Suffering Wrongfully

1Pe 2:19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
1Pe 2:20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
1Pe 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
1Pe 2:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
1Pe 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
1Pe 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.


1Pe 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:


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Suffering wrongfully. Would you say that you've suffered wrongfully? Would you declare that you've suffered unfairly? Would you say that in your life you've been made to suffer without cause? Do you believe that your suffering has been wrong, that you did nothing to deserve the suffering? Has God allowed things in your life to occur that make you angry at Him because you think you didn't deserve those things? I could say simply you're a sinner and you deserve every bad thing allowed to happen to you and it'd be true, right? We don't get to pick and choose what comes our way as a result of our sinning. You turn your life around and give it over to Christ your slate is clean you're walking the straight and narrow way and the worst agony you've every felt is allowed to befall you for no apparant good reason. You've been forgiven, you've suffered and Christ has suffered for you so why, why are you being allowed to suffer so much more than you ever suffered when you were lost in sin's strong, deadly grasp? Instantly you begin to believe that if you're going to suffer so much as God's when you've denied yourself so much to follow Him, you might as well stick to being a blatant sinner because you suffer no matter what and you might as well suffer for something you know you're doing wrong rather than for no good reason. What good is following God if we are called to suffer? What good is it if we devote our lives to Christ and then when we seemingly need His help the most it's gone? He's gone. Bottom line- we don't want to suffer anything. We don't want to be face with a temptation that calls for our suffering to over come, we want supernatural power to resist the temptation. When we find out all our lives we've suffered and lived a life full of compromise and then we see the life we SHOULD have had, a life with real love and no suffering, a life that should have been ours but is NOW out of our grasp because of the path we've walked down, it's painful and it's horrific and it's a slap in the face to have to deny ourselves something that should be ours. We rail against God for what we perceive as injustice. We cry out that we need help to overcome the temptation to sin and when we don't find that help and the sin overwhelms us we blame God for not giving us what we needed to beat the temptation. We spend our lives blaming God for allowing the unjust pain to occur, we blame God for not saving us from ourselves, we blame God for our weaknesses and in truth God has done all He had to do, all He could do to save us. Every day, every hour, every minute we have to believe that everything that comes our way- every temptation, every injustice, every pain, every heartache we suffer is NOTHING compared to the suffering of Jesus, innocent Jesus who took on our humanity setting aside the divinity that would keep Him from death. He had NO special power to use, not if He wanted to save us. He USED no power to keep Himself from the agonies of life, the temptations. We get it twisted in our thoughts that He was special and it was EASY for Him to live as He did and die as He did. We choose not to grasp the magnitude of what He suffered because if we keep from really comprehending it as far as we are able then we allow ourselves to believe we suffer more somehow because we aren't special as He was special and had the power to overcome- special power. The truth is He only had the same power we have right now today- God. He relied on His Father for all things and didn't trust things to His own power.


Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.


Jesus suffered in ways we'll never be called to suffered because we know we are sinners, He never was. And even after we come to Christ and devote our lives to Him fully, seeking and obtaining forgiveness for our sin filled lives, and we think suddenly we are entitled to some special power that will keep us from feeling temptation and pain, a special power that will make us feel as if God is always with us and not abandoning us. Didn't Jesus cry out...


Mar 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?


Did God forsake Him? NO! He was resurrected but Jesus certainly felt as if God had left Him didn't He? So why should we even begin to think that we should have some special treatment that will afford us the feeling that God never leaves us on our own, suffering? We do though. We stomp our feet and rail our fists in the air and we scream at God for His lack of being there for us when we need Him the most. We suffer and we expect something special, to be treated better than God's own sinless Son.


We are CALLED to suffer and to suffer unjustly. God won't leave us, though it may feel as if He has abandoned us and left us to Satan's devices. We blame God and our lives go on and we continue to suffer and we console ourselves with worldly evils telling ourselves that it's just as well because God isn't really who He says He is and nothing is as it should be and when I loved Him the most He left me.


1Pe 2:19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
1Pe 2:20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.


God forgive us! GOD FORGIVE US! Because we are so weak. We give in when we suffer, we blame God for the suffering, we are so incredibly weak and lack so much in faith. Please God, please forgive us...forgive us for presuming to know Your ways and to accuse You of wrong. Forgive us God, forgive us and please Lord, please...restore us to you. We know our sins are many and willful and we've shunned You and turned our backs on You, we've blamed You and cursed You time and again, please Lord! For Jesus' forgive us, for Love forgive us and bring us to You fully once more knowing that anything and everything we are to endure will somehow work out for Your glory. Please Lord, we don't even know for what we should pray or how to pray, let the Holy Spirit intercede for us with You. We are so unworthy and only You are worthy. Lord we believe, help our unbelief! Please Lord! Help our unbelief! By Your perfect mercy, Your perfect grace, Your perfect rightousness in Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior now and forever!


Amen.