Suffering 2
Suffering 2 for paper Rev. Terry Goerz, Redeemer Lutheran Church
In my last article we closed wondering how God can use our suffering to bring about good?
When pain and suffering befall us, often we ask ourselves, “Is God punishing me?” We sometimes can think that the trials of life are only intended as punishment. Yet God sometimes uses pain and suffering for another purpose, a purpose that can result in good. God can be warning us of something in our lives that can bring us great harm. For those who are not Christians God can use pain and suffering as a wake up call to bring someone to faith. There are many Christians who can testify that pain, suffering, or other troubles were what caused them to turn to God and accept his gift of faith.
Sometimes we may be troubled by some sin we have committed. It bothers our conscience. We call that conviction from God. He is leading us to confess and receive his absolution for something. Or he may be leading us to go to others and ask for forgiveness. These things may be troubling in our consciences, but they result in good if we follow God’s warning.
Another way God can use suffering to bring about good is when he is doing the same thing loving parents have to do sometimes when they have to discipline their children to bring about a change in behaviour or attitude. God can be acting like a refiner of silver. Silver is refined by subjecting it to intense flame. Once melted the impurities float to the top and the silversmith skims the dross off. “For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” Malachi 3: 2B, 3A.
Bad parents can use discipline as revenge, but loving parents use discipline for the good of the child. The writer to the Hebrews tells us to not make light of the Lord’s discipline: ‘“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?’ Hebrews 12: 5B – 7
God can use trials to mature our faith or develop our character as Christians. “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5: 3 &4
Another way which God can use pain and suffering for good is with what is called exemplary suffering. In the bible Job is the most famous example of this. At one time Job had been prosperous. But, in one day all his riches were destroyed and his children died in a furious wind storm. Then he was infected with a disease which left him covered with loathsome sores.
Job was experiencing exemplary suffering. God permitted Satan to oppress Job in order to demonstrate the strength of Job’s faith in God. So God can use exemplary suffering to bring about good. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1: 6&7
Another example of God using pain and suffering to bring about good from the OT is the story of Joseph. He was sold by his brothers into slavery, but God used his situation to make him second to the pharaoh of Egypt. In his position as next to pharaoh he was able to bring his whole family, who were experiencing this famine, to Egypt and look after them so they prospered greatly while in Egypt and became a great nation. Not only Joseph’s family was saved, but the whole of Egypt experienced a tremendous salvation from famine through Joseph’s suffering at the hands of his brothers and the time he spent in prisons in Egypt before being elevated to second to Pharaoh.
And a final example of good coming from pain and suffering is when we have experienced trials, and have found comfort and consolation in our faith as we look back on them, we can also offer comfort to those around us who may also be experiencing similar pain and suffering that we have lived through: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 3: 3 & 4
We started thinking of a great promise of God: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8: 28
Although our list was not complete we have examined a number of ways that God can do this. He can bring good out of the pain and suffering we experience in this life by using it to warn us, he can use pain and suffering to refine us like silver, he can use pain and suffering to bring about a change in our behavior or attitude much like a loving parent does, he can use pain and suffering as exemplary suffering to demonstrate our faith, he can use pain and suffering to bring about good as he did with Joseph, even though we suffer as it is brought about and he can use the experience of our pain and suffering so that we can offer comfort and consolation to those in similar circumstances.
Blessings