Participants in Suffering

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about suffering lately. Not on purpose, mind you. It just seems to come up in my Bible study and in my reading. That’s exactly what has me a little concerned. I’m not a big fan of suffering. Five degrees too hot and I’m whining. Five degrees too cold and I’m pulling out the wool socks. I’ll do most anything to alleviate my suffering.

My suffering is nothing compared to what some people live with. I have one friend on dialysis. She knows suffering. Another friend has cancer. Seven hundred people have died from the Ebola virus. They know suffering. Christians in Syria and Iran and Libya are being put to death for living their faith. They know suffering. Children die from lack of clean water. Girls are stolen from their families for the desire of an education. Children are abused and misused. Young boys are sold into slavery as expendable soldiers.

We all suffer, some more than others. I think its safe to say that nobody likes it. Suffering makes us uncomfortable. It makes us doubt God’s love for us, or our own competency.

Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials… James 1:2

God seems to view suffering differently than we do. He doesn’t seem to see suffering as a bad thing, but instead of a tool for our development. He seems to see it as a temporary thing, keeping in mind the future he has in store for us. That future can help us endure anything, just as it helped Jesus.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2-3

Jesus knows suffering. When he asks us to endure, he knows what he’s asking. When he allows suffering in our lives, he walks beside us, helping us endure. When we think we can’t, he reminds us that he has already overcome, and that he will use it for our good. Our suffering will never be wasted.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

2 Cor. 4:7-10

God allows suffering so that he will be glorified, so that others will witness and be drawn to him, and so that we will mature and become more like him. We have been chosen to share in his suffering in order that we may also share in his glory. It is an honor to suffer, and in suffering for him we share in his death. It is an act of gratitude and worship.

How do you suffer? People are watching. What do they see? Do they hear my whining and complaints? Or do they see someone who is bowed down in submission before her Savior? Will I allow God to work in my life, even if it involves suffering? Will I offer my suffering as a sacrifice of praise?