Hebrews 5:8 – 10 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

It cost Christ everything to redeem you and me and if I understand the verses above correctly, it indicates that his suffering was an act of obedience. Further, it made him perfect. What a concept! It seems then that for believers who are called to endure suffering, there is an element of identification with Christ. (See also Hebrews 2: 9 – 11).

My husband embraced Philippians 3:10 through a decade-long illness.  He even re-wrote the verse as follows: “That I may know Him – in this order: (1) in the fellowship of his sufferings (2) being made conformable to his death (3) the power of his resurrection.” That was intensely personal for him. As close as we were and as much as I shared in his suffering on some level, I still had to realize that it was his body and not mine that was being ravaged by disease.  He had a very high threshold for pain so complaining was not normal for him. The exception was a rear occasion when he screamed because his pacemaker had short circuited. His response to anyone’s query about how he was doing was always “Fine, thank you.” Never ceased to amaze me!

I believe God never asks us to deny the degree of our suffering, but he does want us to see that our suffering is never pointless. We are not called upon to suffer to the same degree Jesus did but I think it pleases God if we allow him to transform our pain into praise. If you are suffering physically, I humbly share with you the following words the Holy Spirit spoke to me after my meditation on Hebrews 5: 1 – 10:

            Yes, indeed suffering is part of the covenant. Not just suffering but suffering with obedience i.e. that the Lord is glorified by your submission. See that suffering does not diminish your praise or cloud your vision. The Lord God rewards that kind of faith. As it was with Job so it is to be for those who worship me. He never abandoned his faith.