Today's Devotional

 

July 19, 2007

                                                                                  

Subject:  Don't Suffer Wrongfully 

1 Peter 4:15 - 16 "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf."

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Often we bring hardship upon ourselves and then try to pass it off as "suffering for God."  If you spend all of your life daily eating pork ribs, pork skins, fried chicken, greasy hamburgers and french fries, you're not suffering for God when you have that quadruple bypass surgery.  You are simply reaping what you've sown.  

The scripture above says that we shouldn't suffer because of the bad or wrong things in which we can get involved.  Instead we should suffer for Christ.  This brings glory to God and we shouldn't be ashamed.  Some people glory in the suffering that they brought on themselves.  However, the suffering that comes as a believer often makes you want to shrink back or hide, but God says, don't "be ashamed."  

Today, what kind of suffering is upon you and how are you reacting?  Don't suffer wrongfully.  It makes us all look bad and it doesn't glorify God.   

Carlen