Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 22 April 2022 || Friday Message
Read Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 22 April 2022
Topic: The Fellowship
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.” – Philippians 3:10
Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 22 April 2022 MESSAGE
The words “fellowship” and “suffering” don’t look as though they fit together. One communicates comfort. The other, pain. Yet God links these words, insisting that our deepest fellowship with Him can be found in the midst of suffering.
The word “fellowship” does not mean a club. It’s not an inner circle of elite believers or a higher level of super-spiritual saints who have arrived. Fellowship — in the Greek, koinonia — means a mystical participation together with Christ. It’s a marvelous mystery that Jesus feels the sting in His chest when you hurt.
When I hurt, when I’m in physical pain from my paralysis, when my heart twists in anguish, I cast myself on Jesus. In the fellowship of suffering, I know He takes my pain personally, He’s close enough to catch me. As I rest in His arms, I’m amazed how often I find myself singing this hymn:
All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me,
All my heart was full of misery and woe;
Jesus placed His strong and loving arms around me,
And He led me in the way I ought to go.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There’s no other friend so kind as He;
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me —
O how much He cared for me!
Thank You, Jesus, for the warm, intimate union we enjoy together in the fellowship of Your sufferings. Bless you for catching me when I fall, for holding me when I hurt.
Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 22 April 2022 is taken from Diamonds in the Dust – By Joni Eareckson Tada
