The Fellowship of His Sufferings

David Wilkerson writes, “Who, in this day and age yearns to share in the sufferings of Jesus Christ?”

We live in a time when we do almost anything to alleviate suffering from our personal lives. We do not like pain or suffering.

But are we praying as Paul did that we may understand and share in Christ’s sufferings? We’re not talking about physical suffering, but spiritual suffering.

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:7-12)

Not Guilty!

Guilt is everywhere around us and in us.

Most of us were raised under the heaviness of guilt-induced shame (a form of manipulation used to control another person). Parents use guilt to motivate their children when they say things like, “You should be ashamed of yourself!” or “I’ve told you a hundred times, and you’re still not cleaning your room!” or “Can’t you be more responsible!” or “You shouldn’t be so hateful,” or “After all we’ve done for you, this is how you repay us?” We grow up hearing such things on an almost daily basis, and somehow it gets woven into the very fabric of our souls. We begin to believe that we will never measure up.