Suffering is an integral part of the human experience. It is something that cannot be escaped or avoided.
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” Friedrich Nietzsche
As Christians we often allow suffering to shake our faith and we wonder why God allows it. I have learned 7 important things about suffering through facing them in my own life and most importantly, through God’s Word. However, I don’t claim that these 7 things are all there is to learn about sufferings from God’s Word and other people’s lived experiences. These 7 lessons are what I learned through my lived experience and study of God’s word. The list is not exhaustive.
1. God Does Not Exempt Christians From Suffering
Okay, I’m gonna be honest. There was a time when I literally thought that Christians were immune to all suffering except being persecuted for the sake of the Gospel. This wrong theology of mine was built on such teachings as the Health and Wealth Gospel because of which I believed that a believer should never face any such suffering as sickness or poverty. I believed that when we are saved, we are given the right to claim healing and freedom from all our sicknesses and poverty.
Well this was before the deconstruction of wrong theology and the reconstruction of a much healthier theology built on the foundation of the Bible. The Bible does not promise us that our life will be a bed of roses if we follow Jesus. In John 16:33 Jesus tells us that we will indeed have suffering in this world. But what makes the difference for Christians is that we have a God in whom we have divine peace in the midst of suffering. We can take heart because Jesus overcame the world.
There are sufferings in this life because we live in a fallen world which is characterized by such things as physical and mental illnesses, deadly viruses, poverty, violence, natural disasters and so on. It would be over-realized eschatology to believe that when we get saved we are elevated to a higher or spiritual dimension and liberated from the features of this fallen world. This is not the case. Every person including Christians will face troubles pertaining to this fallen world. Sometimes, our sinful choices have consequences in the form of suffering not necessarily brought by God. Other times our sin invites suffering in the form of God’s discipline. However, we must also note that not all suffering is because of sin.
2. God Does Not Want Us to Play the Blame Game
According to some Christians, all sufferings are brought by the devil. They got flu; they say the devil attacked them. They lose their job; they say the devil attacked them. They lose a loved one; they say the devil attacked them. The thing is that some of us believe that Christians don’t have to face bad things. Hence, when we do face them, we blame it on the devil, other people and sometimes our past sins. We don’t understand mental illness? Blame it on the devil. Our frail human brains fail to understand something? Then blame it all on the devil! Cut the guy some slack. Don’t overestimate him.
We need to face this fact: bad things do happen to good people. Bad things do happen to Christians. And it is not necessarily from the devil. It comes with life. It comes with living in a fallen world. Sufferings are a part of this life. It comes with God allowing it. I also believe that sufferings are not random. They have meaning and purpose. That being said, we cannot rule out that the devil too can attack believers but never without God allowing him. We are most vulnerable to him when we let our guard down.
3. God Allows Suffering in the Form of Weakness
Paul speaks of his thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. This thorn in the flesh in the form of suffering was there to stay in Paul’s life. He pleaded with God to take it away but all that God said to him was,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore, Paul says that he will boast in his weaknesses and take pleasure in his sufferings because when he is weak, he is strong. Even in our lives, there is a thorn in the flesh. These are sufferings that are meant to stay in our life to keep us continually relying on the grace of God.
There is a beautiful line in Cory Asbury’s song, “The Father’s House.” It goes like this, “What looks to me like weakness is a canvas for your strength.” How true! There is another line I like from the movie Polycarp (2015) where Polycarp says, “My weakness is a constant reminder for me of my continual need for Christ.” This kind of suffering is there to stay in our lives. It is better if we stop praying for God to take it away and start relying on His grace.
4. God Wants Us to Have the Right Response to Suffering
I am sure we have all asked this question whenever we go through some kind of suffering- “why?” Why me? Why this pain? Why this sickness? And the questions go on. I was having a discussion via WhatsApp about physical and mental illnesses with my former professor Mr. Mezhusevi. These were his exact words: “Good theology should stop asking ‘why’ when we have pain and sickness. We have a fallen body and it is natural and normal to be sick. God promises healing but he does not promise a sickness-free life.” How true!
It is important that we ask the right questions when we go through suffering. What do the right questions look like? They look something like this; how can this suffering draw me closer to God? What is God trying to teach me? How can I love him more in the midst of suffering? How can I be sure of his goodness and unfailing love during these hard times? I know how tempting it is to just scream and cry out questions like “why me God?” because I’ve been there and done that. But these questions do us no good and they are in vain. Asking God and ourselves the right questions will help us when we are facing suffering.
It is also very important that we have the right response to suffering. It is very tempting to let our suffering get the best of us and turn us into bitter, angry and depressed people. Sometimes, our faith gets shaken and we just don’t know what to do. During these times, it is important that we stay close to God and allow him to lavish his love on us even though we may not understand what He is doing in our lives. God’s love is the only thing that will keep someone sane when they are fighting with cancer and they seem to be dying. His love is the only thing that will keep us grounded during trying times. Loving Him in return and worshipping him is an appropriate response to suffering. When everything was taken away from Job, he fell to the dust in worship (Job 1:20).
This is the only time in all of eternity that we get to worship Jesus through pain. That makes our response in difficult times very important and even special. -Rick Pino
5. God is Never Above Our Suffering
Okay, so here’s the thing. Isaiah 53:3 literally endows Jesus with the title, “man of sorrows.” Isaiah 53 is all about Jesus Christ as the suffering servant. The eternal Word (John 1:1) and eternal life (1 John 1:2) who was God Himself, emptied Himself and became a human being to dwell with us. He lived in this world and experienced human suffering. Contrary to Docetism which claims that the humanity of Jesus was just an illusion and hence his sufferings especially on the cross were phantom and not real, the Bible tells us otherwise. Jesus knows what human suffering feels like. He experienced it first-hand.
Hence, we must never assume that God is above our suffering and that He does not understand what we are going through. He is not distant from our pain. He walks with us through the fire. He is there with us in the flood. His heart pains immensely when his children suffer with chronic illnesses like Epidermolysis Bullosa (ever heard of the Butterfly Disease?), dire family situations, depression and other such sufferings. He is there with humanity in its suffering; never above it.
6. God Allows Suffering For Our Good
I am convinced of the fact that God never allows suffering to come our way without a reason. If you’ve read Romans 8:28, you would have this hope that none of our sufferings are in vain. This is what the verse says,
“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.”
God teaches us lessons when we are up on the mountain. But His lessons down in the valley produce virtues in us that we could never gain if we settle on the mountain. When God allows us to go through suffering, he is allowing the birth of perseverance in our life. When perseverance is birthed, character develops. And when character is developed, we have this hope that God is with us in our suffering and He will bring us through. We have this hope that we will share in the glory of Jesus Christ forever (Romans 5:3-4).
James encourages us to consider it pure joy whenever we face suffering because the testing of our faith produces perseverance. Isn’t suffering actually the testing of our faith? Doesn’t it test how strong our faith in the Lord is when He seems to allow us to go through fiery furnace and deep waters? But when we have successfully persevered, we are mature and complete (James 1:2-4)! Oh, how great are the benefits of suffering! May we never be frightened of suffering and forfeit its great benefits by running away from it!
7. God Has Got Our Back
Have you ever found yourself in a dilemma of trying to understand why you’re going through what you’re going through? Have you ever invested a lot of your time, energy, emotions and tears into trying to figure out what the cause and reasons of your suffering are? I have. Doing these things adds another burden to the sufferings we are facing and it makes us feel like we are in a never-ending marathon. It leaves us burnt out and exhausted. Here is something to comfort you; we don’t need to understand what we are going through. It’s been a long time since I faced a particular suffering and I still don’t understand why it happened to me. But I do believe that what I went through was not in vain and that I am yet to reap its benefits. When you are suffering, please don’t exhaust yourself trying to understand and figure everything out. Just let yourself go in God. Just trust him. And trust him. Until all you can do is trust him. He has got your back. He will bring you through.
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