Why Suffering God? Why? – Part 3

Having looked at God and who He is should alleviate most of our difficulties in reconciling the problem of suffering in our lives. If we say we trust Christ for our eternal destination then we should be able to trust Christ for our lives as we pass through this life. We know there will be trials, Jesus said so in John 16:33. He also promised to be there with us always. Then He sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter. So we, as children of God, can rest in Him knowing He is working all things out to the good of His great glory. This requires faith from us.

At this point if we truly trust in God then the question in our time of trials should change. Instead of asking, “Why did this happen God?” we should be asking, “What will you do with this God.” If we say we believe in His Word then we should be looking for how God is going to work this thing out for the good of His glory.

Yet there is a valid reason to ask why we are facing what we are facing. Again let me reiterate; I do not know why you are facing your personal trial. What I am about to offer is that you must seek God’s counsel in seeking the reason behind your personal trial and I am about to offer various Biblical possibilities for your suffering. My opinion does not matter but the truth of scripture does. But when suffering comes we must call on God to reveal to us through the Holy Spirit just what it is that we should be gaining from the trials we face. With that in mind let us know see what God’s Word has to say about the “why” of suffering.

The first cause of suffering is the most basic of all the causes. Suffering came into the world in the early beginning of man in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:17-19
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Pain, frustration, struggles in the simple sustenance of life, and even death to our physical bodies, is now a part of life thanks to the choice of Adam and Eve to disobey God. Sickness is a precursor of death and in its basic form all sickness is a result of the fall as we just read of Genesis 3. Paul restates this in Romans 5:12, saying “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Sometimes suffering is just simply part of life. Often it’s a result of our own personal choices. The person who chooses to smoke may end up with lung cancer. Not only will he suffer the physical aspect of the disease, those who care for him will experience their own suffering in this event. So sometimes the choices of others bring us suffering as well. Again this is all part of the suffering that entered the world through sin.

The second possible reason for our suffering might be that God is disciplining us in our sinful disobedience. This one turns off the liberal Christian who just thinks a loving God would not do that. But discipline is an act of love. Without God’s discipline we would remain in our sin. Scripture bears this out.

Hebrews 12:4-11
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”  It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Some of our suffering is simply the result of being sons of God, who is our Father.

Not all suffering is discipline for our sinful nature; some things are allowed to happen to us for God to refine us. We must grow in maturity and to grow and be made pure we must be put through the fire. Here are several various scriptures that explain how God uses suffering in this way.

Zechariah 13:9
“And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

John 15:1-2
 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

Psalm 119:71
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

Romans 5:3-5
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

James 1:2-4  

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

In line with this we find the Apostle Paul explaining how part of his personal suffering was used by God to keep him humble.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Sometimes God uses suffering to draw us closer through prayer as we see from 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” After the attacks on 9-11 this entire nation cried out to God in prayer. Sadly they went right back to their own way and soon forgot God, even though God has protected America and we are still enduring to this day.

God also allows us to endure suffering for the sake of others to gain salvation by watching us in our faithfulness during hard times.

2 Timothy 2:10-12
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.  The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us.

And so that we can help others in their time of trials.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7
 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 affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.  If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.  Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

God may use our suffering for His purposes and that may simply be a fact we must accept.

Genesis 50:20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

John 9:1-3
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.  And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

The truth of the life of a Christian is that we were not put on this earth for our own personal satisfaction, but to bring glory to God. Suffering can glorify God.

1 Peter 2:18-21
 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.  For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.  For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

1 Peter 4:16
 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Being a Christian requires faith and like any good thing we can say, talk is cheap, sometimes we must endure suffering simply to test our faith. Let us again turn to God’s Word.

Deuteronomy 8:2
And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

Isaiah 48:10
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-5
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.  Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.  This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.

These are just some of the reasons for suffering. As I researched the Bible for scriptures that help explain suffering I found that it is full of wonderful stories and verses that bring comfort to us in our times of trials. There is so much that this blog cannot do it justice. Please open your Bibles, get on your knees, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach, counsel, comfort, and to explain your own personal trial by fire. You may not ever in this life completely understand but at least you can offer God your faith by believing His Word.

Suffering is hard. Pain hurts. But we do not have to live out this life thinking our suffering has no good purpose. It does. But God has not deserted us to perish in the fire. Call on Jesus. Trust in God.

As I said to so many after I suffered through a very difficult accident several years back, build your faith now in the good times because you don’t want to be looking for your faith when the stuff hits the fan. Turn to Jesus today. Read the Word of God. Pray without ceasing. Get yourself into a church and develop relationships with the body of Christ. Trouble will come. God will carry you through.