Hope in the Midst of Suffering

Are you going through suffering? Do you ever wonder why you are experiencing the pain or persecution that you have been trying to endure?

Paul sheds an interesting light on this in Romans 8 when he tells his recipients that the whole creation has been subjected to futility in the hope of future redemption (8:18-21). He literally says that the entire creation is enslaved to corruption that has entered the world by sin. It's important to note that, even though believers have been set free from the penalty of sin and have received the promise of the Holy Spirit, even they are subjected to the suffering along with the rest of the world (8:23). The result is that we groan now, in this life, because the suffering produces in us a desperate longing and hope for the glory that is to be revealed to us when we are finally redeemed and glorified with Christ (8:17-18; 23-24).

In addition to producing in us a longing for our true and better home with Christ Jesus, suffering gives us opportunity to magnify the goodness and the grace of God as we exalt Him in the midst of what we're going through. God uses our trials to test us and to grow us into maturity in Christ. It's for this reason that Peter gives us the following instructions:

1 Peter 4:12-16
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;
13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.
14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
15 Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler;
16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

So God ordains persecution and pain in our lives to test us and to give us an opportunity to glorify Him.

How can you glorify Him in the midst of your suffering?

When you exalt Him as good and as sufficient to satisfy your heart in the midst of what you're going through. When He can strip everything else away and leave you with Christ alone and you still have joy because exalting Him is the aim of your life. Suffering provides a platform for us to say with Paul that our expectation and hope is that "Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:20-21).

So how does this help us in the midst of suffering?

It is meant to encourage and strengthen your faith. These truths are to stir you up by way of reminder of the things that you already know so that you might read them and believe them so that you might have victory over our adversary who would have you believe that God is unjust, uncaring, or has somehow lost control. This is what the devil does. Paul sends Timothy to encourage and strengthen the faith of the Thessalonians concerning his and their sufferings for fear that the tempter might have led them to believe that God had not ordained their sufferings and that they had no hope (1 Thess. 3:2-5).

But He has ordained our sufferings and we do have hope! Do not let the devil succeed in tempting you away from believing that God is sovereign and working all things together for your good and His glory (Rom. 8:28). He has a purpose for our suffering! He is working in us perseverance as we run the race of this life with our eyes on Jesus, conforming us to His image along the way and bringing about the hope of glory by revealing His Son in us in the process (Rom. 5:3-5; Col. 1:27c).

So rejoice, my brothers and sisters. The King is coming to make all things new. We go through pain now, but we will have Him for all of eternity. He is more than worth every ounce of suffering. Let's magnify Him and rejoice in His goodness and grace in letting us have the privilege of pointing others to Him!