Suffering: An Honor Conferred Rather Than A Burden Endured

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.
Philippians 1:12

Chains could not chill Paul’s zeal for the gospel. On the contrary, he saw his imprisonment as an opportunity for the gospel to penetrate where no preacher had gone before.

If Christ could be magnified more from a dungeon than from a pulpit, so be it! G. Campbell Morgan explains how Paul considered his calling to be of greater concern than his circumstances.

WALK WITH G. CAMPBELL MORGAN
“Paul’s situation is an example of how life in fellowship with Christ triumphs over all adverse circumstances. It is a recognition of the fact that all apparently adverse conditions are made allies in victory under the Lord’s dominion.

“ ‘What has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel,’ exclaimed the apostle. His very bonds opened the door of opportunity throughout the Praetorian guard.

“Suffering on behalf of Christ is referred to as an honor conferred, rather than a burden endured. It is something granted to the Christian as a privilege, the very granting of which is a gift of grace. To this concept all will agree who have ever really known what it is to suffer on behalf of Christ.

“They are not callous; the suffering is very real, very acute. But it brings a sense of joy which finds no equal in human experience.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
A man dives into an icy river to save a drowning child and later comments that he never felt the cold. His mind was on something more important.

For Paul, being in prison didn’t matter when there was preaching to be done; he considered himself privileged to be there.

What do you focus on—the circumstances that confront you or your calling that surmounts any circumstance?