[This post continues the last one, How Darkness Defines the Light—and What About When There is No Light?]
After that talk, later in the day, I’m searching for a book—unaware my search has a reason related to the message I’ve heard and the questions that still haunt me.
Only God knows that. I just think I want this particular book because I’ve read it quoted on other blogs lately, and think it would make good devotional fare.
But the book is hiding, as light often is, and it takes effort, time, and teamwork from Husband to ferret it out of the “wrong spot” on the shelf.
I decide to start in on it now, and turn to its devos for the start of November, hoping the whole rest of the book isn’t prereq for their reading. And there, what do I read as skim November’s first entries, but… “PARTAKERS OF HIS SUFFERINGS” (!) After this title lies the rest of the answer still evading me… And it’s glorious, filled with… holy light! So, I share here with you a slightly edited version:
“PARTAKERS OF HIS SUFFERINGS”
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.
Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings. —1 Peter 4:13
If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you [meaning for your personal benefit] at all; they are meant to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what transpires in other souls so that you will never be surprised at what you come across.
Oh, I can’t deal with that person.
Why not? God gave you ample opportunity to soak before Him on that line, and you barged off because it seemed stupid to spend time in that way.
The sufferings of Christ are not those of ordinary men. He suffered “according to the will of God,” not from the point of view we suffer from as individuals. It is only when we are related to Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. It is part of Christian culture to know what God’s aim is. In the history of the Christian Church the tendency has been to evade being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ; men have sought to procure the carrying out of God’s order by a short cut of their own. [But] God’s way is always the way of suffering, the way of the “long, long trail.”
Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp our personal ambitions right out? Are we prepared for God to destroy by transfiguration our individual determinations?
It will not mean that we know exactly why God is taking us that way. That would make us spiritual prigs. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through; we go through it more or less misunderstandingly; then we come to a luminous place, and say – ‘ ‘Why, God has girded me, though I did not know it!”
I’ve never lived through a time, geographically and temporally-speaking, where there has been no light. I have always been able to gather with other believers and have had the Word. I am readying for such a time, though, trying to hide His Word in my heart and aging mind. These thoughts on darkness that may be just what is needed to help me keep on keeping armed. Thanks, Sylvia.
Good morning, Dawn. So good to see you here!
Will there ever be a time with no light for us, really? I don’t think so, for we always have Christ, and He is our Light. But sometimes we/I can’t *see* perceive the light, because some kind of darkness has invaded my soul. Sorrow, depression, fear, failure and regret, just confusion when life doesn’t make sense, any can become a dark tunnel to be plodded on through.
But oh, you are so right about our need to hide that Word within. We (generally in the West) undervalue this. I hope to write some blog posts about this, and about things that help me to keep scriptures anchored in my heart—and my own aging mind!
God bless your day! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
We all need directions daily; whether it is how to get to a location, or how to use the newest tech-y gadget or how to deal with this thing called life! I don’t know most of you personally, but I can tell you that if you are anything like me, and those I love, we need to follow these biblical instructions found in His Word very carefully. Otherwise, we will end up on a path that leads to wrong thinking, wrong actions, wrong places; in a “nowhere” destination, wondering how we got there. If we can “recalculate” like my car’s GPS voice says it is doing when I get off on the wrong road, we will find the journey so much more beneficial and satisfying! Each of us could say that we have been standing in the “dummy” position from timeto time— but somewhere along the way, by God’s grace, He led us and we followed. Anyone in need of some “recalculating”? It’s not too late to ask for directions and He promises to answer.