Challenge: Worthwhile Suffering

For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me. Phil 1:29-30 (NASB)

The first thought here, of course, is a shock at the concept of being granted the privilege of suffering.  Really?  It’s a privilege?  It doesn’t really feel like a privilege when I’m in the midst of it! 

But at that I stop.  I realize suddenly that it might not seem like a privilege because I just might not truly suffer in this manner.  In other words, I might not have been granted to suffer for Christ’s sake. 

Paul wrote a lot of letters, and many of them were written to churches that were struggling and suffering, but not for Christ’s sake.  Instead, they were suffering because of their own sin and dissension.  They were so occupied with the consequences of their own poor behavior that they never had the chance to suffer for Christ.

Suffering is never pleasant, but how much more depressing is it when it’s pointless suffering?  When it is related more to my sin, selfishness, and lack of trust than to my full submission to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? 

There is no escaping suffering as long as we live in this world and in these deteriorating bodies.  But, I hunger for my suffering to be worthwhile.  I long to no longer suffer because I get distracted from full focus and attention on my Father.  I desire instead to suffer because, as Jesus warned, this world hates me.  I want to be counted worthy, as the Philippians were, to be granted to suffer for Christ’s sake.