Suffering According to Paul

Yikes. It's been over a year since I last wrote. And wow, I've been learning a lot. Sooooo I'm buckling my proverbial writing seatbelt: It's gonna be a bit of a long one... (and readers, I'm sorry in advance!)

Lately, I've been wrestling with how suffering, hurt, or pain have a place in God's perfect plan for those who love Him. Recently, I have seen many of my loved ones going through trials of various kinds (from infertility, to job loss, to physical ailment, to separation from those they love, you name it...) And sinner that I am, I begin to question:

I question God's sovereignty...

Does He really have control over everything in everyone's lives? 

I question God's goodness...

Does He really have my best interests at heart? 

And I question how the two could possibly work together...

How can God both be allowing the pain and yet working it for the best good?

I won't pretend that in my sin-cursed mind I will ever perfectly understand how my God works. (After all, if I did there would be no need for faith and trust!) But by His grace, I am daily learning more about His loving sovereignty. A friend shared this with me a few weeks ago, and it's been stuck in my mind ever since:

It's not that God works in spite of evil and pain in this world.
("Oh, too bad that happened...Watch, I'll turn it into good!)
It's that God works through evil and pain in this world to bring those He loves into closer harmony with Him - which is our ultimate good.
("I love you too much to keep circumstances from you that would increase the joy that comes in a deeper love for Me.")

In His grace, the Holy Spirit has helped me discover various passages of the Word that give me a more accurate picture of who my God is and how He works in His children's lives. The latest of which is a passage from 2 Corinthians I'd never noticed! Ben and I had read this during a John MacArthur study, and it struck me in a way I had never understood before. Paul describes the suffering his life has contained for the sake of Christ:

In labors, more abundant,
In stripes above measure,
In prisons more frequently,
In deaths often.

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods;
Once I was stoned;
Three times I was shipwrecked;
A night and a day I have been in the deep;

In journeys often;
In perils of waters,
In perils of robbers,
In perils of my own countrymen,
In perils of the Gentiles,
In perils in the city,
In perils in the wilderness,
In perils in the sea,
In perils among false brethren;

In weariness and toil,
In sleeplessness often,
In hunger and thirst,
In fastings often,
In cold and nakedness...

Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

Who is weak, and I am not weak?
Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

If I must boast, I will boast in things which concern my infirmity.

~2 Corinthians 11:22-33

Then our study asked, "Why do you think God allowed Paul to experience all these things?" And somehow it clicked for me.

Paul was writing to the early churches: churches who weren't sure if Paul was really able to lead and empathize with them; churches who were wondering if living the kind of life Christ called for was even possible, let alone worth it; churches who many times were in all different kinds of pain and suffering.

What circumstances could God allow in Paul's life to make him fit to minister to these churches? Suffering. Of all kinds. In all different sorts of circumstances. Why? For me, looking at Paul's life I see two reasons such extensive suffering could show both God's sovereignty and his goodness:

1. Paul's suffering made him more like Christ.
~Suffering allows us to say with the Psalmist: "Before I was afflicted I went astray. But now I keep your Word." It awakens us to our spiritual condition and re-fixes our eyes on Christ.
(God's goodness in personal sanctification)


2. Paul's suffering prepared him to minister to the church.
~Suffering allows us to say with Paul, "Who is weak that I am not weak?" It allows us to empathize with others who suffer.
(God's goodness in ministry to others)

So now comes the hard part...applying it to the situations involving me and those I love: Why would God, being both sovereign (perfectly powerful) and good (perfectly loving), allow suffering to exist in this life?

Because He uses suffering...

1. To draw the sufferer closer to Him

2. To prepare the sufferer to draw others closer to Him.

In the end, it's all about drawing closer to our sovereign God -
whose love is always our highest good.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness."

~Jeremiah 31:3b