When we go through pain and difficulty often our default is to think God doesn’t love us or that we don’t have enough faith. Nonsense like this is associated with the Accuser of our souls and popular heresies like the “health and wealth,” or prosperity gospel. Contrary to these intrusive lies, here is what the Bible teaches:
1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5, ESV
In the above, Paul gives us one of the most important summaries of how God grows his people. In verses 1-2, we learn it’s on a foundation of grace, and in 3-5, we learn it is through a transforming process of suffering that produces endurance which produces proven character which produces hope.
I’ve previously written about the “proven character” part of this equation here and the “hope” part here. Below we will unpack the “suffering produces endurance” aspects of God’s sanctification process.
How could anyone ever say it’s not God’s will for Christians to suffer? According to Paul’s built-in outline above, this is where the journey to hope begins. In other words, suffering is part of normal “mere Christianity” 101! The Message translates suffering here as “hemmed in by troubles.” What are the top 2-3 you are facing right now?
It could be an oppressive work or school load, a need for work or guidance, waiting on God to see a difficult situation change, physical challenges, an internal struggle you can’t solve, friends or family far from God, difficulty in a relationship, a loved one who’s been diagnosed with a terminal illness, loss of a spouse, parent, or friend, finding strength to be a caregiver—whatever it is: know that suffering is a normal part of life and a primary catalyst for how God grows his people.
Luther in his classic commentary on Romans gives clarity to this process of suffering-that-leads-to-endurance-that-leads-to-proven-character-that-leads-to-hope. It’s something that God is doing over and over again in our lives:
“God accepts no one as righteous whom He has not first tried. But He tries us by the fire of affliction, as we read in Psalm 11:5: ‘The Lord trieth the righteous.’ God tries us in this way, in order that we may know whether we really love God for His own sake. We thus read in Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, Oh God, and know my heart: try [or test] me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ If God would not try us by tribulation it would be impossible for us to be saved.”
Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1954), 91.
Now suffering, although it’s a normal part of life and something God uses, isn’t something we should seek out for its own sake. For example, St. Teresa of Avila, believe it or not, put horsehair in her underwear to get closer to God. Although Teresa taught and modeled many good things, this is not one of them! When we face difficulties, however, even circumstances that just won’t change, we should be encouraged because God is growing strength in us. The King James Version uses the word “patience” for endurance, but it is a “passionate patience.” And this can be difficult because some suffering is severe.
The 1970 film adaptation of David Copperfield illustrates well how even the harshest realities can bring us to a place of strength. In the final scene, David, walking along the beach and grieving the death of his friend, Steerforth, begins to process his life’s journey out loud. Reflecting back on all the abuse and loss he suffered, he says “Life asks more of us, demands it. It’s not enough to be talented… or beautiful… or even simply loving… we must be strong or else the gifts God sends us into the world with will just fade and wither with the first wind that blows on us… the best steel must go through the fire.” And then he has an epiphany that takes him back to the sentence Dicken’s classic begins with: “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”
Knowing that God uses suffering in our lives to produce endurance, it’s wise for us too to ask along with David Copperfield, “will I be the hero of my own life or the victim of it?” Indeed, as we celebrate Easter, we are reminded afresh that the journey to Resurrection Hope always begins with the cross.
Friend, if your faith is in Christ, be assured that you are exactly where you should be– standing on a foundation of grace with the promise that there is purpose in your pain. Acts 17:26-28 is a fascinating passage that says God determines the times set for us and the exact places where we should live. None of us had any choice in the timing and place of our birth and, in light of Acts 17:26, that means God has called you to this cultural moment! Do you believe that? If so, be encouraged that God is using even the trials you are going through right now to build stick-to-it-tiveness and true grit in your soul. And in the mystery of His providence, be encouraged that what he is doing inside of you is not surface like the foam on the sea, but connected to the very depths of His eternal strength and love.