Jul 31, 2023
Hey, it's Mike Henry
with Follower of One. This is another one of those episodes where
I'm mostly talking to me. I hope you enjoy it. 1 Peter 4:12 & 13,
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which
comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were
happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings
of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His
glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.”
So I study and
contemplate and think about joy. I enjoy the joy that God has given
me as I've learned to integrate more of my life, my daily work life
and my daily living with Jesus. I wish I had done a better job of
that when I was younger and when my faith was newer, and that's
part of the reason why I'm involved with Follower of One at all. I
want to help us integrate our faith in our work so that we may
rejoice with exaltation as he says here at the end of this verse.
But he's giving us tips for dealing with difficulty.
Tip number one: do not
be surprised at the difficulties that you face. He says “the fiery
ordeal among you”, that difficulty comes upon you for your testing.
God is using this to strengthen us. You know as well as I do that
we get stronger at anything by lifting above our weight, by trying
to do more than we are equipped to do, our muscles get torn down,
and then they heal back stronger.
We're working out our
faith in the same way by facing the fiery ordeals that come upon us
for our testing. But when I look at it like it's some strange thing
that was happening to me, my expectation is I'm living the good
life. My expectation is this should be easy. It should take less
time. I always seem to plan for the ideal situation, and then I'm
surprised, as though some strange thing were happening to me, as he
says in this verse.
And he's reminding us
if we can create in ourselves this attitude that comes from Jesus,
but if we can create it and say “This comes upon me for my testing,
it's not a strange thing. It's part of God's plan”, then to the
degree that I can share the sufferings of Jesus, I get to rejoice,
so that I can see His glory through my life. When I see His glory
through my life, I experience His joy.
I enjoy doing these
daily devotionals. I don't do them as often as I'd like, but I just
don't want you to go nuts listening to my voice all the time. I
hope that these are helpful, because I struggle with this whole
idea of following Jesus in the difficult times. I really want the
easy job, I want the easy shift. But it's in the difficulty that I
get to rejoice, because His glory is revealed.
When I do what Jesus
would have me do in my workplace, in the difficulties of my daily
life, Jesus is glorified. People go, “Well, why are you doing
this?” And I get to tell them about my relationship with
Jesus.
I get to glorify God,
and then I can rejoice with exaltation. I can enjoy watching God
work through me when I am not surprised by the difficulties that
face me. I'm preaching to me again, please remember, but maybe this
will help you too. Let's look at our circumstances today as the
weight Jesus is loading on the bar for us, and it's ours to push.
It's ours to lift.
Let's not look as
though some strange thing were happening to us, but let's face our
difficulties with joy and trust Jesus. Now, maybe you need some
help with that. And you can reach out to me at followerofone.org, you can reach out to
mike@followerofone.org. I'd
be happy to help you to pray for you to do whatever we can. We
probably need to create a page where we can share prayer
requests.
But I want to
encourage you if you need prayer, let me know. And people from our
team will pray for you, And so will I. Thank you for being a
marketplace minister. Thank you for looking for ways to integrate
your life and Jesus’ in such a way that He becomes visible.
And any way you want
to do that, we can help you. We’re trying to help people do this
better all the time at followerofone.org. You can check it out
over there. Thanks very much for being a minister in your
marketplace.