Entrusting Our Soul
To rejoice in suffering is to fully entrust your soul to the Creator.
“but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed…but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name…Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God are to entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”
1 Peter 4:13, 16, 19 NASB2020
Rejoice in sharing the suffering of Christ
Paul. Now Peter. Both tell us to rejoice as we share in the suffering of Christ.
Today our context is more sacrifice than suffering. American Christianity is rarely persecuted. But the principle remains.
We cannot rejoice in suffering if we don’t first rejoice in salvation first, before anything else.
We cannot rejoice in suffering if we rejoice in success.
To rejoice in suffering is to rejoice in what God is doing beyond the suffering and sacrifice.
Lean into the sacrifice
To not be ashamed is to lean in. Sacrifice and suffering make us vulnerable. Being vulnerable means we protect ourselves. We hide. We be ashamed.
Instead we lean in. Let God do his work so he can be glorified…made visible…in our suffering and sacrifice.
To a world who seeks their own, sacrifice is weird. And yet we love stories of sacrifice. You will be oddly attractive to those around you as you give up your life and rejoice about it.
Rejoicing in sacrifice is full trust in your Creator
To lean into sacrifice and rejoice is to also fully trust God with our lives.
To this type of person, nothing matters except living out the will of God. This person worries less…and goes through more. This person has less anxiety…but has plenty they could be anxious about. This person is less concerned with what they have…while everything around them seems to crumble apart.
Why? Because they know their foundation is on something more than what they see.
Have a whole unique life. Live in such a way that gives up what you have in the world for something completely out of this world.