Suffering Knows No Strangers

Scriptures: Genesis 3:17, Luke 15:11-32

THE QUESTION OF SUFFERING 

“Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” GENESIS 3:17 (ESV) 

No one is a stranger to suffering. Whether it’s the death of a loved one, a painful diagnosis, a conflict at work, a broken relationship, or anything similar, trials are not exclusive to any one person. Throughout Scripture, we see numerous accounts of suffering. As we live life and read our Bibles, it becomes unarguably apparent that suffering is a part of human existence. 

Once we accept this reality, one of the most critical questions we find ourselves asking is “Why?” Why do people suffer? All worldviews and religions offer their attempts at answers: “Pain is just an illusion.” “There is no God; pain is meaningless.” “Pain is out of God’s control.” “Pain is payback for past deeds in your present or previous life.” All those answers have something in common: they offer no hope. But God Himself offers us a better answer. 

He could have stopped Satan from deceiving, stopped Adam and Eve from being deceived, or even stopped suffering altogether. God instead chose to use suffering to teach men and women the meaning of willing love and genuine obedience and their need for a Savior. It is our very freedom that makes learning this lesson a possibility. God did not make us to be automatons. He wanted us to serve Him freely and lovingly, not out of force or obligation. Tragically, though, in that freedom, humanity chose life apart from Him—with dreadful consequences. And whenever we sin, we show that we are no different than our first ancestors. 

God knew men and women needed to be confronted by the truth that rebellion against Him is folly. That is why He banished them from the tree of life in Eden (Genesis 3:22-24). That is why the world no longer works as created—and neither do our bodies (v 16-19). Like a rebellious child realizing the folly of their choice, willingly returning home, and appreciating their family all the more, we can freely return to God, longing for His love. God allowed sin to come into the world in all its horribleness so that we could feel the consequences of our choices and learn to love Him all the more as He displays the beauty of His love in a world of evil. 

C.S. Lewis famously put it this way: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[1] 

God is not the author of evil, but He is sovereign over evil. Therefore, we can have this hope: there will be a day when God will bring all evil to an end. Meanwhile, He determines to leave things as they are so we might cling to the Suffering Servant as our Savior through our trials. Do not let your disappointments over life in a fallen world persuade you that God is not there or He does not care. Rather, let them drive you again and again to your Savior, who promises one day to make an end of all that is wrong and stretches before you an eternity in which all is right. 

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Scriptures: Psalms 119:67, Psalms 119:71, Job 1

WHY THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER 

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word … It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” PSALM 119:67, 71 (ESV) 

When we come face-to-face with suffering, whether in our own lives or the lives of others, we often wonder why those of us who profess belief in God still suffer. Doesn’t God love us? What could His purpose be in our suffering? 

When the Bible addresses the issue of pain and suffering, it does so within the framework that God is good and all-powerful and has an eternal plan to create a people who are His very own, to make them into the image of His Son, and to bring them safely to glory (Titus 2:14; Romans 8:29; 2 Timothy 4:18). He will do whatever it takes to achieve those objectives—even if it means permitting temporary sorrows. 

Here are some examples of what suffering can achieve: 

• Suffering brings commonality. Most suffering is just the reality of living in a fallen, imperfect world. We all experience pain, sickness, and grief. The righteous and the unrighteous alike see the sun and feel the rain (Matthew 5:45). The righteous and the unrighteous alike live with the effects of suffering. 
• Suffering is corrective. As a father disciplines his children for them to know and do the right thing, God sometimes uses suffering to get us back on the right path when we are going astray (Hebrews 12:5-13). 
• Suffering is constructive. Not only can suffering correct us, but it can also build character within us (James 1:2-5). Have you ever looked at people and wondered, “How did she become so hopeful? How is he so empathetic with my brokenness?” It’s likely because they’ve gone through suffering, grown from it, and learned to care for others through it. 
• Suffering is glorifying. God always works through suffering to bring Himself glory, even years, decades, or generations later. As with the blind man in John 9, God can use a life of pain or disappointment to eventually display a miraculous example of His power. We may question why we are going through a difficult experience, but somewhere along the journey of our days, we may realize, “Oh, that’s why I went through such pain; it is for this exact moment, that God may be glorified.” 
• Suffering is cosmic. While not all suffering is part of a great spiritual drama, some suffering certainly is. Job is perhaps the most profound example of this, as God used him to demonstrate before Satan that a person can love and trust God for who He is and not merely for what someone can get out of Him (Job 1). 

The truth is, you will suffer in life. But you do not have to suffer without hope. You can remember God’s greater purposes through suffering. The question you and I ultimately need to ask ourselves is not “Why?” but “Will I…?” Will I believe in God’s promises? Will I cling to God’s purposes? Will I trust Him? 

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-9

COMFORT FOR A TROUBLED MIND 

“By God’s power [you] are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” 1 PETER 1:5-6 (ESV) 

There are two things we need to acknowledge about suffering—namely, that it doesexist and does hurt. Affliction is a reality in everyone’s life at one time or another. Such affliction takes on many forms, not the least of which is mental suffering. 

When writing to fellow believers about suffering, Peter recognized that there are many and various ways in which we can be grieved. The specific sorrow that Peter’s first readers were burdened by was the mental anguish that comes from enduring hardship—but Peter was fully aware that there are all kinds of trials that buffet our minds and crush our spirits. 

Because of the gospel, Peter doesn’t have to end on a note of hopelessness and despair. Instead, he gives us promises to which we can cling. 

First of all, Peter reminds us that our trials last only “a little while.” Now, “a little while” needs to be understood in the light of eternity; even a lifetime is “a little while” compared to forever! Thus, a long period of suffering in this life is still, in God’s economy and the framework of His plan and purpose for His children, “a little while.” That is not to say that such suffering will feel brief—especially when we are in the midst of it. For many, suffering means that a minute can seem like a day, a day can seem like a year, and a year can seem as if it’s never going to end. But we can and must cling to this promise: our current misery is not our eternal end. Suffering may fill your life today, but one day, “in the last time,” salvation will. 

Secondly, we can say with confidence that in every moment of suffering, God is present. In the account of Saul of Tarsus’s conversion we find Jesus intimately identifying with His people’s suffering: he says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4, emphasis added). How could Jesus say “me” when He was in heaven? It was because, through the Spirit, Christ was present with His people. He stood in solidarity with them. His Spirit was with them, guarding them as they walked through valleys toward their day of final salvation. He does the same for us. 

You have in the Lord Jesus a Great High Priest who is perfectly able to sympathize with your sufferings (Hebrews 4:15). When you’re tempted to believe the lies that God has abandoned you or that no one else understands where you’ve been or what you’re going through, you can be confident in this: there’s “no throb nor throe that our hearts can know, but He feels it above.”[1] And you can be confident in this, too: one day the sorrow will be behind, and only glory will lie ahead. That is a truth in which you can rejoice today, whatever today may hold. 

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Scriptures: Hebrews 12:3, Philippians 3:3-16

CONSIDER HIM 

“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” HEBREWS 12:3 (ESV) 

Have you ever been tempted to give up on your faith? Maybe during a tough week, you’ve considered your circumstances and thought, “None of this is working to my benefit. It’s time to forget about Christianity and live as others live.” In those moments, it’s easy to look around and see our unbelieving friends, family, and coworkers living differently and more easily and seemingly having a great time. Envious glances allow doubt and disillusionment to creep in and steal our resolve to stay on the straight and narrow path. 

This was the experience of the psalmist Asaph. He “had almost stumbled” because he “was envious of the arrogant when [he] saw the prosperity of the wicked” who were “always at ease” (Psalm 73:2-3, 12). This, it appears, was also the experience of the Christians to whom the writer of Hebrews addressed himself. They had “not yet” had to shed blood to stand firm in the faith (Hebrews 12:4), but it was clear that the struggle against sin within and the struggle to withstand opposition from without were taking their toll. 

What should they do? Consider Jesus. The biblical antidote to faintheartedness and weariness is to fix our eyes on Him who endured hostility—who endured the cross—to obtain the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). 

At some point in our lives, all of us will face unjust suffering in words, deeds, or circumstances—and we can admit that we don’t want to take the dig in the ribs and the spikes in the shins. All of us will face the reality that we have not yet defeated the sins that we have struggled with for years and years. All of us will face days when we don’t want to be in the race when we are tempted to give up and drop out. What should you do on those days? Hear God’s word saying, Consider Him. Consider the life of Christ: what it was like and where it led. He opened the door to glory; now we walk the path behind Him. Look at Jesus, who ran this race and is now “seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Day by day, no matter whether the course runs uphill or the wind feels full against us, we consider Him and “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (v 1). 

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Scriptures: James 1:2-4, Romans 5:1-11

JOY IN OUR TRIALS 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” JAMES 1:2-4 (ESV) 

For a long time, I have imagined that I see everybody with a wheelbarrow. I have a wheelbarrow too. We push them around, and inside are our trials, temptations, fears, failures, disappointments, heartaches, and longings. These are the things that wake us and then keep us awake at three o’clock in the morning. 

Living in this world places demands upon us, confronts us with challenges, and buffets us in ways that are painful and sorrowful. When we face these difficulties, often we are told to deny them, conceal them, shoo them away, or live above them. All the while, we’re tempted to resent our trials and grow more and more bitter. 

The biblical perspective on hardship differs greatly from all of these options. James said that it is possible to know pure, complete joy in our trials. How can this possibly be? Receiving joy in trials seems to be an absolute contradiction. Most of 21st-century Western life is lived in such a way as to keep trials at bay. It seems obvious that the way to joy is to avoid trials. 

James, however, tells us that how we can “count it all joy” is not by moving ourselves into a citadel where troubles are absent but by having our attitudes to those troubles transformed. In saying “for you know,” he is reminding us that we have to bring our feelings under the rule of what we know to be true. And what do we know? That faith by itself does not develop perseverance. True faith is proven and strengthened when it is tested. The things we seek to avoid are the very things that make us. 

We have to be honest about the trials we face. We are not yet in heaven, and so our faith is still being tested. It’s not revealed in some blissful, otherworldly experience but the rough and tumble of everyday life. And the testing of true faith will always produce steadfastness. It will make us more like Jesus. It will make us more able to comfort others. Therefore, we can trust that through all our difficulties God will continue to fashion in us a faith that is perfect and complete. It is as we hold on to that promise that we can “count it all joy” as a trial looms ahead or we realize we are deep in one already. We can think, “I would not have chosen this path, but the Lord has, and He is going to use it to show me more of Himself and to make me more like Him.” 

What is in your wheelbarrow today? They are things you would not have chosen. But what would change if you saw them as opportunities for your faith to be tested, strengthened, and perfected? That is the path to deeper, unconquerable joy. 

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Scriptures: Psalms 31:14-16, Psalms 31

MY TIMES ARE IN YOUR HAND 

“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!” PSALM 31:14-16 (ESV) 

Most of us are a mixture of emotions and experiences. The good, the bad, and the ugly wash over us regularly. The key issue is what we do with these feelings and experiences. How does being a believer shape how we view our world? “My times are in your hand” is a six-word affirmation to remind Christians that despite disasters and difficulties, we are under the care of Almighty God. 

In the opening verses of Psalm 31, it is apparent that David is in anguish. As we read on, we seem to find him in a position of assurance just a few verses later, only for him to return immediately to a state of distress. This cycle of pain and joy is not an unusual experience for the Christian pilgrim. The recurrence of disappointment and discomfort is fairly common along the path of faith. 

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells the story of looking forward to her first railway journey. Although her trip was not for many weeks, she would regularly go to her father and ask him if he had the tickets. He would tell her over and over that he did. She realized that her problem was a lack of trust in her dad; she did not believe he would take care of everything. She was worrying that he would lose her ticket and that somehow she would be without it on the day she was to travel. In that lesson, she learned that God gives us the ticket on the day we make the journey and not before.[1] He, of course, is much better at keeping it safe than we are. 

In our pilgrimages through heartache, disappointment, the loss of loved ones, and personal failures, we can learn that this is indeed true. Therefore, we must trust Him. On the day we make the journey from time to eternity, if we know Christ, we know He will give us the ticket. If that day is today, then the ticket is on the way. If not, then what is the use in lying awake and letting our emotions control us and our worries crowd in on us? 

We are not at the mercy of arbitrary, impersonal forces; we are in the hand of our loving God. He says to us, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden. Come to Me with all your burdens, fears, panics, anxieties, and heartaches. Take My yoke upon you. Live underneath My loving rule, because My yoke is easy and My burden is light, and you will find rest for your souls, forever (see Matthew 11:28-30). 

This is your security. Your times—short or long, rich or poor, sad or happy—are in His hand. He will give you good works to do each day, and then on your last day, He will bring you safely through to the place where your days are infinitely long, unimaginably rich, and unutterably happy. 

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Scriptures: Job 1:20-22, Psalms 22

PRAISE IN THE DARKNESS

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” JOB 1:20-22 (ESV)

Job is perhaps the greatest biblical example of endurance in hardship. Despite being a blameless and upright man, in just one day he experienced the death of his children and the loss of nearly all his possessions. Yet one of his first reactions was to acknowledge God’s sovereignty both in plenty and in poverty, in bringing joyful circumstances and in bringing grievous ones. As chaos, disappointment, and pain descended upon him, he shaved his head, put on his torn robe, and fell to the ground, not only in anguish but also in worship. 

Remarkably, in the darkness of this pain “Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” Instead, in his tears, he trusted in God’s providence. In other words, he recognized that God knows what He is doing in every circumstance. God is worthy of our praise even in the hardest situations. Job knew that his times were in God’s hands (Psalm 31:15). 

Most of us have lived through cries of anguish and pools of tears. We know how hard it can be to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and goodness in the middle of a storm. We wonder where He is. In our human response to pain, we’re inclined to find statements about God’s providence stale or clichéd—but they aren’t. In fact, with the passing of time or the changing of circumstances, we can look over our shoulders and recognize that there is no tragic situation that God has not sovereignly permitted. He allows all things to pass through His hands, and they do not take Him by surprise. 

We must not make light of each other’s pain or offer easy answers. Instead, we are called to spur each other on to Christlikeness during times of hardship, reminding one another that God has granted us eternal life and steadfast love and that His care has preserved our spirits (Job 10:12). And, of course, we can look back in history and see that our God has entered the darkness of this world and plumbed the depths of suffering. He is a God who knows what it is like to be us. He is a God who has set before us a future where there is no pain or crying. 

Even in the difficulties of life and the depths of pain, the fatherly providence of God permits all things for our good and His glory. He has proved that He knows what He is doing. For that, we can still praise Him in the darkness.

• How is God calling me to think differently?
• How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?
• What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?