Through Suffering
"And they all lived happily ever after." This fairy tale ending was read to each of us many times as we were in the beginning of life, and we have read many of these same words to our own children. Maybe this is the reason we are surprised, caught off guard, when we experience hard times. From childhood we learn to live happily ever after, with no problems or worries. Maybe as an adult we experience some evil, hurts, and suffering. Then we are introduced to Jesus, decide to change our wicked ways and devote ourselves to living for him. And we think that we will again have very limited amounts of pain and suffering. Not to mention that since we are living in privileged places and times we think that we deserve to have no problems, pain, suffering and we are caught off guard again. However, Jesus tells us to expect otherwise, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! For I have overcome the world."
And so the hard times come. Illnesses, financial problems, dealing with death of a spouse or child, hurts from the Church and the World, divorce, job layoffs. The list of pains and sufferings are endless. In the past two years of my life I have experienced much pain and suffering—more than I could have ever imagined, more than I was ready for. I know that many around me have endured pains and sufferings as well of which I would not dare to compare (much less trade) sufferings with. Not withstanding, I have learned many valuable lessons and more about my Heavenly Father due to going though these challenging times.
Suffering does not mean that God is against you. Take a few moments to reflect on Some heroes of the Bible that endured great amounts of suffering: Moses - the most humble man on earth; Joseph - who continuously displayed dependence on God; Job - noted by God as blameless and upright; David - the man after Gods own heart, Paul - selected of Jesus for apostleship; Jesus - The son of God and our Lord and Savior. There are so many others. Spend time looking at their lives. This is causing me to reflect on my next point.
It is easy when you are in the midst of suffering to think that you are not righteous enough, or that your prayer life is lacking. You may think that if you only prayed more and "harder" and without doubt that God will relieve you of your suffering. You will, like Job, likely have some miserable comforters that will tell you that you must not be righteous enough or else God will relieve your suffering. They will even tritely quote Romans 8:28 (I used to very much dislike this scripture until I very recently, since I think I have a better grasp on it—this will be my next thought). I have been there, and so have many of you. Remember, God has a plan and you are part of it. Even though some days will seem most challenging do not give up praying and admiring and studying God. I think of Paul praying that God would remove the thorn from his flesh. Or Jeremiah's requests to be relieved of his sufferings, or of Jesus' prayers. Who of us is willing to challenge their prayer lives?
Romans 8:28—And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. The reason I disliked this scripture for so long is that I tend to think of God working for my good as meaning that God was fixing my immediate need, or my present suffering. And if my immediate need was not getting addressed by God as I expected, then it indicated that either I did not really love God or that I was not called according to His purpose. In reality it means so much more. Look at Romans 8:17-18. God is doing so much more than working on our sufferings, He is working in the midst of our sufferings to prepare us for eternal glory. That brother or sister undergoing horrible sufferings is not neglected by God, but instead are going to see incomparable glory that will be revealed in them.
Some quick closing thoughts regarding what can happen as suffering is endured.
- 1) Suffering teaches us to be patient and wait on the Lord.
- 2) Suffering causes you to see "treasures in the darkness" that causes incredible gratitude.
- 3) Hebrews 11 tells us of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us that we can gain great encouragement from. The likes of David, Moses, Abraham, Joseph, David and the prophets are in our corner encouraging us and being encouraged by us.
- 4) Romans 12:15 - The family of God is so crucial to the sufferer's survival. Find family that will rejoice when you who rejoice and will mourn when you mourn. Once you find these true friends, you have found something worth more than gold. And
- 5) You may never figure out why you or someone else is suffering. God's ways are not our ways and there are some things we will never understand.
God reveals much about himself in scripture, but not everything. That is all right. Let that drive you to deeper reflections about God and more earnest desire to know him through prayer and study of the Bible. Scriptures to consider: Matt 10:22, Acts 5:41, Acts 8:33, 2 Cor 4:11,2 Cor 8:9, Heb 11:25, 1 Peter:5:10, Heb 2:10