²⁹ For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, (Philippians 1:29 NKJV)

Belief in Christ comes with a lot of good benefits. When we come to faith we are given a helper, the Holy Spirit, who is there to guide us. God the Father is there as our Heavenly Father to whom we can turn in every circumstance. Jesus, who died for our sins, is savior and friend to us. But we are also asked to suffer for His sake and this is where the rub is for most people.

We want all the positive but expect Christ to take on all the negative. We look upon any suffering as something that must be endured until Christ fixes it for us. We do not take a moment and consider that throughout the New Testament we are told that we must take up our cross to follow Him. This becomes a euphemism and not something that comes along with our faith. We want all the good without any of the bad.

However, how can we properly experience the good without the bad? I have written before many times that a little rain must fall in every life. I think if you are one of those, like I am, who suffers from bouts of depression you understand this better. Furthermore, the depression can make one spiral down and not see any good from our place of bad. This is where we must learn to lean on Christ more and thank Him for our suffering, as hard as that might be. In this we begin to learn how to suffer in solidarity with Christ.

Reflect on: How suffering impacts your life and how you should change your attitude toward it.