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Suffering as a Christian is really a good sign. Why do I say that? First of all, we are true believers in Christ. Then that suffering likely proves we are people who follow Jesus because He said if we are His worshipper, we will suffer for Him as He did. We who have been called to this great purpose of conformity to the image of Christ will for that reason also be called to suffer with Christ. If we want to know him and the power of his resurrection, then we will need to share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death (Phil. 3:10). Not that our death in any way is redemptive. Only Christ’s death can save. But yet, if anyone is in Christ, then that person has glory and hardship in store (Rom. 8:17). We are often caught off guard by our sufferings, as though we ought to be exempt. We reason that since we are not condemned, then why should we continue to pay any price?
We hardly have all the answers for the mystery of suffering, especially the suffering of Christians. Ultimately, only God can have reasons for the evil in this world and the pain inflicted on its inhabitants. We do know that the immediate responsibility for evil is ours, not God’s. But we wonder why believers who are acquitted from the responsibility still must receive the consequences deserved by sinners. The Bible explains that suffering has a number of purposes connected with sanctification. One of them is the purification of our faith. As gold is refined by fire, Peter tells us, so our faith is perfected by hardship and trials, so that it will result in praise and glory and honor on the last day (1 Peter 1:7; Rev. 2:10; 3:10). Such an approach is corroborated in our experience. When we suffer, we begin to know what matters and trust only the things that last. We make fewer investments in the transitory and ephemeral. Suffering helps us because it enables us to endure and gives us character (Rom. 5:4). Moreover, it strengthens our hope, the kind of hope that will never be shamed in the final outcome (Rom. 5:5). For this reason,, we can be glad for the pain that God allows us to endure. Not because there is anything good in itself about pain. Nothing could be further from Christian faith than the adages “Joy through pain” and “No pain, no gain.”
The central reason for Christian suffering is fellowship with Christ.
The central reason for Christian suffering is fellowship with Christ. We should not be surprised at the trials that come our way but glad that they mean we are communing with Christ’s sufferings (1 Peter 4:12). It can even be said that we fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions (Col. 1:24). It is easy to misunderstand such statements to mean we are somehow continuing the unfinished business of Christ’s passion. The idea is blasphemous. Christ’s suffering was once and for all (Col. 2:14; John 19:30; Heb. 9:26; 10:11–14). That is, the atoning value of his work on earth, culminating on the cross is sufficient and accomplished. Flagellants and others who believe they are participating in the atonement by their self-inflicted pain are far off the mark. However, not all suffering is for atonement. The afflictions of Christ while on earth did not extend forward to include every hardship endured by his people. When we suffer, it is for his sake (Mark 13:13). When Christians are persecuted, it is Christ who is the object (Acts 9:4–5). Although attacks on Christ during his lifetime brought complete satisfaction to God, his enemies were not yet satisfied. And so, they continue to attack him by attacking the church. His afflictions are now received by us.
Human experience is vast and varied, but few things exist as a universal experience like suffering. The pains and problems vary from person to person, but we all suffer. This fact leads to the common question: why does God allow suffering? Given this constant part of life, the wise person should seek to understand heartaches and how to react to suffering when it arrives.of the most common responses is bitterness — a deep resentment for the pain we all go through. While suffering can undoubtedly sow the seeds of bitterness and resentment, that is not how Christians should respond to it. Instead, we are called to see suffering as a part of life meant to dissatisfy us with the present fallen world and to instill in us a longing for eternity. To unpack this idea, consider the three main aspects of suffering:
Suffering as a Consequence of Sin
The first truth about suffering is the recognition that it is alien to God’s plan of life. That might sound incredible, but to the Christian worldview, it is vital. Suffering is a product of the fall, a consequence of human sin against God Suffering is in our lives because we are living in a broken world. Some suffering is due to our sinful and wrong choices, but some is due simply to the world being fallen. This aspect of suffering should drive us to long for a better world, a world redeemed and freed from sin, a world that God will one day come again to establish (Romans 8:19-23). Christians sensitive to sin is a major reason for our suffering.
Suffering is a product of the fall, a consequence of human sin against God (Romans 5:1)
(1 Corinthians 15:21). Suffering is in our lives because we are living in a broken world. Some suffering is due to our sinful and wrong choices, but some is due simply to the world being fallen.
Suffering as a Tool of Sanctification
Nothing is so broken as to be unusable by God. Although suffering is alien to His goal for humanity, God uses it now as part of our development as people. Nothing forces a person to confront their true self like suffering. Suffering causes our focus to turn inward, to face those parts of ourselves we might otherwise ignore. God can use suffering then to develop us into better people: the people who can love and enjoy Him forever. Due to Christians’ expectation for something better causes some of our suffering.
3 Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)
Suffering as a Test of Faith
Finally, suffering is the crucible by which we find our center and demonstrate the truth of our faith to the world. In times of intense pain or turmoil, we cling to what we have placed our hope in. In this way, suffering reveals whether our faith is a mere childish hope or a factual reality. Here we see suffering as a call to live out a better and more faithful witness to the world. Like the prophet Habakkuk, suffering calls us to declare to those around us, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:1belief8). As we develop an understanding of how to approach suffering, we must be clear that suffering never becomes good. Suffering remains evil. What must be understood though, is that suffering can be redeemed; it can be made purposeful. When we are burdened beyond our strength, we must not become bitter but instead allow our faith to make us better. For the Christian, we must see suffering as a trifold call to long for a better world, to seek to become a better person and to live out a better witness. Simply due to our belief in Jesus and our faith, Christians will be persecuted.
Suffering is a product of the fall, a consequence of human sin against God (Romans 5:1)
1 Corinthians 15:21). Suffering is in our lives because we are living in a broken world. Some suffering is due to our sinful and wrong choices, but some is due simply to the world being fallen.
Glory as the Ultimate End
The whole creation groans with pain (Rom. 8:22). This sorrowful, broken world was subjected to futility by the same God who cursed the human race for its disobedience. And we suffer and groan along with it (vv. 20–23). Romanticism about nature, nostalgic views, and utopian views about the beauty of the creation do not coincide with the reality of world history. But world history does not end with death and futility. It ends with the freedom of the glory of the children of God (v. 21). In fact, the whole creation will come to glory with us. The end is so unspeakably beautiful that our present sufferings are not worthy to compare with the glory to come (v. 18). Physical death no longer has that dreaded finality it once had. Death is now the gateway to full communion with the Lord. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:3–4).
Jesus told us problems would come our way. At the end of His Upper Room Discourse on the eve of His crucifixion, our Lord’s final words were, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We are encouraged by one of the Bible’s great stories of tribulation and triumph, the story of the Old Testament hero Joseph. Much of Genesis is devoted to Joseph’s story, and God gave us Joseph’s example as an encouragement amid the problems of life. Joseph went through his problems to save his family, save thousands of people, and to save the people of Israel. Joseph’s example gives us a great method of looking at our problems. God allows or gives us problems to provide a way to help others and to possibly share a way to offer us a real blessing. God may put us in a difficult place to help us or even to provide a glorious circumstance. We know problems are not pretty and they are not fun. However, without the problem or burden, we may miss out on a real blessing from God. We must be biblical in facing our problems, and the Bible takes a more hopeful attitude than our emotions may feel. The following are some commentaries on the question of problems.
Predictors- They will mold our future.
Reminders- We are not self-sufficient. We need God and others to help us.
Opportunities- They pull us out of our rut and cause us to think creatively.
Blessings- They open up doors that we usually do not go through.
Lessons- Each new challenge will be our teacher.
Everywhere- No place or person is excluded from them.
Messages- They warn us about potential disaster.
Solvable- No problem is without a solution.
So, the questions may be: Are you discouraged now waiting for good news that hasn’t come? Have you felt anything that is a reminder that there you sick? Maybe your problems have been prolonged and chronic and crippling to your spirit. As a true Christians none of this is random. God has not forgotten or forsaken a true believer just like He did not forsake Joseph. This story reminds us that there are advantages in our difficulties and providence in our problems. God does not trivialize our problems, but He does “truthalize” them. It allows us to begin looking at problems from a different perspective. This leads to list and talk about five suggestions as to why Christians have so many problems.
PROBLEMS PROVIDE GREATER OPPORTUNITIES
First, problems provide some opportunities that may only come due to the problem. In Joseph’s life story we are struck at how God converted Joseph’s problems into potentials. Missionary and author Isobel Kuhn wrote an account of her life, titled IN THE ARENA, based on the concept that difficulties are God’s way of providing an arena for our witness. “God taught me through the years to view my own trials as platforms in today’s Arena,” she wrote. “I thought this concept was original with me, but one day my husband found that Hudson Taylor had formed the same opinion many years ago. He said: Difficulties afford a platform upon which He can show Himself” (where Himself is God). As God’s children we need to learn how to look for platforms in our problems, Sometimes, our “prisons” are “pulpits”. Of course, for most of us, the prison experience is not literal. The key is looking around in any given set of circumstances to see God is using them to open a door for us. My recent cancer surgery and treatments immediately provided for two significant blessing. During my 21 weeks of chemo treatments, I was able to witness to 79 people at the lab and to finish writing and getting my first book published.
PROBLEMS PROMOTE SPIRITUAL MATURITY
Second, the story of Joseph also teaches that problems promote spiritual growth and maturity. There doesn’t seem that there is another Bible character who experienced worst treatment than Joseph, apart from Jesus Himself. To fulfill the role God intended for him, Joseph needed grit, backbone, and dogged resolution; and those muscles only develop in the gymnasiums of life. Sometimes the Lord has to toughen us up. Before Joseph could become Prime Minister of Egypt. He needed fortitude and faith in God’s sovereignty. Psalm 105:17-18 says: “He (God) sent a man before them- Joseph- who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons”. When Joseph came out of prison, he was an iron-souled man. He was a man of great wisdom, courage, and determination. Due to his faith in God and God’s leading, Joseph ascended to great spiritual maturity. This is our example to also gain spiritual maturity. God needs “Iron-souled saints” today, and only way iron gets into our soul is through suffering. When we hurt and endure problems something changes in our hearts as we become more spiritually mature. Peter told his readers, “Though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
PROBLEMS PROVE INTEGRITY
Third, our integrity is enhanced and proven due to problems we encounter. Our character if genuine, is never altered by circumstances. As we learn in the Joseph story and several other Bible stories, Joseph was a man of great character, and every problem provided another opportunity to deepen and demonstrate the sterling nature of his integrity. Nothing so exemplifies our character as how we face difficulties. Character is often confused for reputation but there is a vast different. Reputation is what others suppose we are; character is what we really are. Reputation is what those around you think of you; character is what God knows you to be. Reputation is what is chiseled on your tombstone; character is what the angels say about you before the throne of God. Character never changes with the circumstances; it is simply deepened by difficulties. Our backgrounds or circumstances may try to pull us downward, but we have the ability to choose our own convictions. Our situations reveal the way we truly are. When we face the difficulties of life, it is a wonderful opportunity for God to use us to demonstrate the reality and the integrity of our character before others.
PROBLEMS PRODUCE A SENSE OF DEPENDENCY
Fourth, problems produce a sense of dependency on our faith in God. They drive us to the Lord and teach us to lean on Him. Joseph depended on God and God was with him every step of his life. Joseph’s faith was solid, and it guided him through all of his problems. William Griffith Thomas, the Anglican cleric and scholar, wrote about this in his devotional commentary: “The secret of Joseph’s power was the consciousness of the presence of God. God had not forgotten him, though it might have seemed to him that it was the case. The very incident that was apparently the most injurious was the link used by God to bring about Joseph’s exaltation. To the man who is sure that he is in the pathway of God’s will. There will come the consciousness of divine presence and blessing, which will be an unspeakable comfort as he rests in the Lord and waits patiently for him. Evil may have temporary victories, but they are only temporary. Good, and right, and truth, must prevail, and it is for the servants of God to wait quietly, to go forward humbly, to live faithfully; and to trust boldly, until God shall justify them by His divine interposition, and glorify His grace in their lives”. Joseph found out how much God loved him, and Thomas’ quote helps us to understand this. It is during the crisis of life that we make a spiritual dependency on the Lord. One of the main ways this occurs is in a personal encounter with God when we live through problems.
PROBLEMS PREPARE OUR HEARTS FOR MINISTRY
Fifth, problems can prepare our heart and mind for ministry. In Joseph’s case, you might say that prison was God’s seminary to train him in skills he would need later to lead the nation of Egypt. By the time Joseph was thirty, he understood that leadership was in serving others. Joseph could have wrapped himself in the cloak of self-pity, but here he was seeking to serve others. He put aside sorrow and self-indulgence to help those in prison, and then he dedicated himself to help thousands. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:4; we are able to comfort others with the same comfort we ourselves have received from God. When thrown into difficulties of life, it makes us especially sensitive to others who have similar difficulties or parallel problems. Those who have found the grace of God in the middle of some catastrophic event, are often called upon to share this grace with others and provide ministry to them. Many ministries have been launched in this way. Suffering brings about a heart for ministry. We are able to put our arms bereavement if we have also experienced like circumstances. My ability to understand and comfort those battling cancer was totally different after I faced this terrible disease. One pastor explained it this way: “Brokenness precedes usefulness”, when you have to reach out to parents who have lost children under any circumstance. If we were to take a survey of people in ministry, you can about guarantee they have gone through some sort of painful experience. So, sometimes God wants to prepare us to help someone else who is going through problems.
Most of us want the crown (reward in Heaven), but not the Cross; Easter but not Good Friday; the gain, but not the pain. But that is not the way it works, and that doesn’t seem to represent the ways of God. In our lives individually, and in our families, and in our churches, God can take our problem and make us better- if only we cooperate. Think of Jesus beside you and lean on Him. Exchange your problems for His peace and let Him infuse your soul with strength and His steel.
