Suffering

“If anyone suffers . . let him glorify God.” 1 Peter 4:16 NKJV

“Suffering requires a Godly perspective within an eternal context.”

My thoughts today are about “suffering.”

Suffering is not something you give much thought to, until you are suffering. Then you can barely stop thinking about it. Few subjects, if any, would be less preferred to write or read about than this. If you are not suffering, you would rather not consider it at all, almost superstitiously. And if you are suffering, you rarely want to talk or read about it any more than is unavoidable.

But, like it or not, life involves some measure of suffering, and no one is exempt from its reality or immune to its pain. Suffering touches lives in diverse ways: mental anguish, emotional distress, psychological perplexity, relational separation, spiritual bewilderment, but more often as physical impairment. It is inevitable that you will have to righteously deal with some measure of struggle.

Life is a series of problems: a person is either in one, just coming out of one, or getting ready for another one. They come in all shapes, sizes, and durations, without respect of person. The Psalms are magnificent, inspired literature exactly because David “tells it like it is.” His humanity struggles with inequities, but always leads his heart back to God’s character and faithfulness. “My steps had nearly slipped . . for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked . . when I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me . . until I went into the Sanctuary, then I understood their end . . slippery places.” Read Psalm 73:1-28 NKJV. “Slippery places” are where the wicked walk, not the righteous! It just feels the other way around sometimes.

Suffering requires a Godly perspective within an eternal context. David voiced the dilemma, “Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper?” That question is based on an inaccurate assumption that the righteous should not suffer and the wicked should not prosper. Jesus said, “Your Father . . makes His sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.” Matthew 5:45 TEV.

The truth is that both righteous and wicked live in the same fallen world and experience the inevitable effect of that. “Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.” 1 Peter 4:15-19 NKJV. See 1 Peter 2:19-23 NKJV.

Know this; God’s heart is grieved by any man’s suffering, whatever its source or cause. Let me quickly confess I don’t have your answer; that would take theologians wiser than me. In the matter of suffering, “why” is the wrong question; that only compounds confusion, multiplies questions, provides partial answers, and produces little satisfaction. The right answers rest in your trust of God’s character and truth. Here’s the real question, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:25 NIV. Every wrong will not be righted on earth, nor every good thing rewarded in one’s lifetime. Fair reward and just retribution are sure only in eternity. See Romans 8:18 NIV.

My prayer for you today is: face suffering with grace, being confident of God’s justice.