Must We Suffer?
BRD REFLECTIONS:
Acts 14:1-28 and Psalm 21:1-13 (NIV)
(Caleb Sim, from Small Group Ministry)
READ:
I have chosen to focus on Acts 14:1-28 for the focus of this reading.
OBSERVE:
After being expelled from Antioch, Paul and Barnabas chose to continue their travels into Iconium and Lystra to spread the good news, despite the fact that they had met resistance there and where Paul almost died at one point.
I found it interesting that after all the resistance, Paul and Barnabas went back to these cities. They returned from Derbe to encourage the new believers, but their encouragement was somewhat strange. In v21-22 it says: “ when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
How is going through tribulations an encouragement?
Paul and Barnabas are reinforcing to the new believers that as followers of Christ, these trials and tribulations are what shape our understanding of who God is. They are not saying that these sufferings are what is needed to get into the kingdom, but that the suffering that we have endured by just being Christian and proclaiming that good news is the way into the kingdom.
It’s because of the faith that you and I have that Jesus will come back that gives us hope that the suffering will all be worth it.
APPLY:
For me, this chapter reminded and comforted me. It reminded me that as a Christian, the suffering and trials I will and have gone through are part of the Christian Journey. However painful or depressing life can get, I am comforted to know that at the end of the tunnel, as long as I hold fast to my faith and hope that Jesus will return, I will enter His kingdom and be greeted by our Lord.
DO:
I will continue to seek Him every day by praying a prayer of thanksgiving. I will pray this prayer in the brightest of times and also in my darkest. I will continue to do my part as a disciple of Christ, just like Paul and Barnabas, to persevere to spread the good news to my non-believing friends and family.
PRAY:
Lord Jesus, I praise You when I am happy because You are there with me. I praise You when I’m sad, because You are always there to comfort me. I thank You Lord, for always being there with me. Lord as life gives me lemons, remind me of Your great love and remind me of what is at the end of the long tunnel. Remind me that You will not forsake me and that Your love transcends my suffering. I ask this in our Lord Jesus’ name, Amen.
