Fix your eyes on Jesus

If you are now suffering at the hands of others, Or if you have in the past and you're still suffering over those memories -- Is there anything harder to bear than undeserved suffering? Well, fix your eyes on Jesus. It sounds like a cliché but it's not, by any means. What does Jesus have to say to you? The Lord Jesus knew that suffering is part of God's perfect and loving will. Ouch, that doesn't sound like good news! Keep reading; it's going to be. This suffering is all part of the work God has given you. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example . . . (1 Peter 2:21, TLB). Christians who don't believe their suffering is "of the Lord" turn out weak and unstable. At any encounters with pain they're apt to cry for immediate deliverance, thinking it's of the devil, or else they turn and run -- from a job, a church, a marriage, whatever the cause of the pain. Maybe they've never noticed Philippians 1:29 -- For to you has been given the privilege not only of trusting him but also of suffering for him (TLB). Trusting and suffering: the two come as a package. You take one, you get the other with it. You take salvation from a good Father, you get the privilege of suffering from the same good Father. You say "thank you" for one, you say "thank you" for the other (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Understanding this simple truth makes strong, sturdy, unflappable believers. Through the worst circumstances their heads are up. Said Job, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" Listen: your suffering isn't -- or wasn't -- really given to you by bad or thoughtless people. (If it were, you could hate them or want to get even.) No, it's God Himself, you wonderful Father, who -- through people or circumstances -- puts suffering into you life. He lovingly allows it. The testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:3-4). He's shaping you by those pressures, so you will turn out wonderful. He's perfecting you. He knows the way that [you] take; when he has tested [you, you will] come forth as gold (Job 23:10). I'm counting on that. Ray and I spent some miserable years in a church where we didn't fit. It wasn't their fault! They're wonderful people and we still love them dearly; but we were just going different directions. The pain was terrible. But how valuable that suffering was for us! Ministering as we constantly do to pastors and spouses, we would have been too glib, too self-assured, too full of easy answers, too unsympathetic -- without that crashing failure in our own career. And you, too, like the Lord Jesus Himself, are "made perfect through suffering" (Hebrews 2:10). He was oppressed and afflicted . . . "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer" (Isaiah 53:7, 10). So what did Jesus do, to give you clues for what to do in your situation? Hebrews 12:2 says to fix your eyes on Jesus because: 1. "For the joy set before him [he] endured the cross." And if you, too, "hang in there," your personal glory will follow as well: Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). It won't be long! Jesus didn't run; He "endured." You do the same. 2. But he scorned its shame. Think about this carefully. To "scorn" means to "belittle." Jesus didn't scorn the cross -- to suffer on the cross for the sins of the world was a Big Deal. And for you to be called by God to participate in His sufferings (1 Peter 4:13) -- that's a Big Deal, too. Appreciate it. But the shame of the cross He did scorn; He took that part of it lightly. He thought little of His own humiliation, His own feelings. He wasn't self-centered, self-pitying. 3. Even in the midst of His suffering, He was still concerned for others. "Dear woman, here is your son . . . Here is your mother" (John 19: 26-27). 4. He had true compassion for those who hurt Him. "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34). No bitterness, no vengeful thoughts, no demanding of rights. 5. "He entrusted himself to him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:23). He prayed, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46). If you feel totally misunderstood -- or if you have in the past, if you suffer at the hands of others -- or if in the past you did, right now, as your're reading this, pray this prayer: Lord, for my own maturing, to make me more like Christ, You've allowed me to participate in His sufferings. I'm awed. I'm honored to be in such company. That's a Big Deal. But, Lord, I choose to belittle my own feelings. They're not a big deal. Keep me from retaliation, real or imagined; keep me from filling my thoughts with self-pity and fresh self-woundings and all over-occupation with myself. Lord, keep my heart and life concerned for others. Lord, give me true compassion for my oppressors. And, Lord, I entrust myself totally to You. Into Your good hands I commit my spirit. Amen. You're released! You're free! Your heart has begun a deep process of healing! Hold your head high! Fixing your eyes on Jesus has lifted you above all your oppression. God is using it as an instrument to perfect you, mature you, make you whole. "Consider it pure joy" (James 1:2). Now you can read Romans 12:14-21 with new clarity: Bless those who persecute you . . . Do not repay anyone evil for evil . . . Do not take revenge . . . but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink . . ." "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." * * * * * O Lord Jesus, I, Anne Ortlund, take this for myself as well. Help me not to write one thing and act another. May writer pray for reader, and reader for writer, that when we are misunderstood or mistreated, we may fix our eyes on You. Amen.