Suffering is a PRIVILEGE!

"You have been granted the privilege not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for Him" (Phil 1:29 NEB).

"For the Lord who loves her suffered and wants her to fellowship with Himself. The joy of thus knowing Him comes not in spite of but because of suffering, just as resurrection comes out of death. I have a Savior because I am a sinner, and beauty is given the child of God in exchange for ashes.

We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem. We receive his poured-out life, and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with Him, may then pour ourselves out for others." -- Elisabeth Elliot

Jeremiah (my favorite ever) writes in chapter 20 verses 7-9:

I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me… So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

While Jeremiah suffered for God, he could not hold the Word of the Lord in. Is this what our lives look like? Can we not contain the love and truth of Christ?

Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked. Jeremiah 20:13