by Kaylan Keeney
I don’t think I’m qualified to share on suffering based on my amazing track record for suffering well. In fact, in my family I was called the “whiner”. I've suffered really poorly at times, and God has grown me through it. My prayer is that we would grow together to be a people who truly “rejoice in suffering.”
What is Suffering?
The Bible speaks often of suffering and uses phrases like: affliction, trouble, oppression, grief.
We must understand that there is a difference between suffering and pain. Suffering is not just pain. Pain keeps the body sound. It teaches the body what to avoid and alerts us to a problem. Sometimes it must hurt or we don’t pay enough attention to it.
For most of the world’s history, pain was regarded simply as a part of life. It’s only been recent that we think we deserve to be insulated from all pain. A modern world of comfort sees all pain as a burden.
Our real problem is not pain itself but seemingly senseless pain. Suffering can take many forms: sin caused by others, consequences of your sin, physical, spiritual warfare, or mysterious suffering.
So why is there suffering at all?
Plainly put, God has an enemy.
Genesis 3 reveals the snake sneaking around, deceiving and lying. We trusted the snake rather than our Father, and the Father responds with a curse. God has ordained suffering! Suffering is not something outside of His control.
Suffering is not merely consequences. It’s also redemptive; it is God’s means of restoring rightness to his creation and rescuing us from the evil situation we produced.
The curse condemned Adam and Eve to death. But it turned out that the most redemptive act of all was death: the death of Jesus. By taking the curse himself, God transformed the curse into redemption.
Suffering also tells us something is wrong. If there was no suffering, how many of us would be concerned with God or the welfare of others? It gives us some indication of the magnitude of the wrongness in the world.
When we look around and see the suffering and evil so clearly present we are forced to ask questions about God and His wisdom, justice, goodness, and sovereignty.
Why do Christians suffer?
We are identified with Jesus
Our suffering connects us to Jesus. It transforms it into something redemptive rather than destructive. This isn’t because suffering is redemptive, but because it connects us to Christ’s suffering.
By linking us to Christ’s suffering, our own suffering makes us like Christ and free from the dominion of sin. Paul found that he must die daily (1 Cor 15:31); Peter reminds us that we must suffer daily. This progressively divorces us from sin, so that we no longer live for our own pleasure but for God’s.
Training in righteousness
If all suffering is discipline, and we know that He loves us because He disciplines us, then we can see all suffering through the lens of a loving Father disciplining his children. It is refining us to love Jesus more than anything else. And what could be better than that?
Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees. Hebrews 12:7-12
Getting ready for glory
1 Peter 1:6-7: You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Lord is refining us, weaning us from the world, preparing us for glory that is to come.
What anchors us through suffering?
Being anchored to something, you have a lifeline when the burdens of the world toss you about like the waves in the ocean. More than anything else, His love and word has kept me anchored in suffering.
His love
I once had a counselor recite this verse over me. Close your eyes and listen to the words of this verse. Let the love of the Father wash over your soul.
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:16-19.
His Word.
Know His word! Be like the wise man who built his house on the Rock. Before the storm comes, prepare yourself with truth.
Read a Psalm everyday
Take stock of thoughts and feelings. Repent and align yourself with what is true. (Phillipians 4:8-9)
Lies and Truths in Suffering
Even with our souls being filled with His love and word, we often must fight lies that will invade our thoughts like: God has forgotten me, He doesn’t love me, He isn’t in control or this isn’t a part of His plan.
Counter those lies with the truth of what God says about you and Himself.
God loves me.
God is faithful.
God is with me. He is never going to leave me. “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and God knew.” Exodus 2:24
God’s plans work together for my good. His way is always better than mine.
I love to read the story of “Going on a Bear Hunt” to my boys. I think about how suffering is much like the journey the family encounters through their perilous journey through mud, snow, and dark forest - they can’t go around it, over it, or under. No. They must go through it. This is the path He has ordained and is taking us by the hand through it, safely Home.