Choose grace

There is a saying, “The same sun that softens the wax also hardens the clay.” That is true also for suffering. The good that can come from it is not automatic. One man loses his wife and he becomes more tender and with greater sympathy for others. Another faces the same loss and it makes him bitter and hard. One woman has a great sorrow and it turns her to God. Another has a similar experience and she is never seen inside a church again.

Today’s devotional reading points this out. Trouble in itself is neither positive nor negative. The result depends on my reaction. God offers grace to use sorrow creatively and to force it to yield up its hidden blessings, but I do not always rise to that. My negative reactions throw barricades against the will of God to bless me. And if it is not a negative reaction, it will be my own attempts to solve, eradicate or somehow escape the trouble.

My concern with suffering starts out as if I’m trying to find an explanation for it and for my own ineffective responses. I think that if I can find a reason for it, then I will cope, but what I really want is victory. Even if I come up with answers to those questions and fully understand the “why” of pain or loss or inability, I’d still have to bear that pain, loss, inability. The bottom line is that I really want and need the grace of God. If I cannot be rid of the suffering, then I want Him to help me stand under it. And that is why God gave me Jesus Christ.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)

When life gets hard, people come up with various coping mechanisms. Some use pills, booze, or distractions. Some pray, or become involved in work or play. These might work for a little while, but not for the long run. God has a better solution, and I’m always amazed at His way of dealing with the difficulties in my life. He uses truth.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)

Before I got out of bed this morning, I felt overwhelmed. This week’s module in the current course I’m taking has three times as many lectures as a normal week, and hundreds of pages of reading. My prayer list is heavy, as are other responsibilities. I wanted to escape, run away from home, or at least think about something more pleasurable. However, my spirit was saying I should rise to this, not run away, not even for a moment.

As I wrestled with not wanting to do that, yet also wanting to respond to all this in a way that honors God, the Lord put a verse into my mind that I’d learned years ago. Instantly, my wrestling match ended. Those weighty circumstances have not changed, but my attitude is more like it should be. I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me.

God knows how to bring me closer to Him. It is by giving me challenges that I cannot handle without Him. Will I choose some sort of escape as I suffer this sense of helplessness? Or will I turn to Him who holds out all the answers to my questions, and even better, offers a liberating grace that gives me truth to bear all challenges without folding up under their power? Thankfully, His grace also includes the power to make the best choice.

Why suffer?

“Men seek an explanation of suffering in cause and effect. They look backward for a connection between prior sin and present suffering. The Bible looks forward in hope and seeks explanations, not so much in origins as in goals. The purpose of suffering is seen, not in its cause, but in its results. The man (in John 9:3) was born blind so that the works of God could be displayed in him” (Francis I. Anderson).

Yesterday’s verses were about the angst of being under satanic attack. Today my reading points to verses that are about actual physical suffering, suffering where the flesh is in pain and crying out for relief. In response, Peter offers this:

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1-2)

The last part of these verses is difficult to understand so I read about fifteen commentaries hoping for insight that I didn’t have. Several of them offered a brief summary or paraphrase that went something like this:

Arm yourselves because Christians must be equipped for warfare and suffering. Our armor is the same mind that Christ had when he suffered, a willingness to suffer that God’s will might be done. When I choose that, I have ceased from sin. This is the same idea as in Romans 6:7 where it says, “He that is dead is freed from sin.” Suffering with Christ because I am fully trusting Him, puts an end to (or ceases) my connection with sin. Then I will no longer live under the power of its desires common to men, but live according to the will of God.

Another commentator said that some of the strongest and best arguments against all sorts of sin are taken from the sufferings of Christ. I agree. If I love Jesus, I cannot hold on to sin. He died to destroy it, but not only that, He submitted to the worst suffering humanity could inflict, yet did not submit to the least sin. What does it say to Him when I give in to temptation?

As I wrote yesterday, the beginning of resistance to sin is in the mind. It is the same with temptation in physical suffering. My attitudes are weapons. If they are weak or selfish and tied up with preserving me rather than glorifying Christ, such attitudes will lead to defeat. My outlook determines my outcome, and I need right attitudes to live a right life. Suffering can help me develop those right attitudes.

On the other hand, penances or any self-inflicted hardships on the body do nothing to bring me into the will of God. This is about outside forces that inflict pain on me. Then I can choose sin (to somehow escape) or I can choose to suffer rather than sin. For that, I need the mind of Christ, the same attitude that He had toward sin.

Jesus hated sin. He knew its devastating effects on the human race. He knew that sin separates us from God. He knew that to give in to it would mean terrible loss. He knew its power to deceive and lead us from a “little” sin to greater sin. He also knows how we tend to give in to occasional temptations without realizing how easily our hearts can become accustomed to that increasing darkness.

On the positive side, Jesus determined to do the will of God. This was the rule of His life and actions. By arming myself with this attitude, saying NO is easier — whether the temptations are mental, or more like “do whatever it takes to make this pain stop.”

Jesus suffered to save me from sin. When I suffer rather than sin, I learn to hate sin more — and love Jesus more. Life is short. How foolish to waste the rest of my time living under its desires. Having the mind of Christ means victory over sin, a much better way to live.

My goal in life is to be like Jesus. To do that, I must “cease from sin” and know that I will not do that perfectly until I die or am called home when the Lord returns. Yet this knowledge cannot stop me from making every effort, even in suffering.

Also, I notice that Peter did not say that suffering by itself can cause a person to stop sinning. Pharaoh in Egypt suffered in the plagues, and yet he sinned even more. People can curse God and become increasingly bitter because of their pain. I hate suffering too, but what I think about suffering is not the issue — this passage is far more about what I think of sin, and of Jesus. Do I love my Savior? Do I hate my sin? If I do, then I will yield to anything rather than whatever is pressuring me to step outside of His will.