As we dive into week four of our Faith Under Pressure series, we have to revisit our golden rule for the book of Colossians: Orthodoxy precedes Orthopraxy. Right thinking leads to right behavior. You have to believe right before you can behave right.
Paul is writing this letter to the church at Colossae around AD 60-62. And here is the kicker: he is writing it from a prison cell. He’s chained up, sleep-deprived, and facing a deeply uncertain future. Yet, because he has his orthodoxy locked in—because he understands the preeminence and supremacy of Jesus Christ over everything—his orthopraxy in that prison cell looks completely backward to the rest of the world.
Rejoicing in the Reality of Pain
In verse 24, Paul writes, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake…” Read that again. Now I rejoice. He isn’t tweeting from a beach vacation. He’s locked up. If you read 2 Corinthians 11, you get a glimpse of Paul’s highlight reel of suffering: beaten with rods, shipwrecked, whipped 39 times on five separate occasions, stoned and left for dead, sleep-deprived, frozen, and carrying the heavy emotional anxiety of caring for all the churches.
Most of us don’t really know how to suffer. We lose our minds if the church building is too cold, the worship set is one song too long, or our DoorDash order is late. But Paul knew that his suffering wasn’t meaningless; it was missional. Because Christ was preeminent in his life, Paul knew that God was in control of every season. When you truly surrender to the preeminence of Jesus, you can smile in the fire, knowing He is working something greater in and through your life.
Your Hardship is Someone Else’s Breakthrough
Paul goes on to say he is “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction.” Now, this doesn’t mean Jesus didn’t finish the job on the cross. Jesus said, “It is finished.” His atoning work for our sins is done. What Paul means is that Christ’s missionary suffering through His people continues.
Paul’s pain had a purpose, and it had a people attached to it. His suffering strengthened, protected, and built up the church.
Think about it like a mother going into labor. The suffering is intense, but we endure the pain because the outcome is so beautiful. Your life is the same way. Sometimes God uses your hardest season to strengthen someone else. The difficult truth of the Gospel is that your hardship may be someone else’s breakthrough. Ministry is Service, Not a Platform In verse 25, Paul calls himself a minister. The original word there just means servant. Paul didn’t see leadership as a status; he saw it as a service. I hear people call themselves “servant leaders,” but that’s just redundant. You’re just a servant.
Ministry isn’t about getting a platform or being popular; it’s about responsibility and stewardship. You don’t own your ministry; you are just managing it. And God expects us to be stewards of every season He entrusts to us—even the painful ones.
You don’t need a seminary degree to make an impact. If God can use a four-year-old girl walking to the school cafeteria to convict an adult by talking about the “Jesus in her pocket,” He can use you exactly where you are. You just have to know the Word deeply, live it visibly, and speak it boldly.
What Are You Leveraging?
Living on mission for Jesus transforms everything. It means you stop focusing on yourself and start leveraging everything you have for the glory of God. Your job, your home, your finances, your car, and yes, your suffering.
So, what are you doing right now—in the middle of your greatest struggle—to make the Word of God fully known?
Father,
Thank You that You are preeminent over every season of my life. Forgive me for the times I complain about minor inconveniences while ignoring the profound calling You have placed on my life. Help me to steward my current season well, even if it is a season of deep pain. Shift my perspective so that I focus more on others than myself. Use my hardships, my trials, and my story to be the breakthrough someone else desperately needs. I want to leverage everything I have for Your glory alone.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
It is incredibly hard to see the purpose in our pain when we are standing in the middle of it alone. How has God used a past hardship in your life to bless or encourage someone else? Share your story in the comments below, or reach out to someone who is currently walking through a dark valley. Remember, whatever season you find yourself in this week, at ONE Church, No ONE Walks Alone.
