daily devotional

LEARN TO FELLOWSHIP

 
“Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: 
therefore God hath blessed thee for ever,” Psalm 45:2.   
 
 
Those who had fellowship in Christ’s sorrows and sufferings are now welcomed 
into His rest. Many suffer and die but have no fellowship in the sufferings of 
Christ. That word fellowship means oneness of mind, oneness of thinking. When 
you and I fellowship in the sufferings of Christ, this means that we do so in 
the same attitude, that when someone comes against us, we can say, Lord, forgive 
them, they do not know what they are doing. This is fellowshipping in the 
sufferings of Christ, when we can have suffering come upon us for His name sake, 
and we can say, Not my will, but yours be done.
 
For those who fellowship in His sufferings, for those who understand what it is 
to have that Spirit of Christ, He says to them in Matthew 11:28-29: “Come unto 
me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my 
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls.”
 
This means, learn to fellowship in my sufferings and come under my service. Are 
we looking for rest? The rest we will find is in the Spirit of Christ. When you 
and I can come into that Spirit of Christ, we can say in all of our sufferings, 
Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing, and Father, 
nevertheless not my will but yours be done. 
 
 
We can turn all of our circumstances over into the hand of the Lord and give 
them all into His hands as we see in 1 Peter 2:23: “but committed himself to him 
that judgeth righteously.” This is where we need to be. This is the Spirit we 
need to have. We read in verses 21 to 23: “For even hereunto were ye called: 
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should 
follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, 
when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but 
committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” 
 
 
 
There is such a lesson in this. We do not know the motive and intent of our 
fellow man. We may think we do, but we do not. The Lord Jesus Christ did know, 
but He turned all judgment over to One who judges righteously. In every trial we 
come into, if we are going to suffer in the Spirit of Christ, we must turn all 
over to the One who judges righteously. 
 
 
We find rest for our souls in being totally surrendered to the will of God. We 
read in Matthew 11:30: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” His yoke 
is easy because we delight to do His will. We come under His kingship. We come 
under His yoke because it is the chiefest joy of our hearts to do what is 
pleasing to the Lord.
 
He has not forgotten His beloved friends and brothers in adversity. See what 
blessed “grace is poured into [HIS] lips” in John 17:12-13: “While I was with 
them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have 
kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture 
might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the 
world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”
 
This is the purpose of Christ working in our souls, that His joy may be 
fulfilled in us. His joy will be fulfilled in us when His yoke becomes our chief 
delight, when His burden becomes so light that it is our chief delight to seek 
and to do His will.  Amen.
 
My dear Redeemer and my Lord,
I read my duty in Thy Word,
But in Thy life the law appears
Drawn out in living characters.
 
Such was Thy truth, and such Thy zeal,
Such def’rence to Thy Father’s will,
Such love, and meekness so divine,
I would transcribe and make them mine.
Isaac Watts, 1709