Hebrews 12:1-4
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself,
so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet
resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself,
so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet
resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Christ's atoning sacrifice for us on the cross of Calvary accomplished many things; among them, he set for us an example of pursuing God's will no matter the cost. Not only did Jesus endure the incredible physical cruelties and pain of being crucified - face beaten literally to a pulp by Roman soldiers, back shredded to the bone by scourging, his head impaled by a crown of thorns, - but he "became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21), his perfect union with the Father and Holy Spirit for the first time suffering fracture. Moments before he died, Jesus had cried out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!" - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) - the awful cry of the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It's natural to recoil from this deep, unrelieved suffering - especially knowing that our sin is responsible for it. But considering what Christ did for us, looking squarely at his suffering on our behalf, is necessary, not just in properly appreciating what he did in order to free us from the penalty of our sin, but in understanding what it is to "walk in his steps":
1 Peter 2:21-25
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Though Christians in the West don't generally have any personal experience - yet - of what it is to follow God's will unto death, many Christians in other parts of the world certainly do. In Muslim-dominated regions of Africa, the middle East, and southeast Asia, in communist China, and in North Korea, being a disciple of Jesus Christ, a Christian, is to court death. In fact, more Christians have been martyred for their faith in the last 100 years in these places than in all of the history of the Church combined.
I recall a dreadful scene shown on a popular news organization of sociopathic Muslim terrorists who had rounded up twenty-some Christian men and, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea proceeded to saw off the heads of their Christian captives. Not swipe of their heads in a single fatal - but brief - stroke, but literally saw off the heads of these followers of Jesus with knives. I couldn't watch the video past when the sawing began but I've never forgotten the stark realization of how close to such savage, demonic hatred and violence all Christians are, only an increasingly-tenuous cultural hold on the tattered vestiges of Judeo-Christian values and ethics preventing similar suffering for Christians in the West.
Are we ready for the cross of suffering and death that must come to all who would be "salt and light" in societies gone mad with sin and darkness? No. Not at all. But we can become so, looking unto Jesus, not just in consideration of his suffering, but for what it was that empowered his enduring of it all. "For the joy that was set before him, [Christ] endured the cross..." the writer of Hebrews wrote in explanation of Christ's incredible sacrifice. What was the source of that joy? Can we be grounded in the same joy, enabled thereby to pay whatever cost in suffering for Christ's sake?
"I have come to do the will of Him who sent me," Jesus declared (John 6:38; John 4:34; John 5:30). Nothing was better or higher, in Christ's estimation. Why? Because within the timeless Godhead, Jesus had enjoyed perfect unity with the Father and the Spirit in love, light, truth and joy. "I and the Father are one," was Christ's claim (John 10:30; John 1:1-4) and it was in consequence of this divine fellowship, this ineffably perfect communion within the Godhead, that Christ was willing to suffer as he did, pursuing God the Father's will no matter the cost. Jesus could attain to no greater joy than to fully complete the will of the One who'd sent him, the One with whom He shared such perfect, loving, eternal communion.
It is this same loving fellowship that is to sustain - and must sustain - the Christian who suffers for the sake of Christ.
1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Not only is martyrdom all for nothing spiritually if not motivated by love for God (and others), but apart from love, there can be no joy in suffering. It is the knowledge that in suffering for Christ's sake we are able to show him how much we love him and that we are pleasing to God in such suffering that we find joy in it. Fear cannot lead us to such joy; guilt cannot lead us to such joy; obligation cannot lead us to such joy; self-righteous pride cannot lead us to such joy; only love. And so, the First and Great Commandment of God is not to fear Him as one would some cruel and dangerous Punisher of Wickedness, or to serve Him out of a sense of guilt and obligation, or to obey God out of a sense of preening piety, but to love God with all of one's being (Matthew 22:36-38). In other words, we are to positively desire God above and before all else, and, when we do, we connect to the sole motive both powerful enough to carry us through deep persecution and approved of God.
So, what of you? Do you love God with all of your being, above and beyond all else? Is God your One Great Desire, around whom all of your life increasingly revolves? Only when He is will you be in the proper place to endure suffering for His sake, in the only place with sufficient power to enable you to do so.