December 28

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, — Phil 1:29 BSB

After the Lord, through His special work on the conscience, calls us to repentance, confession of sin, faith in Jesus, and godly sorrow, and to live according to the precepts of the gospel, He then calls us to suffer for and with Christ. But we cannot "suffer according to the will of God"—that is, in a gospel sense and from gospel motives—unless the Lord enables us to look to Him. The same Spirit that calls the believer to walk the path of suffering also strengthens and enables them to endure it.

To suffer rightly, we must follow in the footsteps of the great Captain of our salvation, who "though He was a Son, learned obedience by what He suffered." The Father did not spare His only-begotten Son but led Him through the path of tribulation. If the Lord of the house had to travel this dark path, how can His disciples expect to avoid it? If the Captain of our salvation was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," then the common soldiers in His spiritual army must also experience suffering and taste the cup He drank to its dregs.

Thus, every child of God is called, sooner or later, to "suffer with Christ," and those who do not suffer with Him will not reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12). But the Lord, who knows what we are and what we need, apportions suffering to each one according to their state and necessities. Though the forms of suffering may differ, all must pass through the furnace, for the Lord brings "the third part through the fire." Every believer must walk in the footsteps of a self-denying and crucified Jesus, feeling the rod of chastisement and experiencing the trials that prove them to be true children of God.