It is a noble thing to experience the call of God.  Nobility does not equal ease, however.  Many saints of God have testified that, far from easing the turbulence, the call of God increased it.

Paul, no stranger to difficulty, said that his aim in life was "to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings..." (Philippians 3:10)

Many Christ-followers want the power of Jesus' resurrection: to feel the Spirit's wind in their sails, to soar, to achieve, to rise to greater heights.  But the test of our love for Jesus lies in our capacity to share in the fellowship of his sufferings.  There is something special in our walk with Christ, a closeness, an intensity, that words cannot convey.

One of the names for the Devil is "accuser of the brethren."  He loves to twist God's reality into his own counterfeit reality.  When God calls his children to walk with him on a path of suffering, Satan is ready.  Lies spring into our consciousness that portend a future of gray, of bleakness, of despair.

But Satan knows the truth.  He lost his wager with Job.  He was crushed at the cross.  He knows that while he may tempt, God tests.  He works to break us, God works to make us.  He lies. God truths.  For it's in the midst of the storm, when the waves threaten the ship and the winds shriek with a bewildering cacophony, that Jesus rises and says, "Quiet! Be still!" And to us: "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" (Mark 4:39-40)

And we know that, despite the suffering, we are safest.  For we are with Jesus, the captain of the ship, the ruler of the storm.

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Jim Eaton, Lead Pastor
Mosaic Church - Frederick, Maryland
mosaicmaryland.com
twitter.com/jimeatonmd