–5)

 

Perhaps the greatest testimony is the one that glorifies God in our suffering. Perhaps, when we suffer, we can learn to adore Him rather than to complain. And why not if He is working all things for our good (Romans 8:28), even our dying bodies, knowing that meanwhile our inner self is being renewed every day to prepare us for our eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)!

 

Suffering brings glory to God. How? It shows the world that we can rejoice even as we face martyrdom! Perhaps it is the best display of our assurance that God loves us and will take care of us for all eternity.