Learning from Christ’s Suffering

 I often wonder how we really have fellowship in Christ’s sufferings. I know that we do – but when Paul says that he wants to know more of Christ, and of the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to his death… what does that look like in real life?

Well I think I got a bit closer this week. I was reading Psalm 22 and looking at how David is distressed and comforts himself, but when I studied it I realised that this is talking about Christ.

The whole Psalm is considered by most to be Jesus Christ crying out to God in His suffering on the cross, comforting Himself with truth, and then praising God after He is delivered. So we can learn more of Christ’s sufferings through reading this Psalm (you can read Matthew 27:35, 1 Peter 1:10-12 and Luke 24:25-27 if you are not sure that it is referring to Him).

We can identify with what He went through, and not only that but the process by which He fought distress and despair, which I think we can learn a lot from. Here are some of the thoughts He goes through in the Psalm.

1. We can be distressed about God (v1-2) 

We can wonder where God is and why He doesn’t help us. Jesus cried out:

 2. We can draw comfort from truth about God (v3-5)

 He comforted Himself by remembering God’s character – that He is holy. If we remember the character of God and who He is it can be so helpful because we know He is just, righteous and loving and would not forsake us.

He remembers what God has done in the past, and how he delivered generations of Israelites before. We can do the same and remember how God has answered our prayers and helped other people.

3. We can be distressed about ourselves (v6-8) 

He says that He is nothing, despised and ridiculed. And that is often our worry, even when it isn’t true. With Jesus it WAS true!

 4. We can draw comfort from our relationship with God (v9-11) 

He reminds Himself that God made Him and has always been His God. We can do this too, and remember that we have a relationship with God and what it has been like in the past and that He made us and everything around us. Sometimes He doesn’t seem as near to us, but we can remember what it was like when we did feel His presence, and walk in faith that it will be like that again. Even if we don’t feel His presence we know He is still with us.

5. He prays for help and God answers (v12-21) 

Christ goes on to tell God what is happening. Sometimes when we are too upset to know what to pray it can be good just to tell God what is going on. He knows already, but it can help us to just pour it all out to Him.

 He doesn’t stop there, but goes on to ask for help and deliverance, and then says how He is answered.

 6. He turns to praising God (v22-31) 

When God answers our prayers we often forget to thank Him and praise Him, but that should be our response! And that includes telling others of the wonderful things He has done for us.

 I think this Psalm is such a good example of how to deal with trials, doubts and temptations. We need to remind ourselves of truth about God and our relationship with Him to help us with this. And to know that Christ went through these things should be a great encouragement to us.

 Also to remember the hope we have in Christ – because of Him we can have victory over sin on this earth, and ultimately we will have victory over death when our souls are risen again and we become like Him in glory.