When tragedy strikes, we begin looking for an escape from the pain, a way out, or we shout for answers from religious experts to explain the ever-present question “why did this happen to me?” We want answers, and we want to believe that our suffering is not pointless. Our culture strives to deny the reality of suffering (and death). We continually long to drink from the fountain of youth as expressed in our endless pursuit of Botox treatments, anti-aging cream, cosmetic surgeries, and hair dyes.
We cloak funerals as celebrations, and convey the empty promise that all people end up in Heaven (except maybe Hitler and Stalin). We cannot handle the harsh reality of suffering so we hide behind the virtual walls of social media where we pretend our hearts are safe from rejection, grief, and the immorality all around us. All the while, you and I know it’s there. It’s real, and painful.
Maybe you’re in the midst of affliction, or you’re trying to encourage someone who is. One of the great tragedies of the American church is that we’ve lost the biblical theology of suffering, one that centers on the glory, goodness, and sovereignty of God. We’ve lost an understanding of the reality of suffering as a consequence of the fall from the Garden of Eden. We’ve neglected to see how God overrules sin for his greater purposes.
We need to understand this so we land on the solid foundation of the Bible. There you can find hope and understanding. If you’ve trusted in Christ as the Savior and Lord of your life, you can rest in the truth that your afflictions and sufferings come to you for your ultimate good and His ultimate glory. Below are specific reasons why God allows Christians to suffer:
To eradicate sin and cultivate holiness-God uses suffering to expose the sin that
clings so closely to our hearts. When we suddenly bear an affliction, our
pride, impatience, and unbelief will often surface. Pain has a way of
cracking open the heart, and laying it bare. Though the suffering
itself isn’t evil, it illuminates the evil residing within me. Sometimes
it reveals my lack of faith in God’s promises.
If
we’re prone to love something in this world more than God, He may
sometimes remove the idol. And it will hurt. In doing so, though, we
are freed to refocus our primary love on him alone. Suffering serves as a
cleanser, revealing and killing present sin, and deterring us from greater
sin. God doesn’t just help take down our sin. He
also cultivates godliness whereby we’re conformed
increasingly into Christ’s image. He will also use his church to spur his
people on and be the context in which improve each other. When affliction
falls on a community of believers, they are connected together more tightly.
To generate hypocrisy-free belief-God also uses suffering to refine us, as fire
refines gold by burning away the impurities. Suffering will often
distinguish the true believer from the hypocrite by the response of each. In
our suffering, we are given the opportunity to discover the sincerity of our
love, hope, and faith in God. Are there areas of dishonesty or insincerity in
your heart? A plunge into a season of affliction can reveal these. Affliction causes
the believer to cling to God and the unbeliever to forsake Him. In this
way, it comes as a sort of illuminating test to refine His people
through fire of testing.
To stand witness to the world-Under the rod of affliction, we’re given
unique opportunity to bear witness to the gospel’s power in our lives, which
effectively calls others to repent and believe. The believer’s own endurance
under trial serves as a shining public witness to the truth of the Bible. There are believers who have
suffered so that others have asked about the unshakable hope and peace the
sufferer has. God uses the suffering of his people to display His grace. Our
frequent trials prove our hope and a faith that is not in vain. Suffering serves
as a platform to showcase hope. Our Father in Heaven ordains
suffering for us because He loves us.
To surrender the worldly for the everlasting- God uses suffering to wean us from a love of
this world and redirect our thoughts and affections toward that which
is eternal. Sometimes, God will simply remove resources for our
greater good. As Christians, the afflictions we experience in this life should
point us to the reality that we’re not here permanently on earth, but journeying
toward Heaven where our citizenship is. The afflictions we experience along the
way serve as arrows directing us to release what’s fading and grasp what’s
unending.
“God is more concerned with
conforming me to the likeness of His Son than leaving me in my comfort zones.
God is more interested in inward qualities than outward circumstances - things
like refining my faith, humbling my heart, cleaning up my thought life and
strengthening my character.” (Joni Eareckson
Tada) [i]
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