The Joy in Suffering

I’m not going to lie to you, folks. Being laid up in bed for weeks on end because of severe morning sickness is not easy, for me or my family.

Perhaps you, too, are going through some type of suffering. Nancy Leigh DeMoss once wisely observed, “Most of the time in life you're either just coming through a storm or you're in the middle of a storm or (you don't know but) you're getting ready to go into a storm.” How true that is. And how we respond to these storms, this suffering, marks the difference between those living in the flesh and those living in the Spirit.

Now, you may argue that my type of pain and suffering is not as bad as others. I mean, yeah, I can hardly stand up without a gagging reflex, but in the end, I know that a wonderful bundle of joy is coming my way. There is a purpose and joyful end to the current short-lived suffering I am going through. And you would be right. But when looking at suffering through the lens of Scripture, isn’t that exactly what all suffering is about?

James 1:2-4 says this: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” The book of James was written to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad.” Why were they scattered everywhere? Because of intense persecution. These were not happy go lucky Christians experiencing peace and prosperity. And yet, in the face of cruelty, privation, pain, injustice, and severe attack on liberty, James insists that those Christians “count it all joy.” Why? He equates going through suffering with the testing of our faith. And this testing, if correctly responded to, leads to patience which then leads to a perfecting and completing work of grace in our lives. Is that not a worthy and joyful end to our suffering?

How many of you have prayed to become more Christlike? I certainly have, many times. And God answers that prayer every day by sending me trials. Some harder than others. But all of them designed to continue that work of perfecting and completing me in Christ.

No matter how hard the trial is that you’re facing today, it is meant for your good, to continue the good work that God has begun in you. And that knowledge should elicit a deep joy from your heart, no matter what your circumstance may be. My prayer is that I, and each of you, would learn more patience and respond in joy to each trial the Lord lovingly deems us worthy to partake of.

If you are going through an intense time of testing, make this passage your theme verses: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal,” II Corinthians 4:16-18.