The Artisan Post

Suffering has a way of shaking us to the core.

When it hits close to home, we might find ourselves asking why.
Why the suffering? Why the loss, why the sickness, ….the death?

The Bible doesn’t leave us alone here.
It tells us that suffering is not random…. but it’s part of God’s redemptive work. It’s meant to draw us nearer to Him, and make His gospel known despite our suffering.

Often we hear things like:
“We just have to trust God.”
“God knows best.”
“We don’t know the will of the Lord.”
“Everything happens for a reason; just trust His promises.”

As well-intentioned as these might be, such words can feel incomplete. Especially when our world has been shattered.
There is indeed mystery to God’s ways, and of course we must trust Him….. but Scripture does give us some “purpose in the pain”.

Suffering has purpose — divine purpose — that invites us to shift our focus beyond the ache, and remember God’s call on our life.

God works in many ways through suffering. Here are a few clear purposes found in Scripture:

To shift our focus from this world to the next.
God uses shake up in our lives to loosen our grip on the temporary
and fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Suffering reminds us that this world is not our home but a place of pilgrimage and a passing through.

To draw others to God.
Through tragedy and loss, God awakens hearts to seek Him, hearts  that may have otherwise been oblivious to Him.
The gospel cuts through the fallacy of self-sufficiency (Philippians 1:12–14).
Pain can become the open door through which true hope is sought.

To refine our faith.
“These (trials) have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
The fire of trial does not destroy faith; it refines and purifies it for God’s glory.
The result, after testing, is a strengthening and steadying in the faith.

To let us experience God in a deeper way.
When we reach the end of ourselves, the Holy Spirit meets us there (Romans 8:26-27).
When our strength is gone, His power carries us.
When everything else is stripped away, He proves Himself faithful, deeper beyond that which we can fathom.

To consider the call on Paul’s life

Suffering did not just happen to Paul, it was the very calling on his life.  In Acts 9, the Lord revealed through Ananias that Paul would be God’s chosen instrument to proclaim the gospel to Gentiles and before kings. God also said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my Name.”.

From the start, Paul’s mission was to proclaim the gospel through suffering; gospel and hardship intertwined.
Interestingly in Acts 26, as Paul gives his longest testimony — before a king no less — he does not focus on his sufferings but on proclaiming Jesus Christ, hoping that King Agrippa and all present would come to believe in Jesus.

Despite a life of rejection, beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonment, and sufferings, Paul minimizes it all in light of an eternity with Christ. “To live is Christ; to die is gain.”

Even when Paul pleaded for some relief from a thorn in his flesh, he was told, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)

Can you imagine…. “Lord, please remove this?” And God’s response being No.

Grace was enough.

And his mission never changed. Neither should ours.
Suffering was and is not a detour. It is often what God uses to advance His kingdom.

Think about it:  It was through the gateway of suffering, pain, and death at the cross that God accomplished salvation through Jesus Christ!

So we must ask: What is God’s calling on our life?
How does God want to use us in our suffering?

To proclaim the gospel through Suffering

Trusting and obeying through our suffering is tough… we need to lean into our Lord (a lot), as He abides in us, and we in Him.

Mourning we must… perhaps even for a long time.

There is a time for mourning, but also a time for dancing and rejoicing.

There is a time to be silent, and then a time to speak.

We are not called to remain silent. We must speak.
We are called to boldly proclaim the goodness of the gospel, and the excellencies of Him who loves us, through the suffering and tears. It’s our mutual comfort and joy! (2 Cor. 1)

It is not dependent on our understanding. That’s why it takes faith and the power of the Holy Spirit — God indwelling us and sustaining us. God, who is far greater than all our sufferings combined.

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  (Matthew 24:14)

To retain a humble perspective

In all of this, we need to keep this humbling perspective:
We deserve nothing — yet we’ve been given everything in Christ.
In Him we have an eternal inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade (1 Peter 1:3-4).

So if we wrestle with, “How could God allow this?”
The question softens when we remember we don’t deserve anything.
Like Job, we must place a hand over our mouth, and fall quiet before the Lord. (Job 40:4-5)

The Potter owes the clay nothing.

And what we discover in the sorrow and the suffering is that we are so dependent. Though God owes us nothing, He graciously provides us everything we need.

To live out “Come Lord Jesus”

If we truly long for His return, as we say, sing and pray, “Come, Lord Jesus”
then we must live this out daily, by proclaiming this King who is coming with His kingdom in all its fullness.

“Come Lord Jesus” has a lived-out reality in our testimony.
How can we cry out for His coming and yet remain silent about His saving work in our lives?

Our suffering and our witness go hand in hand, as in Paul’s life. The pain we endure becomes the platform from which we proclaim His name. “Come see what God has done.” (Psalm 66:5)

Sorrow, suffering, pain, and death — they are all very hard, unbearable at times. But deeper still than all of that, there is our Savior, yes, deeper still, enabling us to carry out His call on our life. (2 Cor. 1:8-11)

To anchor us in the Presence and Promises of God

God never leaves us alone. He gives us His Word, His Spirit, His people, His presence, His promises, His call on our life. To go and bear truth in His Name. Always. As He is with us always.

This world is not our home. We are passing through this realm of suffering towards a place where it will be no more.

So, why do we suffer?

It’s part of our testimony. Dare I say, even blessing in disguise.

It’s God’s way of shaping us into His Story, for His Kingdom, for His power, for His glory, for His praise. And we must praise Him, even through the suffering.

All towards His next coming.

And I hope He comes soon.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Listening to music is one of the ways I grieve. Maybe it’s a way many of us grieve. Among my “go-to” songs is “I Have This Hope” from Tenth Avenue North. Feel free to click the song title and have a listen.