SUFFERING-OUR RESPONSE
In
adversity we usually want God to do a removing job when He wants to do an
improving job.
Author Unknown
Endurance in
the midst of suffering, not success, health, or wealth, is the mark of a
genuine Christian life. Furthermore, it is faith and hope
in the midst of suffering, not miraculous deliverance from it, that display
most clearly the all-sufficiency of God to a despairing world.
Scott Hafemann
The God of Promise and the Life of
Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 167.
When
Christians suffer, they, like Paul, can consequently take courage from the fact
that their lives will mediate to others the power of the Resurrection, either
through God's act of deliverance or, even more profoundly, through the
testimony of their endurance. In either case we are summoned to trust God in
the midst of our afflictions in the confidence that God will ultimately deliver
us. By so doing, God's power will be manifest in our weakness.
Scott Hafemann
The God of Promise and the Life of
Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 164.
God never
pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever
seek our good at the expense of His glory. He has designed His eternal purpose
so that His glory and our good are inextricably bound together. What comfort
and encouragement this should be to us. If we are going to learn to trust God
in adversity, we must believe that just as certainly as God will allow nothing
to subvert His glory, so He will allow nothing to spoil the good He is working
out in us and for us.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 25. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 52. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved.
The crux of
the human problem, according to Israel's faith, is not the fact of suffering
but the character of man's relationship to God. Outside the
relationship for which man was created, suffering drives men to despair or to
the easy solutions of popular religion. Within the relationship of
faith, suffering may be faced in the confidence that man's times are in God's
hands and that "in everything God works for good with those who love him,
who are called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28).
Bernard Anderson
[Paul’s]
thrice-repeated prayer for the removal of the ailment was answered, not by his
deliverance from it, but by his receiving the necessary grace to bear it – not
simply to live with it but to be thankful for it. If his ministry was so
effective despite this physical weakness, then the transcendent power was
manifestly God’s, not his own. Infirmities like this were welcomed, together
with the other hardships…if they were the condition on which the power of the
risen Christ operated through him. They constantly reminded him not so much of
his own inadequacy as of the total adequacy of Christ, in whom, when he was personally
most weak, he knew himself to be most strong.
F.F. Bruce
Paul – Apostle of the Heart Set Free,
Eerdmans, 1977, www.eerdmans.com, p.
136.
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.
In the
darkest night of the soul, Christians have something to hold onto that Job
never knew – we know Christ crucified. Christians have learned that when there
seems to be no other evidence of God’s love, they cannot escape the cross. “He
who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all – how will He not
also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)… When we
suffer there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes. If our attention is focused more on the cross and on the God of the
cross than on the suffering itself.
D.A. Carson
How Long, O Lord? Baker,
1990.
Despite the
obvious emphasis of Scripture (in regard to suffering), we are bombarded by
suggestions that the “successful” Christian living takes place in the realm of
constant victory, health, wholeness, and financial prosperity. In response to
this we are not to pretend that suffering doesn’t exist or that it might be
instantly cured. Such notions are the product of empty heads and closed Bibles.
Alistair Begg
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 107.
If we are
devoid of a theology of suffering, we are in danger of marginalizing our
expectations of heaven… If we conclude that we are now to experience total
healing, unfettered joy, unparalleled success, and freedom from pain, then why
be concerned about heaven? How did Paul handle his sufferings and encourage the
church to face theirs? Not by trying to produce heaven on earth but by
recognizing that for the Christian the best is yet to be. He took the moment
and put it in the larger context of God’s unfolding purpose, not only for time
but also in eternity (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Alistair Begg
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 116.
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
Our sorrows
are all, like ourselves, mortal. There are no immortal sorrows for immortal
souls. They come, but blessed be God, they also go. Like birds of the air, they
fly over our heads. But they cannot make their abode in our souls. We suffer
today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow.
C.H. Spurgeon
Many times
great difficulties precede special works of God. You can even say that God wins
His greatest victories in the midst of apparent defeat. This can be clearly
demonstrated in the life of our Lord on earth. When Jesus was crucified and
placed in the tomb, it looked like the forces of unrighteousness had triumphed.
However, it was in this time of apparent defeat that our victory for our
salvation was won. This time of apparent defeat was followed by the
resurrection of Christ.
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 34.
Therefore, I
bind these lies and slanderous accusations to my person as an ornament; it
belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached and
reviled, and since all this is nothing but that, as God and my conscience
testify, I rejoice in being reproached for Christ's sake.
John Bunyan
Grace Abounding, Evangelical Press, 2000, p.
143.
It is, and
should be the care of a Christian, not to suffer for sin, nor
sin in suffering.
Vavasor
Powell
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 288.
Do not say:
“I cannot bear this from such a man, nor should I suffer things of this kind, for
he has done me a great wrong. He has accused me of many things of which I never
thought. However, from someone else I will gladly suffer as much as I think I
should.” Such a thought is foolish, for it does not consider the virtue of
patience or the One who will reward it, but rather weighs the person and the
offense committed. The man who will suffer only as much as seems good to him,
who will accept suffering only from those from whom he is pleased to accept it,
is not truly patient.
Thomas A Kempis
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.
We do not choose suffering simply because we are told to, but
because the one who tells us to describes it as the path to everlasting joy. He
beckons us into the obedience of suffering not to demonstrate the strength of
our devotion to duty, nor to reveal the vigor of our moral resolve, nor to
prove the heights of our tolerance for pain; but rather to manifest, in
childlike faith, the infinite preciousness of his all-satisfying promises.
Moses "chose to share ill-treatment with the people of God rather
than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin…because he looked to the reward"
(Hebrews 11:25-26). Therefore his obedience glorified the reward of grace, not
the resolve to suffer.
John Piper
Desiring God, 1996, p. 237-238, Used
by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
This
is the rock where we stand when the dark clouds gather and the floods lick at
our feet: justification is by grace alone (not mixed with our merit),
through faith alone (not mixed with our works) on the basis of Christ
alone (not mingling his righteousness with ours), to the glory of God
alone (not ours).
John Piper
Faith Alone and the Fight for Joy
taken from When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper, 2006, Crossway Books,
a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 16.
For if [a
Christian] cannot thank and praise God as well in calamities and sufferings as
in prosperity and happiness, he is as far from the piety of a Christian as he
that only loves them that love him is from the charity of a Christian. For to
thank God only for such things as you like is no more a proper act of piety
than to believe only what you see is an act of faith. Resignation and
thanksgiving to God are only acts of piety when they are acts of faith, trust
and confidence in the divine goodness.
William Law
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 assure you
by the Lord, your adversaries shall get no advantage against you, except you
sin, and offend your Lord, in your sufferings.
Samuel Rutherford
God often
comforts us, not by changing the circumstances of our lives, but by changing
our attitude toward them.
S.H.B. Masterman
Some
believers are very surprised when they are called to suffer. They thought they
would do some great thing for God, but all God permits them to do is to suffer.
Just suppose you could speak with those who have gone to be with the Lord;
everyone has a different story, yet everyone has a tale of suffering. One was
persecuted by family and friends...another was inflicted with pain and disease,
neglected by the world...another was bereaved of children...another had all
these afflictions. But you will notice that though the water was deep, they all
have reached the other side. Not one of them blames God for the road He led
them; “Salvation” is their only cry. Are there any of you, dear children,
murmuring at your lot? Do not sin against God. This is the way God leads all
His redeemed ones.
Robert McCheyne
[When suffering] you need to seek help. This help comes first and finally from the living God.
He hears, helps, strengthens, and vindicates those who
rely on Him. If you look anywhere else first, you will set yourself up for a
fall. You will get snared in bitterness and revenge (spurning God for your pride). You will flee in avoidance
and addiction (spurning God for your
false refuges and comforts). You will develop a perverted dependency on others
(spurning God for your trust in man).
Sadly, our culture has awakened countless people to think about what evil-doers
(“abusers”) have done to them, but it has cast them upon their own resources as
“abuse victims.” Yet victims can properly understand their own sins and
sufferings, and God’s grace.
David Powlison
Seeing With New Eyes, P&R Publishers,
2003, p. 107.
Let
the people of God comfort themselves in all cases by this doctrine of the
divine decrees; and, amidst whatever befalls them, rest quietly and
submissively in the bosom of God, considering that whatever comes or can come
to pass, proceeds from the decree of their gracious friend and reconciled
Father, who knows what is best for them, and will make all things work together
for their good. O what a sweet and pleasant life would ye have under the
heaviest pressures of affliction, and what heavenly serenity and tranquility of
mind would you enjoy, would you cheerfully acquiesce in the good will and
pleasure of God, and embrace every dispensation, how sharp soever
it may be, because it is determined and appointed for you by the eternal
counsel of His will!
Thomas Boston
Of the Decrees of God, Commentary on the Shorter
Catechism.
The light of
Christ in His children is made more manifest to the world through the dark
colors of suffering, borne through patience endurance.
Michael Beates
Tabletalk, p. 55, v. 28, n. 9, Ligonier
Ministries, Used by Permission.