Three Truths About God We Need to Remember in Our Suffering
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”—Matt. 7:24-25
In my last post, we established that suffering is real. You’re not imagining it.
Whether it’s the pain of a lost toy, a snub of a friend, or a body ravaged by cancer, life hurts, no matter what the source. Sin has left our world broken, decaying, groaning.
And when life hurts, our indwelling sin warps our thinking. We talked about the false assumptions we are tempted to make and the importance of letting God correct those assumptions.
For the longest time, that last assumption I mentioned ruled my thinking. I thought that if I could see why my efforts to do good were met with more trouble and pain than I ever imagined, then I could bear it better.
However, the Bible doesn’t always tell us why. But He does give an answer.
He tells us Who.
And this answer makes all the difference in the world—for even if we never know why, like Job, we can still be at peace with God—and even thrive.
Why Our “Who” Matters
In Matthew 7, Jesus makes it clear—the rain will fall, the floods will come, and the winds will blow. It will happen to all of us. None of us are spared.
But the difference between the wise and the foolish man lies in the foundation on which we lay our trust.
If we build our house of brick on a foundation of rock, it will stand. But even if we build a house of brick on a foundation of sand, it will fall—and great will be that fall (Matt. 7:26-27).
This is critical to get right, not merely because of our ultimate end, but because it will impact everything about how we understand our story here during our lifetimes. Beverly Moore states, “Our perception is our reality. So, if our perceptions are not right, our beliefs of reality won’t be right either.”
This is important, for if we see Him wrongly, it will discolor how we respond to suffering. Steve Estes describes it this way: “If we do not cling to this through life’s worst, we will misread everything and grow to hate him.”
Our beliefs impact our perceptions, which impact the way we live in response to our sufferings.
And while we may not be the cause of our sufferings, we are responsible for how we respond to them. We may not be at fault for the suffering itself, but God will hold us accountable for what we do when it hits.
So what truths about God do we need to remember when we are suffering?
Three Things to Remember About God in Our Suffering
As we suffer, God humbles us—not merely to put us in our place, but to teach us how great He is. While there is an infinite list of character qualities about God we can talk about, there are three that are particularly important to remember in our times of suffering.
God is sovereign.
With this sovereignty is power—the power to arrange, orchestrate, direct, and control.
When suffering strikes, it is so easy to assume that somehow, we eluded His grasp. Our hardship has come because His sovereignty has somehow weakened.
However, if we believe this, then it is in direct contradiction to numerous passages that describe His sovereignty (e.g. Eph. 1:11; Col. 1:16-17; Is. 45:7-9, etc.).
I’ll admit God’s sovereignty is a concept that boggles my mind. This blog post cannot do it justice.
It both comforts and frightens, for it means if God is truly sovereign, He can ordain both good and bad.
This is humbling as we realize we are not in control—which is why many of us don’t want to believe this. But not trusting this will be to our peril.
Which is why we need the second truth.
God is loving and good.
The Bible tells us the fact that God is love (1 John 4:16). But do we know that God is loving towards us?
In my own life journey, I knew “Jesus loves me,” but I didn’t really believe it—until I came face to face with my own sin and the love of God demonstrated in the gospel.
The truth is this: if God ordains suffering in our lives, it is because it is the best way to accomplish His good purposes.
In fact, He himself does not shy away from suffering if it is the most loving path. Just look at the cross. Romans 5:8 reminds us that it is in Christ’s very suffering that He demonstrates his love.
He Himself bore unjust suffering bodily and spiritually, in every conceivable way possible, so that we will never be separated from the love of God (Rom. 8:38-39).
Nothing—not a disabled child, a hurricane, a divorce—can keep His love from us.
With that, we need one more truth.
God is purposeful.
Now I will be the first to admit that I have not appreciated it when people have quoted Romans 8:28 to me: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.” Unfortunately, they often stop there and do not go on. But what’s left out is far more important.
The rest of the verse continues this way, “…for those who are called according to his purpose.”
And what is that purpose? Verse 29 tells us: to conform us to the image of His Son.
God works through our sufferings for our good—in that through the suffering, those who love and trust Him will grow more and more into the image of Christ, the perfect saint.
When God permits suffering to enter our lives, we can know without question that there is no other way to accomplish this goal in our story. In His sovereign wisdom and deep love, He has determined that this particular suffering is the best thing for you at this moment. His sovereignty provides a perspective we do not have.
About 15 years ago, my husband and I dreamed of starting the non-profit organization we just began last year.
But why did it take so long to begin? Simply put: because we were not ready.
Instead of sending us to school for more education, He did something unexpected.
He had us adopt a disabled orphan.
Yeah, I wondered about that too. And I will also say I fought against His plans because I could not see the connection why.
But it is also during the past 10 years that I began to grow in understanding the Who.
In love, this God is after my holiness, my sanctification. I sorely needed it but didn’t know it.
I lacked the patience, the compassion, the gentleness that is needed in ministry. So He used Anah to show me in glaring technicolor this truth. And I am humbled.
And that is the way God works. He is purposeful. He has written all of our days, lovingly, carefully, and with good intention (Ps. 139:16, Eph. 2:10).
Our Providential God
When we put all three of these things together, we begin to understand God’s providence.
This is not a term we find in the Bible, but in English it describes all three of these key characteristics.
I love to read complex stories where all the various plotlines—seemingly disconnected—all slowly weave together at the end. We can’t see what each of them have to do with each other, but little by little, as the story progresses, what has happened to one set of characters begins to impact or merge with another set. And together, all of them come together in the climax of the story to resolve the conflict.
In an even greater way, our God is writing a Story. He is in control of all the plot lines, and they are all eventually going to come together. Your suffering, my suffering, the suffering of someone in the distant past, the suffering of someone on the other side of the world—all of it is working towards a great and grand Conclusion.
It is through our sufferings that His wisdom comes to bear in our own lives personally. Otherwise, it is easy for us to waltz through life without even considering Him. But when we suffer? This is when He awakens our spirits to the deeper issues of life. And no one can avoid Him then.
Some of us may rail and shake our fists at Him. Some even turn their backs on Him, as if we can punish Him.
But for others of us, our suffering can also be the very tool He uses to bring us close. For it is in our suffering that we come to know something even more amazing—His comfort (2 Cor. 1:3-4a).
Unfortunately, when times are good, we have no need of it. But when times are hard? His comfort is an amazing gift.
Like the Israelites wandering in the desert (Deut 8:3), He has lessons to teach us, particularly in what it means to become like Christ. As we learn these lessons, He uses them to transform us from one degree of glory to the next (2 Cor. 3:18).
So let us be careful that we do not fail to learn those lessons (1 Cor. 10:1-11).
And that’s what we will talk about in the next post.
