Preparing
For Sudden Suffering
Recently
I wrote that we seldom know the micro
reasons for our sufferings, but the Bible does give us faith-sustaining macro
reasons. It is good to have a way to remember some of these so that when we are
suddenly afflicted, or have a chance to help others in their affliction, we can
recall some of the truths God has given us to help us not lose hope.
Here
is one way to remember. Five R’s (or if it helps, just pick three and try
to remember them). The macro purposes of God in our sufferings include:
Repentance
Suffering
is a call for us and others to turn from treasuring anything on earth above
God.
Luke
13:4-5 - Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do
you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in
Reliance
Suffering
is a call to trust God not the life-sustaining props of the world.
2
Corinthians 1:8-9 - For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we
despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of
death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God
who raises the dead.
Righteousness
Suffering
is the discipline of our loving heavenly Father so that we come to share his
holiness.
Hebrews
12:6, 10-11 - The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son
whom he receives.... He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his
holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but
later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who have been trained by it.
Reward
Suffering
is working for us a great reward in heaven that will make up for every loss
here a thousand-fold.
2
Corinthians 4:17 - This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an
eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Matthew
5:11-12 - Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter
all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward is great in heaven.
Reminder
Suffering
reminds us that God sent his Son into the world to suffer so that our suffering
would not be God’s condemnation but his purification.
Philippians
3:10 - …that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and
may share his sufferings.
Mark
10:45 - The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
(Taken from John Piper’s Desiring God Blog on
September 23, 2008)