The Good Side of Suffering
16. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.
18. For I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us.
Romans 8:16-18
Who Needs Suffering?
Modern day Christianity has equated suffering with being outside of the will of God or as a weakness of faith. This culture of selfishness has linked struggles and perils with evil and therefore to be avoided at all cost. This was not the case with Christians in the first century. For those early Christians, suffering and enduring hardships was honorable and praiseworthy. So, how has the attitude of suffering changed? Why is it that we now have a generation of believers who consider suffering as bad? A much better question would be “what does God want me to learn through suffering?”
The Apostle Paul was certainly one who suffered greatly and has left some valuable lessons for the Church of Christ. The insights that God gave him regarding this topic are not only helpful for enduring the trials of life but are key principles that will help all believers to mature in their faith. In taking a deep dive into these principles we find that there are four timeless truths. First, God uses trials and sufferings to train His children in righteousness. Second, all trials are only temporary. Third, God provides strength and power for every trial. Four, when the believer endures suffering, they glorify God and honor His presence.
One thing is certain, suffering can never change who we are in Christ. Paul makes it clear that, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. No matter what, your identity is secure. Perhaps, this provides us with a good starting point to the topic of the good side of suffering. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the horrible things that happens to people who suffer. To ignore the pain and heartache would come across as being robotic and programmed to act a certain way.
Let’s face it, we have a hard time dealing with pain. Throughout the Bible, people faced tremendous pain. When Eve and Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the pain started and it has not let up since then. What happens all too often is that more attention is given to the suffering rather than responding to God. Rather than allowing Adam and Eve to struggle alone with their sin, God provided for them. First, the Lord provided for them a covering. He made them their first garments to cover their shame. (see Genesis 3:21). Then the Lord continued His communion with them even after they were expelled from the Garden. That is Grace in suffering. The Lord also corrected them in order to teach them how to avoid poor decisions. In the case of Cain, the Lord spoke to him and warned him that sin was lurking at his heart and that he needed to master it or it would become master over him. Those are just a few of the things that God did for the first family even though they brought the suffering upon themselves.
Suffering Brings out our True Identity
The Eighth Chapter of Romans is what we might call the Secure Promises of the Believer. Interwoven with these verses is our status as children of God. There is absolutely nothing that can change how God identifies us. The Spirit, who lives in us, has declared us to be God’s Dear Children. In much the same way that our parents identified us as their children, God has stamped His declaration in our hearts. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God … And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. What that means is that we are not simply children in name only, but God has designated us as Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Christ. That means that whatever God owns, we own part of it with Jesus Christ. If God owns everything then by virtue of our identity, we also own everything.
Please don’t confuse ownership with access. Just because you are part owner does not mean you have complete control over it. Can you properly handle what you own if God gave it to you now? Would you expect a two year old to know how to handle a vehicle or some other piece of equipment? Wouldn’t they need to learn how to use those things first before you gave them the keys? Yes, we are children of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ but we don’t always know what to do with what we have. So, to prepare us, God sends trials and struggles in life to train us in Righteousness. Sometimes the suffering and heartache makes no sense to us. We often ask God why? And we should ask why because we would never fully comprehend the Mind of the Spirit without God’s Revelation. Let us reflect on Paul’s suffering that led him to righteousness.
The Bible teaches us that before he became an apostle or messenger of God, Paul was very religious. He belonged to a very strict religious group called the Pharisees and he was one of their rising stars. As a young man, he attended training under the tutelage of a man called Gamaliel, a well-known and well regarded teacher during the time of Christ. You would think that all was needed was for this man to start preaching Jesus Christ and he would be good to go. But that was not the case. Paul was on the opposing side of recognizing Jesus of Nazareth as the Jewish Messiah. Paul, instead, hated followers of “The Way.” He set out to destroy them by any means necessary. How would this self-righteous man ever come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as His Messiah? The answer: Suffering.
How God Uses Suffering
I don’t think anyone would have a problem with the statement, “no pain – no gain.” God uses suffering to teach His Righteousness. When a tragedy occurs, we should immediately seek God’s Help. God will teach us the right way to respond to the tragedy even though He may not always reveal why the trial has come.
Please don’t assume that people suffer because they have done wrong or that they have done something to cause the pain. That is not always the case. It is, however, always the case that God will use suffering to reveal His Glory and Power. This involves a time of patience and endurance that sometimes people are unwilling to accept.
In the case of the Apostle Paul, he was headed in the wrong direction and the Lord would turn him around through a trial. As the account is given in Acts 9, Saul (as he was known then), was on his way to Damascus to arrest any followers of Christ that he found and bring them to Jerusalem to stand trial. That was his plan but his plan got altered on the way. God appeared to Saul through a great light from Heaven. He was knocked to the ground and heard a voice speaking to him. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Obviously, Saul did not know the Lord for he asked, “who are you Lord?” And the Lord responded, “I Am Jesus Whom you are persecuting.” God used this trial to introduce Himself to Saul. As with us, we assume we know God and would like to remain in the comfort of our ignorance. But God sends a crisis our way so that we can learn who He really is. The comfort of ignorance actually begins in the comfort of life. We all would love to get to the place where we “have it made in the shade.” As the song goes in the movie The Lion King, we seek a world of no worries. God is looking for righteousness in our lives. Along with the comfort of life, we seek the comfort of companions. Then God sends a struggle that not even our best friends and loved ones can help us with. It is in those lonely moments that God asks, “Do you really know Who I Am?” Someone has said, “when you get to the place where you are alone with God, you will discover that you will never be alone again: God is all you need.”
For Saul, he was comfortable in his religion, but his religion did not include the One Who died on the Cross. Introductions were in order. So the first part of the struggle was to be knocked into discomfort. The second part of the struggle involved losing his sight in order for God to open his eyes. For three days Saul was unable to see until the disciple Ananias came and laid his hands upon Saul and proclaimed the Name of Jesus unto him. Make no mistake about it, God was teaching Saul the way of righteousness by using a trial and a time of suffering. Through that ordeal, Saul became known as Paul and it was this same Paul who reached the conclusion that God will bring good out of our suffering. Once the suffering is completed, we learn more about God and more about the fact that we desperately need God. For I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us.
The good side of suffering is that it leads to God’s Glory being revealed in us. We miss God’s Glory when we try to avoid all the struggles of life. We see God’s Glory in us when we accept the pain and trust God no matter what. That is when God’s Glory is revealed in us.