Suffering in the Place of Praise

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God."
1 Peter 4:1-2

I've been reading through 1 Peter and noticed a common theme: suffering for doing good. This is not something many of us do very gracefully. When I do good, I tend to want recognition, reward or repayment, not the opposite. Throughout 1 Peter and the entire New Testament, we see that suffering in the place of praise is one of the chief ways we experience true fellowship with Christ. In fact, 1 Peter even says "it is better to suffer for doing good than for evil" (1 Peter 3:17).

At the Last Supper, Jesus "took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'" Jesus gave thanks for that which meant His death! He embraced suffering for our good to the point of giving thanks for it! Jesus, thank you!

The Lord is slowly working in my heart to change my need to be recognized, rewarded and repaid, and replacing it with a desire to fellowship more deeply with Christ and experience gratitude in all circumstances. I pray you find encouragement today in the all encompassing lifelong journey of following Jesus.