SUFFERING
Joni Eareckson Tada, paralyzed from the neck down from a diving accident back in 1967 writes:
"Difficulties, disappointments, afflictions, suffering—we'd love to erase these words from our dictionary," Joni says. "But God has a plan. It’s no mistake that you got that bad medical report last week, that the economic downturn is affecting your retirement fund, that your children are not turning out the way you'd hoped they would or that your grandchild was born with a disability. These are the very things that can draw families closer to Jesus Christ."
Philippians 3:10 says that followers of Christ are to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. Christians eagerly want to know Christ, His power and His resurrection, but the rest of the verse is the hardest to grasp. "We'll follow Him," Joni says, "to the hillside where He turns a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread into a lunch for thousands. We'll attend a wedding where He turns water into wine. We'll follow Him to the beach, hug our knees, sit on the sand and adore His words. But nobody wants to know the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. Yet that is where the power, the intimacy, the sweetness of knowing Him is. That's where change happens.
"We shouldn't view life's struggles as daunting obstacles to our happiness. They can be the very keys to our lasting happiness, true contentment and godly joy."
Suffering alters our focus – from putting our trust in material things, other people, or ourselves, to trusting in the LORD alone.Suffering purifies:
But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:10
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These 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 honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1Pet.1:6,7
I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy.
Isa.1:25
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Isa.48:10
The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests the hearts.
Prov.17:3
Suffering produces patience:
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Jm.1:3,4
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
Rom.5:3
Suffering produces maturity:
Sorrow is better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.
Eccl.7:3
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Jm.1:2-4
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
1Pet.5:10
Suffering makes us like Christ:
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
1Pet.4:12,13
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Phil.3:10
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
2Cor. 4:7-10
Suffering drives us closer to God:
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
1Pet.4:14
Suffering prepares us for a greater ministry:
Read 1 Kings ch.17-18
Read Matt.4
Suffering may glorify God:
Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."
Ps.50:15
For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
Phil.1:19,20
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
Jn.9:1-3
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Jn.11:1-4
Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish." This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, "Follow Me."
Jn.21:18,19
Suffering may qualify us as counselors:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
2Cor.1:3-5
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
Rom.12:15
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Gal.6:2
Suffering may prevent us from sinning:
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2Cor.12:7-10
Suffering may cause us to confess when we do sin:
Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him. So the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon.
...And the children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray." So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.
Judges 10:6,7,15,16
For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.
2Chron.15:3,4
When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.Selah I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Ps.32:3-5
I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me." ...Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
Hos.5:15/6:1
Suffering can be a result of chastening:
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
1Cor.11:27-32
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
1Pet.4:17
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Heb.12:9-10
Suffering comes by serving Him:
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
2Tim.3:12
Suffering prepares us for the Kingdom:
which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer;
2Thess.1:5
If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
2Tim.2:12