The Sovereignty of God in Suffering - IV

d. How Does God Use Suffering, and Make it Into Something Good? 

Does God send us suffering? Is God really in charge of every bad thing that happens? The first counter-question to this is, if you believe Scripture when it says that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17), why do you reject Scripture when it speaks of God ordaining suffering? 

Psalm 66:10 - "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried."

Psalm 119:75 - "I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me."

Isaiah 30:20 - "And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher."

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

Micah 4:6 - "In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted;"

Nahum 1:12 - "Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more."

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.’”

1 Thessalonians 2:4 - "but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts." (emphasis mine) 

God sends us affliction and ordains our suffering, but that is not the final note in the symphony. God allows us to suffer because He has a plan to recall us to Himself, to turn our hearts back to Him. He wants us to rely on Him. Jim Bowers wrote when recently widowed, 

"I know - I'm learning - that God's ways are sometimes, and even often, inhuman."[1] 

God’s ways are not our ways, but they are good, and He is faithful. We can trust Him completely. 

Romans 8 declares that as Christians, we suffer in hope.  Our suffering is related to birth pains. I’ve been told giving birth is among the most painful, agonizing things to go through. But it’s pain for a purpose: there is a bundle of joy at the end of it. Women going through the intense pain of childbirth receive a gift and blessing beyond description. 

So do we, as we suffer in this life. We await a future joy; a gift and blessing beyond comparison, beyond imagination. We look forward to our birth into Heaven, a place without suffering. We should take great encouragement from that. 

Steve Saint, in speaking of the difference between suffering as unbelievers or believers, said this: 

"For them, the pain is fundamental and the joy is superficial because it won't last.

For us, the pain is superficial and the joy is fundamental."[2] 

Besides the future glory, we have a present good that comes from suffering: Faith. God grants us the faith to go through suffering of all kinds, to develop a trusting relationship with Him. Through our suffering we learn to rely fully upon His promises, and His word becomes our foundation. We learn that He can carry us, and that He loves us and has plans for us. Our faith has overcome the world, with all its suffering and woes. (1 John 5:4)

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[1] Jim Bowers, “If God Should Choose”

[2] Steve Saint, “If God Should Choose”

Part 5