Why We Must Suffer

A Devotional On The Topic Of Suffering

At the age of 28, I am now confident of this: I have been made to suffer for the glory of God. I have come to this place after much reading of scripture, watching the lives of trusted saints and living through suffering firsthand. Through it all, I have been encouraged by the reality that where the glory of God is shown there lies joy and satisfaction for Christians. My task and pleasure in this short time is to move you closer to being convinced of the same. I long for you to see in the pages of scripture what I have, mainly, that God has chosen to shape his people using the chisel of suffering. 

1. We must suffer if we are to be Christians.

At the onset of faith, we are told that to truly follow Christ is to die to ourselves. There must be a loss of who we once were, in the flesh, in order for the new man, crafted in the image of Christ, to be fully exposed. This loss is achieved as we are united with Christ, dying with him that we may also rise with Him to new life. To join Christ in his death is to place complete faith in His power and strength while surrendering any hope of completing this transformation by our own strength.  See here in Luke 9:23-24: 

“And He said to all, “‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’”

For you and I to walk as Christians is for us to die to ourselves and to allow the Spirit to daily live within us. This constant death and taking up of our cross is necessary spiritual suffering. The anxiety and even pain of leaving behind what is old and fallen in order to step into the new and unknown is the call of every Christian. 

2. We must suffer if we are to be like Christ.

From birth, our flesh longs to please itself at every turn. The problem with this is that the flesh, corrupted by sin, longs for what is contrary to God (2 Timothy 3:12). Like we just saw, the flesh must die in order for the Spirit to take hold and transform us into the likeness of Christ. But what about our desires? The very things that drive our decision making must also be transformed in order for us to choose to live as Christ. In 1 Peter 4:1-2, we see suffering, guided by the Spirit, aids us to this end: 

“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”

3. We must suffer in order to strengthen our brothers and sisters.

As we are joined with Christ in his life, death and resurrection, our life in the Spirit gives glory to Him. Our life lived in His Spirit, in this day and age, as His hands and feet, extends blessing to the world as if Jesus were physically present (1 Corinthians 12:27) . These blessings are first and foremost extended to the children of God. Hear Paul’s sentiment in Colossians 1:24: 

“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”

When we persevere in the face of our suffering, God not only orchestrates our salvation but also the encouragement that it will give to other believers. This is the very truth my wife and I found during our second miscarriage. In the midst of this, God came near to us through His word and the sweet hymns of the saints, and we tasted the joy of the Lord in the most sorrow-filled season of our life. This led us to rejoice in a way that we had never experienced and some of our friends had never seen. The image of broken believers rejoicing displayed the faithfulness of a God who can use even the lowest of moments to bring satisfaction and joy to his children. (Psalms 34:19)

4. We must suffer if we are to grasp the fullness of joy. 

Sobering passages like Matthew 7:23 and 1 Timothy 4:1 remind us that not all “faith” is true and enduring. This is why God constantly tests the faith of those who love and trust Him. True faith requires testing to reveal the depth of God-given trust and to produce endurance in the believer. If faith is never tested, there are biblical grounds to believe that it is not true faith at all. 

This testing often comes in the form of suffering, whether it be spiritual warfare, physical ailments, or psychological depression.  We find victory over these sufferings not by the suffering ending, but by showing adequate faith in God and the strength He gives us to endure. We see this truth in Romans 5: 2-5:

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

This strength allows for us to taste of the grace that God provides in the midst of the hardest seasons. As we taste, truly, of the grace of God, we experience a joy that even at its best displays only a foretaste of the eternal joy that is to come. Those who persevere experience joy in the here and now and grasp assurance of the fullness of joy that is promised. 

My prayer is that in preparation or in response, you would cast all your care on the Architect of your suffering and mine, knowing that He will surely glorify Himself and satisfy His children through it. 

Grace and Peace