THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS -- Devotional for April 13, from "Good Seeds"

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. (Philippians 3:10)

The words fellowship and suffering don’t sound like they belong together in the same sentence. When we fellowship with our friends and family it’s usually a pleasant time that we’re having. Maybe we’re playing games, sharing a meal, enjoying some entertainment, or engaging in stimulating conversation. The very word fellowship communicates the idea of comfort and joy, while the word suffering speaks of misery and pain. Yet God has linked these two words together in the experiences and writings of Paul, and placed them in His Word for our learning. Is He trying to tell us that our deepest fellowship with Him can be found not just in spite of, but in the midst of – and because of – our sufferings? A fellowship is not a club, nor is it an inner circle of elite believers or a higher level of super-spiritual saints. The word as it appears in the original Greek, is koinonia, which can be defined as “a mystical participation.” In today’s Scripture that participation is not with our fellow man, but with Christ. When we turn to Him in faith for salvation we die TO our sin, even as He died FOR it. We are “conformed to His death.” Now we belong to Him, and the fellowship runs deep. As we died with Him, once for all, in His death, so He suffers with us, daily, in our pain. What a marvelous mystery that Jesus feels the sting when His brothers and sisters hurt. When I suffer the pain of bodily injury or illness, or endure the misery of old age – or when my heart twists in some mental or emotional anguish, I can cast myself on Jesus, knowing He is fellowshipping with me in my suffering. He takes my pain personally. He’s close enough to catch my diseases – but also close enough to catch me and help me – and heal me. As I rest in His everlasting arms and hear His soft lullaby to my spirit, I sometimes sing my testimony back to Him with these words:

All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me; all my heart was full of misery and woe. Jesus placed His strong and loving arms around me, and He led me in the way I ought to go. No one ever cared for me like Jesus; there’s no other friend so kind as He; No one else could take the sin and darkness from me –- O how much He cared for me.

“Thank You, Jesus, for the intimate union we enjoy together in the fellowship of Your sufferings. And thank You for catching me when I fall, and for holding me when I hurt!”