Suffering For Christ-A Higher Calling

Often many are bewildered at the eerie silence of God especially when some of His own people are cruelly murdered and mishandled in various ways.  What is the Biblical insight into such situations? 

A conspicuous silence of God is witnessed in Acts 7 where the first martyr of the Christian church witnessed martyrdom. Here was Stephen mightily defending his faith before a furious crowd. Should we not expect God to defend His servant on such an occasion? Where was the God of Daniel? Was He not any more at work in that fashion? We are told in Acts 7 that as Stephen looked up he saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7:56). Why was He a silent spectator this time? Three times in the book of Acts prison doors were opened miraculously; twice for Peter and once for Paul (Acts 5:19; 12:10; 16:26). But the book of Acts closes with a closed prison door. What happened now?  Are we to think like some that the age of miracles slowly came to an end towards the end of the book of Acts? God forbid. If the age of miracles were to come to an end, how are to understand the reference to Elijah in Js.5:17? Any student of scripture will agree that the passage teaches that if one prayed like Elijah miracles will indeed take place to-day. If that is so, how are we to understand the many martyrdoms in the history of the church? Truly, our question is: “Why was God silent when the Staines were burnt alive?

Thanks be to God for the scriptural revelation. Scriptures tell us that these are occasions when God is giving a higher calling to the ones concerned. Suffering for Christ is seen in the scripture as a gift to the believer (Phil. 1:29). Suffering is the only path to glory. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim.2: 12). In other words our Lord is preparing a set of bureaucrats to rule with Him in His eternal kingdom. Those who qualify themselves are the ones who suffer for Christ now here on earth. To categorize every suffering of a believer as the result of sin is one of the tricks of the devil so that believers will shudder and refrain from suffering for Christ. The greatest saint of India is Sadhu Sunder Singh. He is also called “the apostle of the bleeding feet”. Yes, indeed, the greatest saints are the ones who suffered the most. To day we need men and women who would choose the path of suffering and who would bear their crosses daily knowing that big dividends await them. An aptly given title of a book is “Peril by choice”. It is the biography of a western missionary who went into one of the remotest tribes of Amazon.

We need to remember when we suffer we are not alone. Listen to what the prophet says. “In all their afflictions, he was afflicted…” (Isa. 63.9). Yes, indeed, there is a new dimension in the sufferings of a believer in Christ. Paul graphically pictures the same in Col. 1:24 when he says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ”. So when a believer suffers it has eternal repercussions. Remember what the prophet Zephaniah says in 3: 17b. “He is silently planning for you in His love” (a paraphrase). Silence of God is a welcome thing on such occasions and one must be able to rejoice over it.