Why Suffering Is GOOD For Every Believer

Show notes

About This Episode Suffering is not a popular topic in most churches today, but it is a vital part of every believer's life and cannot be left out of our biblical thinking. Aaron has been teaching systematically through 1 Peter, and in this devotional episode he reaches chapter 4. Alongside Romans 8, he explains that suffering in the flesh means depriving the flesh, telling it no and choosing to walk in the Spirit. We have been freed from the old 'want to do,' and God gives us new desires. Aaron then defines each item on the list in 1 Peter 4:3, showing how every one of them ends in self-worship rather than dying to self and taking up our cross.

About Aaron & Jennifer Smith Aaron and Jennifer Smith are the founders of Marriage After God and authors of Husband After God, Wife After God, and Marriage After God. Married since 2007 and raising six children in Bend, Oregon, they started Husband Revolution and Unveiled Wife to share what God was teaching them, not from a place of having it figured out, but as fellow travelers pointing couples back to Jesus.

In This Episode Suffering as a believer — why suffering is a universal doctrine for every Christian. Suffering in the flesh — telling your flesh no and choosing to walk in the Spirit. Sensuality — not just sexual; living to please all five senses rather than God. Passions — being controlled by our emotions instead of pleasing God. Drunkenness — letting a substance remove the restraint God built into us. Orgies — overindulgence that is never satisfied. Drinking parties — inviting others into sin, and why godly fellowship matters. Lawless idolatry — how it all ends in self-worship, the opposite of taking up your cross.

Scripture Referenced 1 Peter 4:1-4 Romans 8 Proverbs 20:1 Ephesians 5:18 Ecclesiastes 1:8

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