Suffering For His Sake.

Php 1:28  And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. 

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; 

Php 1:30  Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me

Terrified by our adversaries- they view our terror as evidence of our not holding fast to salvation in our Savior.  We know that we will be confronted by our adversaries, flesh and spiritual adversaries. And we know how terrifying it can be when we are under attack. As we fight the very real Christian fight, the spiritual fight, we feel the pain, the horror of the viciousness of Satan. We have to realize as we suffer that it is for our Savior, to believe on Him, suffering for Him.

Why do people tell others they won't suffer? 

Yes, we are to count it all Joy-

Jas_1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations

Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 

We are to count it joy when we suffer afflictions yet when we are in the throes of suffering it's so hard to do so. Joy in pain, joy in heartache, joy in sorrow, joy in loss, joy in abandonment, joy in sickness, joy in betrayal, and the list goes on and on. Joy- Jesus- salvation-eternity.  This is the joy we have to have. We can't place our joy in things of the here and now as if we can't lose everything.  Yes, we need to be JOYFUL, and our joy must be in CHRIST first and foremost!  We can joy in our family, joy in our blessings, but we have to do so because we've been given these joys by Christ, through Christ. If our family falls apart, our joy still must be in Christ that somehow, some way it will all work for good. We won't be able to comprehend how the awfulness of a torn apart family can work for good, but it's not for us to comprehend. We must trust in our Savior, we must have faith in Him and know that His ways are far above and beyond ours. As our health deteriorates and we feel pain beyond our ability to even think, we still need to find our hope, our joy in Jesus Christ our Lord. Our hope is in eternity with the love of our Lord, not in ANYTHING here and now. Please Lord, bless us with joy in YOU. Help us to find our joy IN YOU, now and always!