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| His Love in Suffering series |
This is the last in our series on God’s love in our suffering. This week, I’d like to consider a character from the New Testament to talk about his unusual perspective on suffering. Paul wrote quite a bit on the topic of suffering, and I can understand why given how much he went through. When you read his account of the physical and emotional suffering he endured (2 Corinthians 11:24-28) and consider how many friends he lost to martyrdom, it’s hard to imagine very many people who have more credibility on the topic of suffering.
Perhaps the most famous example of Paul’s suffering is recounted in 2 Corinthians: “A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me.” Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us what Paul is referring to as his ‘thorn in the flesh’. It’s a matter of great speculation, but I believe that God left us with a mystery here deliberately. Each of us experiences unique struggles and tribulations, and this vagueness allows us all to identify with Paul. This serves to comfort us that we are not alone in our hardship; others have faced what we’re going through. When Paul asks God to remove his suffering, God essentially says, “I’m not going to take it away, but I will be with you in it”. Like we talked about in the first week, it can be difficult to come to terms with the reality that God doesn’t always keep us from suffering. Last week we talked about why He doesn’t generally, but let’s see the answer to that question for Paul.
Earlier in this passage, Paul states simply that the thorn in his flesh was given to him to keep him from “becoming conceited”. He goes on to say, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Through Paul’s hardships he learned just how limited our strength is. When difficulties came, He no longer turned to his own ability. He was content to accept that only God’s power could effect change. This humility allowed God to accomplish the incredible things that are now a part of Paul’s legacy. Without God’s power, Paul’s effort would have failed (Psalms 127:1-2). If he had relied on his own power rather than God’s, we probably wouldn’t know who Paul was today. The respect that we all have for Paul and for what he did is appropriate. This legacy, however, was a gift from God, given through His grace on Paul to persevere and His power on Paul’s efforts to make them effective. If you had given Paul the choice between this legacy and a life without suffering (but therefore lacking in weakness), I have full confidence what he would have chosen. For our sake, for the glory of God, he would have chosen his legacy. He says as much a few chapters earlier, “To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed … it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. … For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” In short, our hardships produce what’s required in us for the legacy that God desires to give us.
Because Paul understood this, it gave him a rather unusual perspective – He rejoiced in suffering. What’s more, Paul wasn’t alone in this madness; James, Peter, the apostles in Acts, the author of Hebrews and even Jesus all said the same thing. At first glance, it sounds a little crazy to me, but Paul spells it out for us, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame”. Hope allows us to rejoice in our suffering. From our current vantage point, it’s legitimately crazy to rejoice in pain, but what if we change our vantage point? For example, when Paul was alive, he didn’t know the extent of his legacy as we do now through the lens of history (let alone like we will know one day through the lens of eternity). As we read about his hardships it’s clear now that they were more than worth it. While we can’t see our pain from eternity’s vantage point, “hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” I have heard it said that hope is the present enjoyment of future blessings. In this context then, hope is the bridge that allows us to rejoice today in our sufferings as we will in eternity when we see the legacy they enabled.
When you are going through hardship, take comfort that God is right next to you and that He longs to strengthen you (first week). Be encouraged that God has a plan to relieve, redeem, and ultimately rescue you from suffering (second week). Embrace it with patience as Jesus did, knowing how it produces good for us and for others both presently and eternally (third week). Have hope in the legacy that God is giving you through it. Rejoice in that hope! Rejoice in the love of God, which He makes known to us in and even through our suffering.
I hope that this series has been helpful to you and can perhaps be a source of comfort in difficult times. After I finished writing, I read a passage from 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 that I’ve read many times, but I felt like I understood it so much more. If you have the time to read that passage, it provides a powerful summary of this series.
Such an encouragement!! Such a “vision renewing” perspective that just keeps us knowing our Lord and His and the Father’s Ways more and more! Thanks be for the Holy Spirit Who helps us see these things and to walk them out daily! Thank you for these posts, as I look forward to them every week.! I will definitely read the 2 Corinthians passage you suggested this very day 🙂 God bless you all!!
I am Very Thankful for the sense of destiny for each of us that this message carries!!
So Glad that you are receiving such encouragement from the posts! Thank you for reading and all your comments!
What a powerful message of encouragement and hope!!!
Just finished reading “Rejoice in Suffering”! Very good but not always easy to do when you are going through suffering! You have to work at having the attitude to give it to God when you have unexpected suffering! But great reminder of how we should react!
So true! It really is hard to rejoice when we are in the midst of suffering. The first post from this series “His Companionship in Our Distress” is hopefully a comfort to those who are experiencing hardship.
On the other side of suffering, I’d like to think we have an opportunity to decide how to perceive what we’ve been through. My prayer is that the other posts in this series help us develop a more hope filled perspective of our past hardships. Perhaps, over time, doing this consistently might enable us to feel faith and even hope the next time that suffering comes. I think Jesus had this kind of hope when Hebrews says, “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” I’m definitely still working on that perspective though!!