You're listening to Encounter, a simple daily podcast of sacred and mindful Christian

meditations.

You can listen here, but if you would enjoy being able to search and favor it, forward

and journal as you listen, I encourage you to download the encountering piece mobile

app where all the meditations are free as they should be.

CS Lewis wrote that we are promised sufferings.

They are part of the program.

We're even told, blessed are they that mourn, and we should accept it.

We've got nothing that we hadn't bargained for.

Of course, it's different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality.

Not just imagination.

We hear much in the news about religious persecution, the systematic mistreatment of an individual

or group of individuals in response to their religious beliefs.

But as a follower of Christ, we are told not only to expect, but welcome it.

So how do you respond to suffering by suffocating or surviving?

The theme for this meditation from 1 Peter 4 is suffering, learning not to be ashamed

when you suffer, but rather honor God as you bear Christ's name, giving honor to God

and remembering you belong to Christ.

So whether at the rising or setting of the sun, give yourself this gift of quiet meditation

to live a life of quiet gentleness, and take this opening moment to quiet your mind,

your eyes, your breathing and even your heart, and for a moment, center on silence, on living

like Christ.

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