“May Your Suffering In The Lord Not Go In Vain!”

“May Your Suffering In The Lord Not Go In Vain!”
Here we are to begin Lent season tomorrow as we will receive ash on our foreheads. We would be expected to reflect deeply on the love that God has for us, such that he allowed his Son to be killed as a ransom for our sake. We would be enjoined to learn to forgive each other and to follow the way of the cross in humility.
Unfortunately the season coincides with multiple elections in our homeland. And since the gap between the crown and the sanctuary is getting smaller by the day, we are the same ones who will be going about intimidating people, bribing some, cajoling others and promising them appointments, lucrative positions etc, if they vote us! We do not even end there! We would deliberately device all schemes to eliminate potential rivals and we would sit comfortably and pop champagne that we have dealt with our adversaries! We would boast that the Lord is always with us!
It must not always be about our successes and achievements. Rather, it should be about how much we have sacrificed to make others know that Jesus is the Christ!
When others were boasting in what they had achieved for the Lord and themselves, Paul prefered to boast about his sufferings. Paul boasted that he was more a servant of Christ than the others because among other tortures, he had worked much harder, he had been in prison more frequently, he had been flogged severely, and had been exposed to death again and again!(II Cor. 11:21b-23). When the Christians were cheering those with false claims Paul advised them not to look only on the surface of things(II Cor. 10:7f).
My friend, as a Christian, watch out that what you claim as sacrifice for Christ is not like the prayer of a Pharisee which is more or less listing a catalogue of achievements! By the way, the dog is after the chase not because it wants to catch for the master! It is hunting for self!
Take the opportunity of Lent to offer sacrificial services to the Lord through serving others!
Prayer: Lord, if I should boast, let me boast that I have suffered and sacrificed to make you known! Humble me to know the difference between boasting about my achievements for self-gain and being humbly serviceable to your glory! Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!