The purpose of Suffering…

Since Piper’s devotional is copyrighted, I cannot paste today’s reading here, but am tempted — because it is so helpful. I try to tell others the value of suffering and Piper does a better job! He has never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of my life have come through times of ease and comfort.” I agree, and I know by experience that any growth I experience comes by learning the depth of His grace and mercy during suffering.

Jesus is the best example. “Although he was a son, (and sinless) he learned obedience through what he suffered.” (Hebrews 4:15; 5:8) This learning is not like mine where I must learn to obey rather than not, but that He experienced the depth of being yielded to His Father by what He suffered. I do too.

Paul is another example. He said:

Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death… (Philippians 3:4–10)

Another example given is Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), a Scottish minister who suffered because he went against tradition and error in the church and given the death penalty for treason. However, he was already facing death with a disease. He said this:

"I have a summons already from a superior Judge and judicatory, and I behoove to answer my first summons; and, ere your day arrives, I will be where few kings and great folks come.”

In prison, he continued to write enduring letters that conveyed his delight in the glory and all-sufficiency of Christ. He said, “I go to my King’s palace at Aberdeen; tongue, pen, and wit cannot express my joy.” Others said this man was “impatient of earth, intolerant of sin, rapt into the continual contemplation of one unseen Face, finding his … happiness in its returning smile.  His glory was his absorption in Christ. He went to sleep with Christ as his pillow; he awoke in Christ.”

Rutherford also said this: 

If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.

My example these days is our granddaughter, also ‘crippled in all her limbs, and removed from all her usual sources of enjoyment’ yet so joyful in her hospital ‘prison’ that being with her in her deeply affects me too.

PRAY: Lord, Piper says “O how I pray that when God, in his mercy, begins to blow out my lamps, I will not curse the wind” and I must pray that too, for Christians I know who suffer, but also for myself. Pity parties are no fun at all. Only the joy You give can overcome the crippling power of feeling sorry for myself when suffering comes my way, and only You can use it for great good and for Your glory.

God’s ways are higher than mine

 

During our group Bible study we were asked in which ways we were limited in our Christian lives by our past. The assumption was that our past contained sins and mistakes that we were not proud of. This is illustrated in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal. He asked for his inheritance and took off on his own:

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ (Luke 15:14–19)

But when he arrived home, his father was overjoyed and threw a party to celebrate. No scolding, no questions even, illustrating that the past is not the measure of our acceptance by our heavenly Father. There is a great deal of joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. God forgives and puts our sin as far as the east from the west.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

On the other hand, some come to God with many assets. Paul was one of them, and this was his testimony about his past:

Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death... (Philippians 3:4–10)

His past could be a hindrance if he let himself be proud of it and lord over others because of it. For some, a ‘good’ life, wise choices, wealth, high IQ and any number of other ‘successes’ are easily relied on by the flesh and like Paul, Christians with that kind of past have to learn to be joyful in weakness and rely fully on Jesus, not their old nature with its resources.

Today’s devotional reading points out that our strength lies in our helplessness. If I am helpless to do anything myself, Jesus can use me as He pleases. My past and whatever it includes, shame or pride or both, will not get in the way or delay obedience. The NT suggests the struggles of Paul to learn this may have been longer and more difficult than for those who were less endowed.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:25–29)

Humility comes easier to weak and lowly people for they have little to boast about in themselves. This suggests that pride in myself and what I can do may be a greater impediment than a shameful past.

PRAY: Jesus, You know that shame and pride both can ruin my walk with You. I’m so glad that You forgave all my sin, including the sin of thinking my way is better than Your way. Keep me in Your will that I may boast only in You.