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Love for Jesus Makes Suffering Sweet, December 17
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
2 Corinthians 4:17
.
Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly glory and
riches, and of having a life free from trial, but He presents to them the privilege of
walking with their Master in the paths of self-denial and reproach, because the
world knows them not....
In an unpitying confederacy, evil men and evil angels arrayed themselves
against the Prince of Peace. Though His every word and act breathed of divine
compassion, His unlikeness to the world provoked the bitterest hostility....
Between righteousness and sin, love and hatred, truth and falsehood, there is
an irrepressible conflict. When one presents the love of Christ and the beauty of
holiness, he is drawing away the subjects of Satan’s kingdom, and the prince of
evil is aroused to resist it....
As men seek to come into harmony with God, they will find that the offense
of the cross has not ceased. Principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high
places are arrayed against all who yield obedience to the law of heaven. Therefore,
so far from causing grief, persecution should bring joy to the disciples of Christ,
for it is an evidence that they are following in the steps of their Master.
While the Lord has not promised His people exemption from trials, He has
promised that which is far better. He has said, “As thy days, so shall thy strength
be” (
Deuteronomy 33:25
).... If you are called to go through the fiery furnace for
His sake, Jesus will be by your side even as He was with the faithful three in
Babylon. Those who love their Redeemer will rejoice at every opportunity of
sharing with Him humiliation and reproach. The love they bear their Lord makes
suffering for His sake sweet....
They follow Christ through sore conflicts; they endure self-denial and experi-
ence bitter disappointments; but their painful experience teaches them the guilt
and woe of sin, and they look upon it with abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ’s
sufferings, they are destined to be partakers of His glory.
In holy vision the prophet saw the triumph of the people of God. He says,
“I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the
victory ..., stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the
song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty.” (
Revelation 15:2, 3
).—
Thoughts
from the Mount of Blessing, 29-31
.
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