"Is there a lesson here for how we should suffer? Have you ever noticed that we are not only to imitate the Lord's suffering, but the Lord's joy in it? Paul said to the Thessalonians, "You became imitators...of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 1:6). It was the joy of the Lord in affliction that filled this young church.
"This is a call to us now in our day. Will we embrace suffering for the cause of Christ? Not joylessness, but suffering. Will we heed the call of Hebrews 13:13, "Let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured"? The answer is going to hang on whether the city of God is more desirable to us than the city of man. Will we answer, "Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come" (Hebrews 13:14)?
...For those who have tasted the joy of Jesus, surely nothing is more compelling than the all-surpassing hope of hearing his final word, "Well done good and faithful servant...Enter into the joy of your master" (Matthew 25:21). The city of God is a city of joy. And that joy is the indestructible joy of Christ. Taken from Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper, pgs. 38-39.
Which city will you chose, the city of man or the city of God?
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