HOW GOD HELPS US THROUGH SUFFERING
Why do we suffer? Why do Good people suffer? How do God respond those who suffer? Several thousands years ago a man in the Bible who was suffering asked God questions about his suffering. The Bible offers to answer such questions (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
HOW GOD ALLOWS SUFFERING TO STRENGTH BELIEVERS FAITH
Job, a Man in the Bible who lived thousands of years ago, questioned God about his suffering:
God had said to Satan concerning Job: “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Satan asked God for permission to test and try Job’s faithfulness.
Satan was permitted to take away all of Job’s possessions and his children. He caused Job’s body to be covered with festering sores. He killed Job’s children. Satan also turned his wife against; and convinced his friends to falsely accuse Job of suffering at the hand of God because of his having sinned.
In Job’s anguish, he questioned and blamed God concerning his suffering: “Wherefore was I born? (Job 3:11). “How came man be just with God?” (Job 9:2). “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter” (Job 27:2). This is a wicked man’s lot from God, the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty” (Job 27:13).
The Lord said to Job: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”– “Would you discredit my justice?
Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s…” Job answered: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more.” (Job 40:1-8)
However, after Job had prayed to God for his friends who falsely accused him; “the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
>>>TODAY THE SCRIPTURE REVEALS much to us about suffering that Job evidently did not know in his day. Job was apparently unaware at that time that Satan or the devil even exist. Nor did Job know that Satan told God he had come “from roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” And Job didn’t know, as the Word of God tells us today, that God allows the devil to test and strengthen the faith of believers, for God’s glory and their good (Revelation 2:10; 1 Peter 4:12-13). We now know, “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8); but what the devil intends for evil, God intends for good (Genesis 50:20). For “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28).
Today, we aware that all who will live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer; but God will never leave or forsake us (2 Timothy 3:12; Hebrews 13:5). And we are assured that “our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
HOW GOD MAY USE SUFFERING TO CAUSE UNBELIEVERS TO REPENT
God’s Prophet Jeremiah told the people of Israel: “though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”
“But you did not listen to me,” declares the Lord, “and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves. Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words… This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:1-8; Jere. 29:10).
God’s prophet Daniel was among the Israelites in Babylonian captive. He was a praying man. He knew the scriptures about God’s promise to free Israel after seventy years. He led the people in praying to God: O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Daniel 9:1-19).
God answered their pray of repentance. He sent the people of Persia to captures Babylon. Then he persuaded King Cyrus of Persia to free Israel from captivity, although the King did not worship the God of Israel. God also used Cyrus to rebuild the land and restored the people of Israel to the land he promised them. (Isaiah 45:1-5, 13).
>>> GOD TELLS US TODAY: “The LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child… No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way “ (Hebrews 12:6-11).
“If my people would humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then will I forgive their sins and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
And he said, let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them (Isaiah 55:7; I John 1:7-9).
HOW GOD USED SUFFERING FOR OUR SALVATION
God provided his sinless Son Jesus Christ as the sacrificial atonement for our sins: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus, who is now our high priest and mediator with God, “faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (Hebrews 4:15-16; 1 Timothy 2:5).
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
