What Good Is Suffering?

This past week I had the rare opportunity to sit down over lunch with a pastor friend and talk about the Lord and what He is doing in our lives.  What a great time of encouragement and blessing that was. 

One topic that was bound to come up was my progress health-wise, but more deeply, the progress of my relationship with the Lord through my illness and resulting disability.  He was especially interested in knowing anything that I might suggest from my experience that could be of value in ministering as a pastor to others who are suffering.  In my slow, introspective manner, and not wanting to give a swallow answer, I asked for some time to think about it.  This is what I ultimately decided would be my response.

First, I think that helping other believers to form the right attitude toward their illnesses, especially when serious, longer term illnesses are involved, can be a good starting place.  If we can help them to turn their affliction into an opportunity to suffer for Christ, rather than focusing only on themselves, it can radically change their attitude about it. 

An honest prayer that might express this attitude could be, "Lord, if my suffering brings you more glory right now than my being well, then that's OK with me, let your will be done!"  What if we could even come to the point of expecting God to use our afflictions as an opportunity for His grace to be released on others?  What an encouragement that would be: just realizing there could be a purpose in our trials beyond our own small sphere...to see the possibility that God wants to use our circumstances to involve… no, to invite us to join Him in the work He is doing in other people’s lives.  

So, a question we might encourage others to ask themselves in times of affliction could be: What does God want to accomplish through my illness or trials?  Also, we can urge them to pray for a heart open to seeing their affliction from His point of view.  He never wastes anything, certainly not our suffering.

From this basic question can grow a multitude of other more specific ones, such as: What change does God want to make in me? How might He use this to conform me more to the image of His Son (the purpose of Romans 8:28)?  Am I here (hospital, doctor's office, etc.) because I am His instrument and He wants to minister to a doctor, nurse or other staff member or to another patient who needs to hear or see the Gospel in action or to be encouraged?  Who does He want me to be a witness to (by my attitude as well as words)?  I'm sure you can think of many more examples.

I believe that God often has a higher goal in our struggles than our overcoming or just getting through them, even though we would thank and praise Him for that.  Not that He necessarily causes our trials; in fact, we know in Job's experience that Satan was the cause, but God permitted the afflictions to accomplish His purposes.  Just as Joseph also knew his brothers acted out of evil hearts, but that God meant it for good and to do great things for His kingdom. 

If we could just have the faith to believe it, our sufferings might seem very insignificant in comparison to what He intends to accomplish through them.  And we would receive the joy of participating in His plans, all with eternal outcomes!  The Apostle Paul takes it a step further in sharing with us his vision of our future reality in God’s heavenly kingdom:  “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  (Romans 8:18, 19)