God Redeems Suffering

Suffering in this life is inevitable. We all go through tough seasons, and struggling with porn on top of that makes things even harder. This guest post written by Reclaimed graduate Hunter shares encouraging truth in scripture for how we should handle suffering and how we can have hope for tomorrow.

God Redeems Suffering

We are all familiar with suffering. It’s everywhere, an inevitable part of our lives and this world. In fact, our culture’s greatest pursuit is to avoid it at all costs; the pursuit of happiness is the evasion of suffering. We numb ourselves with entertainment, medication, alcohol, and pornography. But what if there’s another way?

I was unemployed and searching for a job for over four months. Recently, yet another promising lead fell through, and I was angry, discouraged, and heartbroken. The Holy Spirit reminded me of God’s promises by turning my heart to worship, leading me to an article about suffering (linked below), and whispering the long-ago words of a childhood friend: “God uses suffering to strip away everything else and remind us that He is all we need.”

The Bible is full of this truth. For example, Job’s life was replete with suffering, testing from the evil one himself. After the Lord reminded Job of His sovereignty, omniscience, and eternity, Job responded, “I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5-6). One encounter with the Almighty irrevocably redefined his view of God, suffering, and the world.

Suffering Spurs Us to See God

Job was at the mercy of God. Hagar lived a similar story. In Genesis 16, we read that she fled from mistreatment by her mistress (vv. 6, 8), but God listened to her affliction (v. 11). In response, “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me’” (v. 13).

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, also sought the Lord during a time of imminent suffering: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:3-4, 12).

Compare this passage from the beginning of the Exodus story: “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew” (vv. 24-25).

In times of suffering and oppression, the Bible notes a bilateral interaction between God and His children: as we turn our eyes to Him, the Lord sees, strengthens, and comforts us (see also James 4:7-8, 2 Chronicles 16:9, and Isaiah 49:13). Even when our trials seem endless, being seen and known, having a God who is with us in our suffering, is enough.

There was a time, though, when it would have been just as likely for me to turn my eyes to pornography instead of to the Lord. I found pornography (or, perhaps, pornography found me) in my pre-teen years. It was always there for me, an attachment that promised escape, satisfaction, and fulfillment. But, like building my house on the sand, it always let me down when the inevitable storms of suffering came into my life. If we fully depend on God, He will be our rock and help us to stand firm against the devil’s schemes.

Suffering Leads Us to the Promised Land

In the Lenten devotional entitled Trusting God in the Wilderness, author Ted Wueste makes an interesting observation:

On a foundational level, God always provides what is truly needed to live a life of dependence. Let that sink in for a moment. . . . How often do our ideas of provision have more to do with living in such a way that we are independent and self-sufficient as opposed to vulnerable or dependent upon God?

God doesn’t leave us to fend for ourselves. We may feel alone but we aren’t. He is leading us somewhere. . . . The journey is about deepening our dependence on him. Why? Because dependence is the promised land. Hear that clearly. A life of dependence is the truest, most real hope in our lives. Our hope is in him, not some location outside of difficulty. (pp. 29, 39, quoted in The Long and Lingering Tail of Suffering | Desiring God, emphasis added).

If you grew up in the US like me, odds are you have a pretty high regard for independence. We don’t like to ask for help, appear weak, or rely on anyone or anything outside of ourselves. However, independence is not an option in the Christian life. And, quite honestly, it doesn’t work out well for anyone else, either. The “joy” we think we find in entertainment, alcohol, or pornography deforms into our prison; we depend on what we thought would set us free.

Can you relate to that? What promised life only brought death, but I kept returning to pornography; I was dependent on this drug while thinking I was strong enough to defeat it on my own. Sure, I opened up to men here and there about my struggle, but it was only when the guilt and shame threatened to bubble over, and there was never any lasting change. It has only been recently through Reclaimed that I have discovered the joy and freedom of true authenticity and community. This isn’t much of a newsflash, but porn isn’t real; Jesus is. When we confess and depend on one another to keep each other accountable as we strive toward freedom from porn, the Lord will guide us, guard us, and give us the strength we need to overcome through Him.

As James famously wrote, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Compare Philippians 1:6: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” We won’t be perfected until Christ returns; we may still struggle with lust, have setbacks with pornography, and be tempted to follow our own desires instead of the voice of the Lord. However, if we depend on, trust in, and turn to God in our suffering, He will be our promised land.

Suffering Will Not Have the Final Word

Although we can see and depend on God in our present tribulations, we look toward the day He will return, vanquish our suffering, and dry every tear (Revelation 21:3-4). What we sowed in tears, we’ll reap with shouts of joy (Psalm 126:5). We will sing as we return with the harvest, especially if that harvest includes souls won for Christ (Psalm 126:6; Luke 10:2).

How can our suffering accomplish this? Though many of us may want our suffering to end immediately, Paul set an example of choosing joy, even when it’s hard: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Colossians 1:24).

“What is lacking in Christ’s afflictions?” you may ask. “Does that mean Christ’s death for the sins His people wasn’t enough?” To borrow another one of Paul’s sayings, “By no means!” On his website desiringGod.org, John Piper offers valuable insight into this verse:

The one thing lacking in the sufferings of Christ is the offer of those sufferings in person to those for whom he died. … Christ cannot personally offer himself to people today. In and through God’s people..he offers himself to them. And so they fill up what is lacking, namely, the personal presentation of the sufferings of Christ in their own bodies. … We ought to love people in a way that takes risks. And by our risking they can see, in our willingness to be inconvenienced, lose comfort, or even suffer for them, the very nature of the afflictions of Christ that were offered for them.

God will redeem our suffering for our good and His glory (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28); our “cries of woe will turn to hallelujah songs about [our] God” (The Hedgerow Folk). What if, in our trials, we didn’t ask God when He’ll deliver us from them but instead sought to point others to God through them? What if our lives invited the world to believe, behold and bless the Lord eternally (Revelation 7:9-10)? We are God’s masterpieces when we feel mediocre, His treasures when we feel like trash; He will redeem all things, even your story and struggles.

Conclusion

During my discouragement when that promising job fell through, the Lord gave me these thoughts for this article. Little did I know, later that week, I would hear about another job the same company created with me in mind, interview for it, and receive an offer! I wanted to tell everyone I knew about the Lord’s faithfulness to me and how He turned my mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11).

But even if He did not, He has taught my heart to sing, “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Even when the enemy oppresses us, we can be still, know that the Lord is God, and trust Him to fight for us (Psalm 46:10; Exodus 14:14). Along with the psalmist, may we exhort and remind our souls of God’s truth:

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I will yet praise him,
my salvation and my God. -Psalm 43:5