Joyful Endurance
With Good Friday coming, the Lord recently allowed me to go through a situation to show me how we as disciples of Christ partake in His sufferings. Mondays for me are always mostly spent running errands. The whole day seems to slip by running from one place to the next, before coming back to pick up my son from school. This particular Monday, it was time for us to do our grocery shopping. We pulled into our local Walmart, and I suggested to my husband that we go through the gardening section. For some reason, that felt like the safest way to enter the store, without being bombarded by people.
As we passed through the garden section and into the store, I saw a familiar face and my expression lit up with a smile and I waved. Not once, but twice my hand went up in happy expectation to see someone I haven't seen in a long time. She looked right at me twice and refused to acknowledge I was there. My heart sank. The smile stayed on my face but inside, I felt heartbroken. Rejected. Tossed aside.
I'm sure Jesus felt the same way that night in the garden of Gethsemane when all His disciples scattered. When Peter denied Him. When the same people who cried, "Hosanna" at the Triumphant Entry now mocked Him and chose a known criminal over the Savior.
The Bible tells us to rejoice in our hardships and persecutions. That all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer. So how can we learn joy in our sufferings and endure them? By fixing our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. He knew what the Father's will was, what His purpose was in enduring the cross for our salvation and that when all was accomplished, He would be seated at the right hand of God. He gladly bore the cross for you and for me.
Jesus is a man acquainted with grief and suffering. He knows what it's like for us to be rejected by the world and scorned for speaking the truth in love. He knows the pain of patiently suffering with those who abuse and slander. He knows what it's like not to be accepted by those in the world.
Our joy comes from knowing that we too are partaking in those sufferings with Him. That He is our example in all the things we go through, the author and perfector of our faith. You see, when we go through these things, they work a glorious transformation in us where we become more like Christ and less like the world. The next time someone treats you badly, fellow Christian or unbeliever, take heart my friend. God is renewing you day by day. Be patient. For these trials and persecutions produce an even greater glory and transform our hearts and minds, reflecting Christ and glorifying our Father in Heaven.