Scripture

1 Peter 4:12 ESV

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Consider

Suffering. It’s an unpleasant word, conjuring images of physical pain, mental anguish, and spiritual desolation. Nobody wants it. In fact, we take great pains to avoid it. We like to think suffering is an anomaly we can escape by living right and making wise choices.

Suffering may surprise us when it hits, and we immediately start looking for reasons to explain it. There must be someone to blame, a behavior we can adjust, a cultural problem we can correct. If all else fails, we blame God for failing to protect us and the comfortable life we think we deserve.

Suffering is amplified when we consider what we have lost. For example, physical injury replaces our well-being with pain, and disability takes away our freedom. Mental disease chips away at our competence and self-respect. Cultural conflict erodes our sense of unity and purpose as a people. Relational suffering may reflect a loss of trust, companionship, and mutual support with someone we hold dear. Spiritual suffering mourns our broken fellowship with God.

Although our suffering may not be the persecution early Christians faced, the apostle’s advice would be the same for us today: Don’t be astonished when suffering comes your way, but open yourself to God’s work in you through the experience. Like those early believers, we may respond to suffering in three different ways.

Needless Suffering. Worry may drive our imaginations into worst-case scenarios, and we mentally suffer horrors that may, in fact, never occur. Or we may torture ourselves with regrets, chiding ourselves with should-have’s or could-have’s and refusing to accept the grace of forgiveness.

Stagnant Suffering. We feel victimized by circumstances and helpless to effect positive change. We may sit on the sidelines, waiting for life to get back to normal, or lose hope altogether and succumb to depression, substance abuse, or rage at the unfairness of life.

Meaningful Suffering. We recognize God’s care and sovereignty in our lives and ask how we can grow through our suffering:

• What do I know about ________ that I did not know before this painful experience? (e.g., myself, the other person, God, my faith, my hope, my biases, my culture or community)
• How does this suffering/loss change ________? (e.g., me, my future, my assumptions, my grasp of reality, my priorities, my ability to love, my life story)
• How is God speaking to me through this trial?

When we exclude God from our experience, suffering is hostile to the spirit. When we open ourselves to God’s loving attention, suffering becomes a catalyst for growth, painful but effective in purifying our faith and teaching us something we need to know.

Pray

Loving Father, help me to find eternal value in my difficult situations. Guide me so that I do not suffer needlessly, but when I must suffer, give me the grace I need to suffer with hope. Thank you for your Word that can reach me and your Voice that can touch me even in the darkest corners of my wounded heart.

Reflect

John 16:33; Psalm 37:23-24

Ponder

How can trusting God change the meaning of my suffering?