For Your Joy In Your Suffering 10 20 19 (Topical)

ATTN: I’ve been a pastor for over 20 years, and one of the most frequent questions I get is, “If God loves us, then why is He letting us suffer?” I remember a while ago, a young lady in my youth ministry pouring her heart out to me regarding her situation. Her dad was cheated out of business in Korea and to escape the loan sharks, the family moved to the states. The dad was the only one allowed to work legally in the U.S. and the wife and children were illegals. One day the dad complained of a stomachache and it got so bad that he had to go to the emergency room. He had this kind of pain before but he never went to the doctor because he didn’t have medical insurance. At the emergency room, they found a tumor and it was malignant. He was given 1 year to live because by the time they discovered it, it was too late. Their mom worked at a restaurant as a waitress. And the three children, as brilliant as they were – the tops in their classes – weren’t even sure if they could continue their education beyond high school. And going back to Korea was not an option…  So, you can understand when one of the sisters asked me, “If God is good and He loves us, why does He allow this to happen to us?” 

A lot of you here can identify with that young lady. Many of you have known terrible suffering – granted, we have brought much of it on ourselves, but some of them we didn’t. And we know people who are worse than us, done some things and yet, their lives seem to be thriving! So, what gives? 

Well, some preachers will say that it’s not God’s doing. God has nothing to do with all the evil that’s in this world. It’s the choice we have made to become independent of God and God is simply letting us suffer the consequences. So, don’t bring God into it. God is just a bystander. But I don’t believe it. God is in charge of everything. The Bible says that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His command. He has the very number of our hair counted and every roll of dice in the casinos, He determines. So, couldn’t He have prevented a lot of what we suffer? – like drugs, alcohol, medical issues, family problems, death, He could’ve averted all of them if He wanted. Why didn’t He? 

There could be many reasons, but I know that one reason is because He’s teaching us to obey and trust. You see, we learn obedience through what we suffer. God wants us to obey Him and trust Him, and really the best way to do that is through life’s suffering. Now, this is not the way most of us think. When we are made to suffer, the first thought is, “What have I done wrong to deserve this?” 

We think God makes us suffer because of our sin. To be sure, we DO suffer because of our sin. How many relationships and heartaches have we brought unto ourselves and others because of our sin? However, that doesn’t mean that all of our suffering is due to our particular sin. We could’ve lived a perfect life, and yet God will allow us to suffer so that we will learn to trust and obey Him.

Really? We could’ve lived a perfect life and God would still allow us to suffer? Yes! 

Jesus was made to suffer for this reason. He was made to suffer so that he would learn to obey God and made perfect. What? Jesus had to learn to obey God and made perfect? Yes. Not my words, but the Bible’s! 

 

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” Hebrews 5:8-9. 

 

These are certainly perplexing words. Why would the perfect Son of God need to learn to obey and made perfect? Isn’t he already perfect? Isn’t he already perfectly obedient? Why then does he have to learn to obey? 

 

There is a theoretical and an actual perfection. Before Jesus’ suffering, he was theoretically perfect. But after the cross, he was actually perfect. An example of this would be a bridge that is constructed to withstand earthquakes. Theoretically, it can withstand the earthquake – it was constructed to be so.   However, only when the actual earthquake happens, it would finally be proved that it can withstand it. Jesus “proved” his perfect obedience when He went through the suffering on the cross. He was never imperfect or sinful. He was in theory perfect. But after the cross, he proved that He really was perfect and sinless by being tested and passing it with flying colors. 

 

Application: If the Son of God had to “learn” to obey through suffering, how much more the likes of us who are imperfect and sinful? The Bible makes it clear that the suffering will come. It’s not a matter of if, but when. 

When you suffer, don’t think, “God hates me. Look at my life. If He loved me, I would be in a better condition.” You know whom God really hates? The ones who live in fancy houses and die of good ole age who never give thanks to God for all their prosperity. They are going to suffer forever in hell. 

But for the children of God, the suffering is only for a moment. This life will pass soon enough. And through suffering, we learn to trust and obey Him. Therefore, if you are a child of God and suffering today, know that He is teaching you to be His child and He’s teaching you to trust and obey Him. 

ILL: To finish the story of the youths that I told you about. Fast forward 15 years. They all went to UW Seattle and graduated with honors. I called the admissions office back 15 years ago and found out that they do not care about your citizenship status to be admitted. Earlier this year, I was invited to New York City by the second daughter to officiate her wedding. And when I recounted those difficult days during the wedding ceremony to emphasize how far God has brought them along, tears were flowing down freely from their eyes. And they were tears of joy! These girls, their dream was to simply travel outside of the country since because of their legal status, they couldn’t leave. But with their first job after college, where are they sent to for their business trip? Paris and Seoul! I can’t tell you how many times her mother thanked me for being there for them during those difficult times. But it wasn’t me. I was only there for 6 years of their lives for them. But it was God who had been with them all that time. God deserves all the credit. But if you were to look at the snippet of their lives during their difficult seasons, it may not look like God was there. But He was! It is when God seemed the furthest to Job in the Old Testament that he cried out day and night, ““I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me”(Job 30:20), that’s when God was watching him the closest, listening to every groaning and moaning he uttered. 

1. Expect suffering. It will come.
2. Even while in it, don’t forget that God is working for your own good. Trust Him especially when you can’t make any sense out of it. 
3. Encourage those you know are going through one of those faith crisis. God almost always uses human agents to help them persevere through those difficult times.