One of the things my wife and I enjoy when we are on holiday is walking through those small, forgotten cemeter­ies next to country churches and reading the words on the headstones. Something which quickly becomes obvious is the sheer amount of suffering faced by pre­vious generations. There are numerous headstones for babies who died at birth, young children who died from disease, young women who died in childbirth and young men lost at sea or at war. But what is also readily apparent is that these generations accepted suffering as a normal part of life and were much better equipped to face it than we are today.

In the West, we tend to treat suffering as an abnormality, an unwelcome visitor – a stranger that does not belong. We expect a life which is free from pain, in which the sun always shines from a clear blue sky and nothing of any sig­nificance will rock our world. In short, we expect heaven on earth. Yet there is nothing more sure than the fact that suffering will come to each of us.

So why does God allow suffering in our lives? Is there a theology of suffer­ing that might help us better understand its place in our lives? Is it even possible that suffering may be a gift to us from God – something that He intends not for our harm, but for our good? The answer to these questions is a resounding “yes!” What Scripture has to say about suffering should transform our thinking and give us a much more robust faith in the face of a world under the curse.

A Gracious Reminder this is not Our Home⤒🔗

The problem with modern-day life in the opulent West is that we can, to a very large degree, insulate ourselves from the very real problems of the world we live in. We drive to work in our air-conditioned cars, return home to our middle-class neighbourhoods, enjoy de­licious food in abundance and escape from reality through the abundant entertainment options available to us. And these things mean that for long periods of time and large portions of our lives, we can forget that we live in a world under the judgement of God – a world characterised by disease, disaster and death. Instead of hungering for the world to come we hold on to this world for all that we are worth. But, from time to time, God graciously intervenes.

Suffering exposes the emptiness of the world’s allure, its inability to meet our deepest needs or to give us any real and lasting security. Many of us have experienced that moment of crys­tal-clear insight that comes in the wake of tragedy – in a moment we see what really matters and how much of our lives we have poured into things that don’t. It is suffering – not pleasure – which awakens our yearning for that triumphant declaration: “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4). This world is not our home – and, many times, it is suffering which reminds us of this.

A Way of Revealing our Self-centred Hearts←⤒🔗

A number of years ago, I remember a speaker who said that we are theists by confession but deists in practice. What he meant is that we say we believe in God, yet we often live as though everything depends on us. This can be particularly true of us as Reformed people. Though we know we are saved by grace, we live either in arrogant pride because of our ‘achievements’ or plagued by guilt over our failings – both expressions of the rebellious declaration of independence from God, first heard in Eden (Genesis 3).

The Psalmist expresses something of this when he says “When I felt secure, I said ‘I will never be shaken.’” (Psalm 30:6.) His security led him to smugness and self-confidence – he had forgotten that it was God who made him stand firm. But then he confesses “...but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.” When God withdrew His favour, the Psalmist saw the arrogance of his own heart and he cried to God for mercy (Psalm 30:8.)

Suffering often shows that I am fatally me-centred and this shows in the kind of questions I ask: Why does this have to happen to me? Haven’t I already suf­fered enough? How much more of this do I have to take? Though we profess that the world is God-centred, we con­tinually move towards self-centred lives. Suffering shows the folly and emptiness of such lives – it shows our absolute de­pendence on God. There are many unan­swerable questions when we suffer but one thing is always true – God designs our sufferings to drive us outside of our­selves and into Him.

A Tool in the Hand of Our Loving Father←⤒🔗

Discipline has become something of a dirty word in our day. But discipline, especially in the Bible, is related to discipling. It has in mind the shaping of character, the development of self-discipline and self-denial, training in righteousness, growth in holiness – the loving formation of a mature person. This is why Proverbs can say “do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord dis­ciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” (Prov 3:11-12 c.f. Heb 12:5-6).

God is at work in our hearts, shaping us for an eternity with Him and, very often, suffering is the tool of choice. It is telling that, in Scripture, it is the tough times which shape God’s people. Joseph, Moses, David, Jeremiah, and Paul were all shaped on the anvil of suffer­ing. Psalm 119 also speaks of this truth when the Psalmist says “before I was afflicted, I went astray” and later when he says “it was good for me to be af­flicted that I might learn your decrees.” (Psalm 119:67, 71.)

Suffering is a refining process which exposes our weaknesses and the idola­tries of our hearts. God is at work to make us Holy and this is no easy process – our hearts are incredibly hard and, as fast as one idol is dethroned, we put another in its place.

We may be tempted to ask “but isn’t there another way that God could shape us?” There isn’t. If Scripture even says of Jesus “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered...” (Heb 5:9) – how can we expect that anything less is needed in our case? God uses suffering to discipline us and to shape us for eternity.

A Reason for Encouragement←⤒🔗

Although suffering reminds us that this world is not our home, that God must be on the throne of our hearts and that He is at work for our holiness, these things do not mean that we will welcome each fresh trial with a smile. Suffering is diffi­cult and the Bible never denies this. But the Bible does give us real encourage­ment in the face of suffering. I want to highlight two favourites...

The first encouragement is by way of comparison. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Rom 8:18). These words remind us that no matter how bad our suffering may be – and at times they may be beyond imagination – the glory that waits for us will be infinitely better!

The second encouragement speaks of God’s purposes in our sufferings. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor 4:17). The very thing which gives us so much pain is being redeemed by God and used for our eternal benefit. And, in the light of eternity, we will see that our suffering was “light and momentary.”

A Gift!←⤒🔗

If our suffering is a gift from God (and it is!) then what is it that God wants to give us? Is God simply at work to draw us home and to make us holy or is there more?

Ultimately what God wants to give us is Himself! Every other blessing and benefit that we enjoy –even physical life on the new earth beyond sorrow, sickness and suffering – is only ours through relationship with God. They are side-benefits of knowing and experienc­ing God Himself. Without Him, heaven would not be heaven.

The gift God wants to give us is life with Him, life through Him, life for Him – a life in which we glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. He has not prom­ised us a life free from suffering. But He has promised that He will be with us in the midst of suffering (Psalm 23; 1 Cor 10:13) and that He will redeem it for our good.

Every time we suffer, we are faced with the same question – Is God enough? Is fellowship with Him sufficient – even when everything else is taken from us? This is the question that Job was faced with and it is the ultimate question that faces us in every trial. And – astonishingly – the answer not only for Job but for every believer who goes through suffering is an undeniable YES! Countless believers have found that, in the darkest of trials, God plus nothing equals everything.

Suffering is no accident, no intruder. It has not caught God unawares nor slipped past His defenses. Suffering is a good gift from a loving God who is at work to wean our hearts from everything else so that we will long only for Him. Suffering leads us to God.