DAY NINE: Wednesday
29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. (Phil. 1:29-30 ESV)
You will suffer. There’s no getting around it. Life in the kingdom will not be convenient. It will be costly. It will not necessarily be relaxing. It will more likely be taxing.
You may never be called upon to lay down your life for me. You may not be hunted down the way others are in darker corners of the world. But if you let me truly live through you, you will suffer.
Someone’s going to discreetly turn you down for a promotion because they think you’re into Jesus a little too much. Someone you fall in love with will fall out of love with you because he/she doesn’t share your passion for the Father. You’ll raise your kids to follow my promptings and one day they may follow that prompting to take your grandkids with them and move to another country to be missionaries.
You’ll never really know about popular–because Spirit-led people rarely do. Your own family will sometimes think you’re too compassionate, too devout, or just plain crazy. The goals and dreams you had for yourself at middle-age or retirement may be replaced by far more complicated and complex realities which I’ve planned for you.
There will be days when you feel like no one really understands you or stands with you.
But you won’t be alone. The pain you feel is the pain felt by all who strive to live by my leadership. You’re part of the band of the bruised. The pack of the pained. The assembly of the assaulted. You’re part of a sacred community of the scarred.
So welcome the scars. Embrace the challenges. After all, you follow a Savior with holes in his hands.
Blessings be upon you,
Spirit
