On Suffering

This past Lord's Day, my pastor preached on Psalm 88. Here is an excerpt from His sermon.

God is in control in the midst of suffering. We confess the truth of scripture that God is in control even in the midst of our suffering, especially in our suffering. He has a purpose in our pain, He has a divine design in our suffering. He is like a sculptor hammering away at the rock of our lives, He is chiseling us into the likeness of His Son, and every strike and every stroke is painful, but in the end we will be fitted and fashioned for heaven, where there is no pain, where there is no suffering...

That Sunday, I was moved and encouraged by the preaching of God's Word because it made me reflect on God's good purposes in my wife's medical condition. Kristen was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of seven. Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA for short, is an autoimmune disease that affects joints and in addition to limited mobility, it causes much pain in areas where inflammation is present. At the time of this writing, Kristen is now 31 years old and has lived with RA for a little over two decades now. She has written about living with RA on her website. My wife experiences physical pain on a daily basis. Some days are better than others, while some are worse. But in the midst of all of it, I can say with confidence that God is good.

Later in his sermon, my pastor explained how the gospel gives us hope amidst suffering. Here is an excerpt from that portion of his sermon.

The truth is we may suffer our whole life and without relief, and our suffering may be classified, to use Peter's words, "a little while." That doesn't make our decades and decades or years and years of suffering on this earth easy, but it does help us to remember that our trials will have an end. We will obtain the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls. We know this because the pattern that Jesus has set is the pattern that we will follow. Jesus lived, he suffered, and died. But he rose! Amen! He did not stay dead, he was raised from his grave with a glorified body, a body which will never feel the misery of this world again. The pattern of Jesus' life will be the pattern and path that we walk; we will suffer and we will enter into glory. Suffering will not be the entirety of our existence, though it may be the entirety of our earthly life. It was for Jesus. This is why we pray and don't stop praying. This is why confess our pain and our hope in the sovereign God.

At this point in the sermon I was in tears. It made me think of my wife and her suffering. It made me think of her body, how it is subjected to physical pain. But even in the midst of suffering, God is with her, with us. He has sovereignly ordained that my wife have Arthritis and I know that is for our good and for His glory. It reminds me of when the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about an ailment, a certain "thorn in the flesh," that he was suffering from.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12: 8-10

Paul prayed multiple times that God would heal him, that this thing that caused pain would leave him. But God in His infinite kindness and wisdom did not remove it. Whatever malady it was, God ordained that Paul have this affliction. And if you think about it, God did not ignore Paul's prayer. In fact, God answered it, and He answered it in such a way that it would show how good and how powerful He is. We have this word of encouragement from Paul's letter because of the very fact that God ordained that Paul would have this thorn.

Sometimes, we may not know why the Lord is bringing us through trials and valleys, but we can trust that wherever the the Lord might lead us, He is bringing us unto Himself. I think that is why I have been thinking about the photograph above this past week. It made me reflect on the darkness in Psalm 88.

Just like the photograph, we don't really know what darkness may lie behind the doors we will pass through, but this we can be sure of - our God will be with us. Whatever suffering or trials may come, the Lord will sovereignly bring us safely through. He has promised to do so.

Paul highlights this promise in his second letter to the Corinthians

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

2 Corinthians 4:17

Peter also speaks to God's promise to preserve his saints.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10

So no matter what darkness, no matter what suffering, ailment, or temptation you go through, you can trust that the Lord Himself will bring you safely through. God is trustworthy in midst of suffering. Even in the midst of my wife's pain, He is good for He has promised that one day we will be with Him. So when we are burdened, when we are overwhelmed with darkness, we can turn to the Lord of hope for He is our light and salvation.

I'll end this blog post with the words of the closing hymn from that Lord's day service that prompted this reflection.

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;

the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Soli Deo Gloria