In the Fellowship of His Sufferings

"that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings…" (Philippians 3:9-11)

I heard a great preacher once correlate this to a great deal of people desiring to know us only when we got the promotion, or when they saw us on t.v, or when they saw us with the new car. Yet it is only those that know us in our sufferings…when the test results came back positive, when we didn't know what else to do but cry, when dad walked out on us…it is only those people that know the depths of us in association. It is only those people who can truly appreciate when we do get promoted because they understand the totality of our experience.

Therefore, the intimacy that I seek to attain from our Lord is not simply within the limitations of His resurrection in how He saved me and how He healed me and delivered me. It is not in what He can do for me next and in the why and how comes. "That I may know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings". What was it that was the driving force behind Him continuing to love unconditionally and pray for His enemies as they betrayed Him and delivered Him unjustly to be killed? What was it that compelled Him to complete and total obedience even unto death? What was it that made Him continue on believing in a God that stood by quietly while Jesus was writhing in agony as sweat as blood soaked Him when He prayed? What was it? Because many have us have suffered a great deal, yet as believers we fail to know the depths of God because we have rejected the acquaintance of HIS sufferings. Consequently when I am faced with tests and trials I seek to apply that which I have learned through His sufferings so that I may get closer to Him because as believers our sufferings do not count as victories until we have activated the motivated response of Christ. So when movies like "The Passion of The Christ" were being viewed, it's response was so intense not for the mere fact that it was violent, but because for 2 hours the world began to get acquainted with the fellowship of this man's sufferings. No longer was it grandma's Jesus or Sunday school's Jesus or the republican's Jesus that we knew of as being the storybook Savior. We knew His sufferings, therefore we knew Him.