SUFFERING-BENEFITS

As followers of Christ, we often suffer not because we are out of God's will but because we are in it, not because we lack faith but because we have faith. We suffer not because we need to be filled with the Spirit but because we already are. Stronger faith does not mean less suffering, but more suffering means stronger faith. Far from calling our faith into question, our afflictions result in our becoming more and more like Christ Himself.

D.R. McConnell

You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.

John Calvin

Suffering brings enormous benefits:

1. Suffering verifies our faith (1 Pet. 1:6-7).

2. Suffering confirms our sonship (Heb. 12:5-8).

3. Suffering produces endurance (James 1:2-4; 1 Pet. 5:10).

4. Suffering teaches us to hate sin (John 11:33).

5. Suffering promotes self-evaluation.

6. Suffering clarifies our priorities (Dt. 6:10-13).

7. Suffering identifies us with Christ (2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Thes. 2:14-15; Gal. 6:17; Phil. 3:10).

8. Suffering can encourage other believers (1 Thes. 1:6-7; Phil. 1:14).

9. Suffering can benefit unbelievers (Acts 16:16-34).

10. Suffering enables us to help others (Heb. 4:15-16).

John MacArthur

Excerpted from: Sufficient Grace from Our Sufficiency in Christ, 1991, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 253-256.

Suffering strengthens resolve and increases the value of Christ for those who, in response to the presence of the Spirit in their lives, genuinely trust God's love and power. Rather than destroying faith-induced hope, suffering spurs it on. It is the fire that fortifies faith, stripping away the illusion of the world's glamour and gold and unmasking our powerlessness to solve our own problems, or provide for our own security (Luke 12:16-21). Suffering therefore teaches us to esteem God's promises as our only hope.

Scott Hafemann

The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 151.

Suffering as a Christian is a sign that God is powerfully at work in our lives. Longing for our final redemption, suffering for doing right, and being persecuted for our faith are all evidence that God has begun the good work of making us like Christ. Our suffering consequently becomes a great encouragement to our faith, since those who share in Christ's sufferings know that they will also share in his resurrection (Matt. 5:11-12; Rom. 8:17; Phil. 3:10).

Scott Hafemann

The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 151.

That which should distinguish the suffering of believers from unbelievers is the confidence that our suffering is under the control of an all-powerful and all-loving God; our suffering has meaning and purpose in God’s eternal plan, and He brings or allows to come into our lives only that which is for His glory and our good.

Jerry Bridges

Every adversity that comes across our path, whether large or small, is intended to help us grow in some way. If it were not beneficial, God would not allow it or send it, “For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men” (Lamentations 3:33). God does not delight in our sufferings. He brings only that which is necessary, but He does not shrink from that which will help us grow.

Jerry Bridges

But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

C.S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain, 1940.

We should neither court suffering nor complain about it. Instead, we should see it as one of the means God chooses to employ in order to make us increasingly useful to the Master. It is from this perspective that James urges his readers to “consider it pure joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).

Alistair Begg

Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 109.

God acts first to strengthen sufferers internally. If you “suffer in a Godward direction,” He gives you hope. It is in the context of suffering that God strengthens hearts in many ways:

1. The love of God pours out directly into the hearts of afflicted persons who rely on Him in hope (Rom. 5:3-5).

2. God becomes directly known – “seen” – in ways previously unimaginable (Job 42:5).

3. Our foolishness is revealed, so that we might receive growing wisdom directly from God (James 1:2-5).

4. We are remade into the image of Jesus, and established in the love of God (Rom. 8:29, in the context of 8:18-39).

5. We learn to trust and obey Jesus, who walked the path of unjust suffering ahead of us and now walks it with us (Heb. 4:14-5:9; 12:1-11).

6. Our self-centered cravings are revealed and our faith is purified and simplified (1 Peter 1:3-15).

David Powlison

Seeing With New Eyes, P&R Publishers, 2003, p. 102-103.

I wish that saints would cling to Christ half as earnestly as sinners cling to the devil. If we were as willing to suffer for God as some are willing to suffer for their lusts, what perseverance and zeal would be seen on all sides!

C.H. Spurgeon

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.

C.H. Spurgeon

What then are we to do about our problems? We must learn to live with them until such time as God delivers us from them. We must pray for grace to endure them without murmuring. Problems patiently endured will work for our spiritual perfecting. They harm us only when we resist them or endure them unwillingly

A.W. Tozer

I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.

C.H. Spurgeon

Christian History, n. 29.

As the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst.

William Jenkyn

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 16.

Look, as our greatest good comes through the sufferings of Christ, so God’s greatest glory that He hath from His saints comes through their sufferings.

Thomas Brooks

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 288.

The Gospel gets really more advantage by the holy, humble sufferings of one saint, simply for the Word of righteousness, than by ten thousand arguments used against heretics and false worship.

John Collins

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 288.

Whatsoever is upon you is from the Lord, and whatsoever is from the Lord, to you it is in mercy; and whatsoever comes in mercy ought not to be grievous to you. What loss is it when the losing of earthly things is the gaining of spiritual things? All shall be for your good, if you make your use of all.

Richard Greenham

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 13.

God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.

Peter Marshall

It is a fact of Christian experience that life is a series of troughs and peaks. In His efforts to get permanent possession of the soul, God relies on the troughs more than the peaks. And some of His special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.

Peter Marshall

Quoted it: Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to Pastor, Kregel, 1998, p. 30.

All experiences of suffering in the path of Christian obedience, whether from persecution or sickness or accident, have this in common: They all threaten our faith in the goodness of God and tempt us to leave the path of obedience. Therefore, every triumph of faith and all perseverance in obedience are testimonies to the goodness of God and the preciousness of Christ – whether the enemy is sickness, Satan, sin or sabotage. Therefore, all suffering, of every kind, that we endure in the path of our Christian calling is a suffering "with Christ" and "for Christ." With Him in the sense that the suffering comes to us as we are walking with Him by faith, and in the sense that it is endured in the strength that He supplies through His sympathizing high-priestly ministry (Hebrews 4:15). For Him in the sense that the suffering tests and proves our allegiance to His goodness and power, and in the sense that it reveals His worth as an all-sufficient compensation and prize.

John Piper

Suffering for the Sake of the Body – The Pursuit of People through Pain, A Seminar for The Bethlehem Institute.

The suffering of sickness and the suffering of persecution have this in common: they are both intended by Satan for the destruction of our faith, and governed by God for the purifying of our faith… Christ sovereignly accomplishes His loving, purifying purpose, by overruling Satan's destructive attempts. Satan is always aiming to destroy our faith; but Christ magnifies His power in weakness.

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 216, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

Suffering is generally portrayed in the Bible as the necessary and God-ordained, though not God-pleasing, plight of this fallen world (Romans 8:20-25, Ezekiel 18:32), and especially the necessary portion of all who would enter the kingdom (Acts 14:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:3-4) and live lives of godliness (2 Timothy 3:12). This suffering is never viewed merely as a tragedy. It is also viewed as a means of growing deep with God and becoming strong in this life (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:3-4; Hebrews 12:3-11; 2 Corinthians 1:9; 4:7-12; 12:7-10) and becoming something glorious in the life to come (2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:18).

John Piper

Ten Reasons Why it is Wrong to Take the Life of Unborn Children, Sermon: April 7, 1989, www.DesiringGod.org. Used by Permission.

I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort.” But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God's love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.” Samuel Rutherford said that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept his wine there. Charles Spurgeon said that those who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 222, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in the world.

John Piper

How can all things be worked together by God for good? The answer is at hand. It is because God's ultimate purpose is to make us like Christ. His goal is the complete restoration of the image of God in His child! So great a work demands all the resources which God finds throughout the universe, and He ransacks the possibilities of joys and sorrows in order to reproduce in us the character of Jesus.

Sinclair Ferguson

The Christian Life, p. 21, 1997, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.

Though my natural instinct is to wish for a life free from pain, trouble, and adversity, I am learning to welcome anything that makes me conscious of my need for Him. If prayer is birthed out of desperation, then anything that makes me desperate for God is a blessing.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss

A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 235.

Although it is not wrong to take these medications, they are rarely our first line of attack against personal suffering. Instead, we should first consider that God can bless us through our suffering, and we might also weigh the possibility that psychiatric medications could numb us to the refining benefits of suffering. There is a worthwhile point here. Although it may sound strange or even unloving to those who don’t share a biblical position, there can be real benefits from having our faith tested and strengthened through trials.

Edward T. Welch

Blame in on the Brain? P&R Publishing, 1998, p. 110.

Suffering is God’s surgery that leads to health when we respond by faith.

Ed Welch

Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, Punch Press, 2004, p. 89.

Benefits of suffering:

1. Divine retribution.

2. Divine discipline (Pr. 3:11; Heb. 12:5-11).

3. Testing, proving (Gen. 22:1; Dt. 8:2, 16, Jas. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:7).

4. Vicarious suffering (Num. 11:1-15; Hos. 1-3, Isa. 52:13-53:12).

5. Educational (Heb. 5:8).

6. Revelation (Jn. 9:2-3).

7. Repentance, seek God (Hos. 5:15; Isa. 19:22; 2 Cor. 7:9-10).

8. Self-denial (Lk. 22:42; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 2 Cor. 12:7; Rom. 5:3-4; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 4:10-11; Heb. 12:10; Jas. 1:2).

9. Solidarity - In suffering we band and bond together (Rom. 12:15; 1 Cor. 12:26).

10. Ministry of comfort (2 Cor. 1:3-4; Heb. 4:15).

11. Glorification (Rom. 8:17; 2 Cor. 4:17).

James Fowler

Excerpted from: Suffering, Study Outlines, 1999, www.christinyou.net. Used by Permission.

Adversities do not make a man frail. They show what sort of man he is.

Thomas a Kempis

The fruit of the Spirit grows in the womb of adversity.

Author Unknown

Adversity can cause us to reevaluate our priorities.

Author Unknown

In adversity we usually want God to do a removing job when He wants to do an improving job.

Author Unknown

The soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears.

Author Unknown

Affliction and suffering have been appointed by God as instruments He uses to make us more holy, to make us more like Jesus. They remind us that we are weak and we must rely not on ourselves, but on Jesus. They remind us that this world is not our home but that we are only passing through toward our real home in heaven with our Father, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

Michael Beates

Tabletalk, p. 55, v. 28, n. 9, Ligonier Ministries, Used by Permission.