Count Your Blessings

Righteous Suffering is a Blessing

The question in verse 13 of “who is there to harm you?” is important. Many times, when we suffer it can feel to us that EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is here to harm us.

Proverbs 16:7 says: “When a man’s ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

We tend to not feel at peace with much when we are in the midst of a real hardship. God’s people in the old testament were no stranger to this either.

In Isaiah 8, Isaiah has prophesied a great victory for the people of Judah, but they find themselves surrounded by enemies, and they have seen the damage and destruction in the wake of the armies that have surrounded them, and they fear that happening to them as well.

In Isaiah 8:12-13 God tells Isaiah to tell the people of Judah: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”

As an adult, who remembers being in trouble a lot as a kid, I can’t help but read this last part as a holy and perfect parent saying “I’ll give you something to be afraid of.”

Before anybody casts any retroactive judgement on my parents, I will say that statement was never said but rather a healthy fear was instilled of greater/weightier consequences at home than any teacher at school or church would be able to enforce based on time constraints

The Lord is telling His people to revere, and fear HIM, not their enemies, because he is our SANCTUARY/OUR PROTECTION.

Let’s quickly clarify what Peter is talking about regarding suffering.
primarily he is referring to the past, present, and future unjust sufferings of the New Testament believer to whom he is writing

We can all probably think of suffering or hardship that we went through that was a direct result of actions that we took. That is not the kind of suffering Peter is talking about here. That would be known as a consequence, which depending on the severity, we can get lost in and think of as righteous suffering.

In the previous chapter. Peter asks “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

While Peter is primarily talking about righteous suffering for believers, and says in this chapter that it is better to suffer for doing good than evil; be careful to weaken the power and reach of God and say that you have somehow circumvented God’s plan for your life.

God can use us, and use trials/suffering in our lives, even if they are of our own making. But this is not a free pass for disobedience, but rather an illustration of God’s ultimate power.

Look for the Blessing IN the midst of suffering

If I had a nickel for every time I had to shrug and say “hind-sight, 20/20”; cancer research and world hunger non-profits would be fully funded. The 2015 and 2016 was a time frame for my immediate family and I in which I think I truly began to understand the meaning of the words trial and suffering.

However, it was also a time in which BLESSING and POWER as they relate to God became real fixtures in my spiritual journey as well. As we neared the end of 2016, my mom had a creative brainwave (anybody who has spent much time around her is SHOCKED to hear that I’m sure).

Her idea was to write down ways that we saw God work in the 12 months in between August 2015 and August 2016. But not just any old way. She wanted to paint those blessings on rocks. My immediate thought was “Aw jeez, not a craft.”

So, she wrote hers on rocks, and we did the rest of them on paper. By the end of our time, we had several feet of poster paper month by month covered in ways that we had seen God work.

Now, that was done in hind-sight. And some of those, we had noticed in the moment, others we almost had to help each other see the Lord’s hand where previously we had not.

Many believers do an excellent job of keeping an eternal perspective when it comes to suffering. Sometimes, we focus so much on the hope of future glory that we ignore the opportunities in the wreckage and mess found in the midst of our suffering.

Verse 14 reads, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”

This is the KEY to Christian suffering, the HOPE that lives in a believer is unlike anything else!

-Our mission team was hiking in Alaska in June in our “relaxing” time in the evening. And we got to a point where some of the students said “I think this way would be quicker” (famous last words right?) It was off the trail, but it was a more direct, and MUCH STEEPER route to get to where we wanted to. Plus it looked like there was no snow blocking our way.

So I went with the 5 or 6 students who wanted to go up there, and I realized as I looked up and way ahead were 4 students and way behind were 2-3 others, that I was in TERRIBLE shape. But I had started, and I was going to finish. As took a few steps and waited, took a few steps and waited, etc. I turned around at one point and realized I had been spending so much time looking at the steep incline I was struggling with, that I did not see the view behind me that had become so visible, and was so beautiful. Each time I took a break after that, I looked at the view becoming more and more clear above the tree line.

When we suffer, we have a tendency to get into survival mode, and try to simply make it through to our blessings on the other side. Or we say “I will look back on this and truly understand what God is up to.” And maybe there WILL be more clarity on the other side, but not only can the WAY we go through hardship be a witness to others, but we will see ways that God is working in us that we might not have if we had just kept our heads down.

Remember the Saving Power of Suffering

Peter closes this passage by bringing us back to the ultimate example of suffering. The word we see for suffering in verse 18, is seen as the word “die” in some original texts.

In the midst of our suffering we are called to honor Jesus (v.15), and thus it is important that we keep in mind his example of how-to walk-through hardship as well.

(Quick asterisk: it would not be difficult to spend days and weeks unpacking the meaning and implications in verses 18-20, however we will be focusing on Peter’s message to the NT church believers who were currently, or were soon to be suffering.)

In VBS this week we took the kids through a series of Encounters with Jesus during his ministry on earth. When I was talking to the 5th and 6th graders this week about John the Baptist’s encounter with Jesus at the Jordan River, and his baptism, I asked if there was anything special about the water in that river or the water in the baptistry here.

We talked about how the water we use to baptize is the same water we use to take showers and drink, and so unless anybody is having some spiritually cleansing showers in here, being physically cleansed by the baptistry waters is the same as any garden hose water.

Peter is pointing out that baptism, like righteous suffering, can be an incredible tool to witness to others and demonstrate obedience. Suffering well is not what saves us, baptismal waters don’t save us, avoiding suffering doesn’t save us, nothing that we DO will save us.

What DOES save us is belief in the truth and power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which THEN drives us to obedience in every aspect of our lives.

There will always be a time for everything under the sun: a time to mourn, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to search, a time to give up, a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to suffer, a time to rest……but in ALL those times we are called to be OBEDIENT.

Instead of looking for the best ways to survive hardship, we should be looking for the best ways to be OBEDIENT to his commands in the messiest part of it.

Remember. we aren’t riding out the hardship to see if victory will come….we have the end of the story right here in verse 22.

“(Jesus) has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him”

He has WON and so we have to live like it. Whether we talk about suffering in the past, present, or future tense, believers are called to live in the VICTORY that Christ won on the cross.

SO FOR BELIEVERS IN THE ROOM….

I know we know how to ride out a hurricane in this room. But the life of a believer has a contrary protocol to that of a hurricane.

The Christian life is not intended to be a “shelter-in-place” or “evacuate-until-the-coast-is-clear” kind of lifestyle (although stick with that for hurricanes)
We aren’t called to have the most fun, most safe, generator-powered hurricane party of life, where we stay dry, eat hurricane snacks and feel bad for everyone who isn’t as dry as we are.

Our party, our reward, our feast, our TREASURE is in HEAVEN. So while we are HERE, embrace the the season God has you in, pointing others to Jesus in the process.

Do as the classic hymn says in ALL situations:

Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God has done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done