Today’s Encouragement is 1 Peter 4:1 NLT So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.
Arm yourselves-
With the same attitude which Jesus had… what attitude was that?
Is it – be ready to suffer? Remember Jesus’ prayer in the garden? Luke 22:42 NLT “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
What is encouraging about this message you may ask? Just this- the last sentence…” For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.”
Don’t we all want to be finished with sin? I certainly do! Let’s consider this – we are (now, already) cleansed, perfectly, and eternally from all sin by the blood of Christ. God has no record and no memory of it. He looks at us, His deeply loved children, and sees us just as pure as Jesus. So, what does ‘finished with sin’ mean? Since Christ has suffered for us and borne all our sins, why then are we now being told – we too must suffer… in order to be finished with sin?
Is it possible that it means: as believers we are to choose – to be finished with and put an end to our earthly human attraction to sin? That is we are to choose to end, refuse, sever, all the human desire(s) which – against our better (spiritual) judgment, entice us into sin.
We can, by suffering, – finish with sin! It’s no fun. The suffering involved is real, but my friends, sin loses its luster when suffering is involved.
Father, help us to arm ourselves with the attitude of Christ, recognizing it is better to suffer than to surrender to sin.
The Break Up Song
Francesca Battestelli
Today’s Encouragement 