"My suffering brings me closer to understanding Christ's suffering on the cross."
How it sounds in your head: There's something spiritually deep about this pain - like I'm fellowshipping with His sufferings, understanding the cross in a way healthy people can't. This agony is sacred somehow, a dark communion.
"For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."
-- Hebrews 10:14Source: Religion - confusing Christ's redemptive suffering (which finished the work) with ongoing suffering (which denies the finished work).
It makes the pain feel meaningful and spiritually elite, like you're accessing a higher level of intimacy through suffering. It turns victimhood into virtue and makes you feel closer to Jesus than 'shallow' healthy believers.
Paralyzed and bedridden for eight years in Lydda. Peter simply said 'Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed' - immediately he arose, ending nearly a decade of suffering in one sentence with no spiritual process required.
I REFUSE the lie that my suffering brings me closer to Christ. IT IS WRITTEN that by one offering He perfected me forever - His suffering was complete and sufficient. I fellowship with the POWER of His resurrection, not the repetition of His crucifixion. He suffered so I could be healed, not so I could stay sick. IT IS WRITTEN that by His stripes I WAS healed - past tense, finished work. I am under the BARAK blessing of Abraham where protection and health flow from covenant, not from sharing Christ's punishment which He already bore alone.
Jesus didn't suffer so you could join Him in suffering - He suffered so you could join Him in RESURRECTION LIFE, healed and whole. The Father isn't impressed by your pain; He already saw enough suffering when His Son bore it all.