We as Christians believe many things about God. We believe him to be loving, just, good, understanding, gracious, kind, and occasionally jealous, wrathful, and condemning. But there is one of his traits that I have in the last few months become fascinated with, and that is his sovereignty. For those of you that don’t know exactly what that word means, it is for something to have supreme power and authority over something else, which in this case is God having supreme power and authority over all of his creation. That includes but is not limited to one’s health, global weather, one’s financial situation, one’s government, the Devil, cancer, the sun, Donald Trump, that man that just broke into your house to steal your television or jewelry or credit cards, Kim Jong Un, the genocide in Rwanda, the Nazi’s killing of 11 million “undesirables” during World War II, your miscarriage, and your infant that has a lung infection that forces them to fight for every breath leaving you helpless to just sit and pray that they live through the night.
These things that I listed here may seem to you like they have little to no involvement by a loving God, much less a sovereign God. Usually when we look at these things we are tempted to ask God, “Why?! Why could you let these things happen? I thought that you were loving and cared for your creation?” As much as I hate to admit it I have thought these things before. In fact I believe that one would be hard pressed find a person who hasn’t asked those questions at one time or another. That being said we can all take off our masks that say we have never doubted God in our lives and see that we are not alone. Isolation is one of the enemy’s greatest tools in his belt so let us block his attacks and say that we have all doubted God at one point or another and move toward the truth as a body.
So what is God doing? What is his big plan? We read verses like Romans 8:28 that say, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who have been called according to his purposes,” but we don’t really see that aligning with our own outlook. So what here is the problem here? Believe it or not the problem is us. That may come as a shocker to the arrogant American church who love to know everything but it is true. The problem here is not God in his infinite wisdom and power. He isn’t sitting in heaven looking at the stars exclaiming “look I made those” while these painful and horrible things slip behind his back. That isn’t what is happening! He sees everything that happens and he purposes them for good. So the problem here is us. The problem here is that we don’t see the infinitely wise outlook of an omnipotent and loving God. If he has a plan that is purposed for good and we see that there are some things that are happening that we don’t think belong in that plan. The problem is not the plan the problem is the lack of our own understanding. In the profound words of Matt Chandler, “are you tracking with me?” It would be insanely arrogant to look at the all knowing God and say that he is doing it wrong. He created it. He knows more than you. Period.
So know that our ego is in check we are going to move on to seeing some ways that God purposes pain and suffering for his good plan. As I look through the Bible both the Old and the New Testaments are full of the suffering of God’s people and along with that suffering we are given instruction for our response in the suffering of the Saints and non-believers alike. And not only are these sufferings laced in the Bible, I have seen some of these sufferings first hand as I have traveled around the world. So to answer the question that we started with I can see clearly three ways that our Father uses suffering to accomplish his will. This is not an exhaustive list by any means. There are infinitely more ways that God uses suffering but I am going to explain three that I see that can help us understand his use of suffering.
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God uses suffering to show our reliance on him.
It’s true that when we are in a life filled comforts we tend to think that the things that are holding us up are the comforts themselves when in reality it is God that upholds us. We rely on our well paying jobs, our savings account, our home, our morning Starbucks run, our family, our friends, our safety, our spouses, our health, etc. These things are not bad in and of themselves, they are gifts from God but we tend to praise the gift rather than the giver of the gift and forget that he is the one that holds those gifts in our lives and the breath in our lungs. We forget God and we don’t think that we need him anymore. In order to get us back to a proper view of who he is he will take away gifts in order to show his true goodness. We think we are secure in our home, he allows a man to break in and steal things. We think that we have enough money for retirement, he allows our identity to be stolen. We think that we have perfect health, he can take that away with cancer.
Now I know what you are thinking: “How can we call God loving if he just wants to take away the stuff that makes us happy?” The answer is simple: God does not want you to be happy in stuff he wants you to have joy in him because he is infinitely better than the stuff. He wants us to see that. One of the greatest examples of this is Job. If anyone had reason to be content with life it was Job. Job 1 tells us that he had a beautiful wife, seven sons, three daughters, thousands of livestock, good health, and he loved the Lord. Satan tells God that if he were to take away all of Job’s things he would not love God any longer. So God allows Satan to take away Job’s children, his heath, and his wealth. God knew what was to be done to Job and everything that Satan did to him was not outside of God’s will. Like a dog with a shock-collar Satan could go no further than what God sovereignly allowed. Then Job responds to the Lord. Job responds in chapter 1 verse 21 saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job does not curse God and he does not talk of God owing anything to him rather he implies that he owned nothing coming into the world and that what was given to him was never his to grasp. He knew that God was the reason for his prosperous life. He held fast to God as the giver not to the fleeting gifts of the this world. Job shows us a clear picture of our reliance on God in wealth and depravity.
2. God uses suffering to show his love through his body that is the Church.
In Mathew 25:35-40 Jesus says, “‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me , I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘ Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'”
We are called as Christians to serve those who suffer and give to those in need. This is one way that God shows his love for us, through the Church’s service toward the “least of these” meaning those who are considered lowly. This includes those who are in prison, those who are homeless through poor financial decisions and through natural disasters, those who have no food or water, and all who are less fortunate than you. Those who by the worlds standards are too far gone or beyond the point of no return. This shows God’s love for the world. When there has been a hurricane in the Gulf or in China the church of Christ is called to go help them! We are called to go in the name of Jesus. You don’t need to be an expert in disaster relief or first aid certified to help people who have no home, they are not going to care about your training in these things they just need a person to help. This shows how much God loves them and is a wonderful picture of how Christ came to save us. That is the reason that we go! When we were unable to help ourselves, Christ came to save us. This is God’s purpose for suffering, to show his love and his mercy through his body.
3. The suffering of Christians displays the suffering of Christ and our joy in him.
Suffering should come as no shocker for the follower of Christ. Jesus himself said that those who choose to follow him will suffer, be hated by the world, and even his own family. He calls us daily to pick up our cross and bear it. The book of Acts is filled with the sufferings of the church and most of the New Testament letters encourage the church of God to rejoice in their sufferings. Why are the lives of God’s elect so marked by suffering throughout the scriptures?
In Colossians 1:24 the apostle Paul shows us how God has used his suffering for good:
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known”
In this verse, “filling up what is lacking” is not saying that Christ’s death was insufficient in atonement rather it is saying that the church is going to suffer along with Jesus in order to make the word of God fully known. Did you catch that? God is going to deliberately allow his children, the bride of Christ, to suffer. That seems counterintuitive doesn’t it? Christ died in order to save his people but now they are still allowed to suffer here on earth. Which begs the question, “why?”
Because when we suffer we do not suffer like anyone else in the world. We suffer with joy and hope in Jesus Christ which displays the atoning work of Christ more than our prospering ever could. That is the reason that God allows tens of thousands of Christians in North Korea to suffer in labor camps. That is why he allows the beheadings of his people in radical Islamic states. That is why he allows the imprisonment of thousands of his children today. To show the hope and joy that is found through Jesus Christ. Any man can stand face to face with someone and proclaim what he believes with joy but the true testimony of Jesus Christ is shown most powerfully through those who have no earthly reason to rejoice. And it shows a hope that surpasses knowledge when those being persecuted turn to their persecutors to say that they forgive them and that Jesus can save them while singing praises unto their Good Father. The testimony of suffering Christians is how God has reached countless people who otherwise would never have heard the gospel of Christ. It is a tool that the sovereign God of the universe uses to bring about the reconciliation of a fallen world.
This is the world of a sovereign God. It is not how we would picture it but we do not see all, know all, nor are we all powerful. God sees the depravity of his world and he uses it for good. But do not mistake this use of pain as a lack of empathy for Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a great high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” And furthermore this use of suffering does not nullify his love toward his creation. Romans 5:8 says that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ Died for us.” So the love of God does come and go according our circumstances rather it is our hope and our reason to rejoice in those circumstances. He is loving because he has given us an assurance that the suffering will be worth it! That we suffer but a moment for an eternity in the glory of Christ.
So this is my challenge to the church: When you are going through struggle, when you are walking through a season of pain and fear: rejoice. Sing aloud the goodness of our Heavenly Father. Display the hope that you have in Christ through your joy. I am not telling you to fake being happy, I am saying you should choose joy. Happiness is situational, joy is the state of the heart that is brought through the life of abundance found in Christ Jesus our Lord. And when you see others going through times of struggle, bear their burdens. Come along side them whether they are having minor financial trouble or their house just burned to the ground. Bear their burdens, help them through the struggle, and show them that their true and only hope is in Christ Jesus.
