Nobody likes to suffer, but the reality is that we all experience suffering at times in our lives. When suffering does come, two questions slap us in the face. First, why am I suffering? Does suffering have a bigger purpose? The second question is, how can I deal with the suffering I’m facing? These two nagging questions will be the focus of this article.
This is the second in a series of six articles on the gift of suffering. You can read the first article here. Believe it or not, the Bible teaches us that for the believer in Jesus Christ, suffering is actually a gift of God. He is up to something in our struggles. He has a purpose in our pain. When we’re suffering, it helps to know that God is with us in it and that he has a reason to take us through it. The reasons we suffer and the purposes that we suffer are complex. We will not understand it all in this life, but we can, by God’s grace, grasp some of what he is doing in our adversity. He wants us to understand it so that we can grow. His purpose is for our good. That’s why it’s a gift.
A person’s character matters. Our character is who we really are. It is not the front we may try to put on that counts but the person we are in our hearts. Character consists of the mental and moral qualities that define the kind of person we truly are. Those qualities can be good or bad and are usually a complex combination of both. We develop our character through our life experiences and the decisions we make. We are developing character every day.
We read in Romans 5:3-4, “And not only this, but we rejoice (boast) in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.” God is saying to us in this passage that suffering can build character if we respond to it the proper way. Just as we want to build a house or any structure strong, we want to build our character strong. Weak character can lead to a life of misery and compounded problems. There is a right way and a wrong way to deal with suffering. The wrong way to react to suffering is with anger, anxiety, bitterness, or resentment. Depending on how severe the suffering is that we face, we can be deeply shaken by it. Intense adversity can cause anyone to struggle. We’re not saying that suffering is easy, but in the grip of suffering, we have difficult decisions to make. How will I react to what is happening to me? Will I trust God, or will I struggle to trust him? Do I believe that he is wise, loving, and in control of my life? These are life-changing decisions.
According to our passage (Romans 5:3-4), the right way to respond to suffering is to know something. This knowledge is not only intellectual but also experiential. We have to know that God will build our character in suffering, but we also have to know what godly character looks like. The Bible is the place to find what is the content of godly character. But we can’t always run to the Bible in the grip of adversity and expect to find what we need. We must put the promises and principles of God’s word in our hearts before the suffering comes. When we have God’s truth internally, we can go there to find what we need to sustain us and guide us. God uses suffering to build Christ-like character in our lives. These are hard lessons to learn, but the fruit is sweet. This brings glory to God and blessing to us.
Just as suffering strengthens our faith, it can also build our character as we walk with God in a loving relationship. When suffering strikes, we can trust that God still loves us. As Paul says later in Romans, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) If God did the greatest thing in saving, he will certainly do a great but less thing, give us the grace to grow in suffering.
