Petitioning the Creator

It never ceases to amaze me that when God opens the door of opportunity for me to teach, He not only desires for me to teach others about His Word, but more importantly, I learn more than I am sure I teach. Wednesday was no exception to the rule.
In this week's study, Zeria and I were discussing and searching the Scriptures in regards to petitioning God in prayer. It was a neat time of study and teaching. The part that really hit home with me was the final segment of our lesson. 
We were reading various Scriptures to understand the specific things that we should petition God in prayer. The final passage was Philippians 3:10, it says, "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;"
To a fairly new Christian, like Zeria, this passage is loaded. Even to a person who has been a Christian a long time, this one can be difficult to really apply and grasp. We discussed this verse for about 15 minutes. Zeria came up with the conclusion that no matter what pain we suffer, we must die to our sin and know that we have power in the name of Jesus. I thought that she did a great job coming up with that through our discussion together. But as I pondered and prayed about this passage for the rest of the day, it kept reeling in my mind. I have read this passage, prayed over it, yet do I fully understand. I was reading a blog that I frequent and the author had posted about this same topic. Here is what Justin Taylor had to say about the same topic but from 2 Corinthians 4:8-12

Do you see what Paul’s saying? His being beaten and beleagured is a picture of Jesus’ dying; his endurance and perseverance is a picture of the resurrection reality of Jesus’ life. Paul’s suffering and sanctification are designed to be walking advertisements for Good Friday and Easter Sunday:

The Dying of Jesus	The Resurrection Life of Jesus
afflicted in every way	not crushed
perplexed	not driven to despair
persecuted	not forsaken
struck down	not destroyed

Paul saw the purpose of his suffering as a means to mediate, manifest, and magnify the resurrection power of his Savior.

We can see Paul’s radical other-centeredness in 2 Cor. 4:15, as he talks about why he endures such pain:

It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Paul is willing to endure incredible hardship as long as it means more grace leading to more gratitude leading to more glory for God.

In 2 Cor. 11:23-28 Paul reluctantly recounts his resume of suffering, which included imprisonments, countless beatings, and near-death experiences:

• whipped with 39 lashes (5 different times)
• beaten with rods (3 different times)
• pummeled with stones (1 time)
• shipwrecked (3 times)
• adrift at sea (one night, one day)
• journeys (frequent)
• danger from rivers
• danger from robbers
• danger from his own people
• danger from Gentiles
• danger in the city
• danger in the wilderness
• danger at sea
• danger from false brothers
• toil and hardship
• sleepless nights (many)
• hungry and thirsty (often)
• cold and exposed
• the pressure of anxiety for all the churches (daily)

And yet given his radically God-centered worldview, Paul calls such suffering “light” and “momentary”!

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:17-18)

Paul knew that no matter how much it hurt in the hear-and-now, it was as nothing compared to the hope and healing that he would experience for eternity in the presence of his Savior. We “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7), knowing that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). So from Paul’s perspective, the comparison and contrast of now and then—here and there—looks like this:

Earthly Perspective	Eternal Perspective
light	weight
momentary	eternal
affliction	glory
seen	unseen
transient	eternal

May God give all of us grace to suffer well, as living advertisements for the death of Christ and the life of Christ, as we live in light of eternity.

God really spoke to me through Paul's letters, his thoughts and perspective on suffering; and our eternal perspective this side of Heaven. The moral of the story is that we SHOULD petition God in prayer in order to KNOW HIM MORE NO MATTER THE COST and that our eyes should always be focused on making every opportunity in life a chance to glorify our Creator, a holy God.
For the full blog post from Justin Taylor, click the link below.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/02/06/the-purpose-of-pauls-suffering-to-mediate-christs-resurrection-life/