WHY DO I SUFFER?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we live this life for Jesus, suffering seems to be inevitable in life for Christian believers. In fact, I don’t think I have met a single human being in Christ who hasn’t suffered at one time or another. Some experience and endure it for far longer than others and sometimes this is for a lifetime.

And even though a Christian might not be suffering personally, they usually know others who are and I have found as a person who cares empathetically that I have felt pain and hurt while praying over and walking the path of suffering with another.

Given this seemingly universal challenge of suffering that has come or will come in the future to Christ followers, many people ask or have asked the question:

“Why do I suffer?”

Or perhaps, “Why are other people suffering?”

For the answers, as we should do in all questions we might have about life experiences, we turn to the scriptures, the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and the cross of Jesus.

In regard to the latter, we should always remember that Jesus suffered and did so greatly in the course of His life. This was predicted by the prophet Isaiah and then validated by Jesus Himself:

He (Jesus) was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering.

He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.

Isaiah 53:3-4a, 5a,

He (Jesus) then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. Mark 8:31

Jesus suffered immensely in His life as He carried out God’s plan of salvation for all mankind, a plan that ended in crucifixion as He was nailed to the cross along with the sins of us all.

Now, as Christians, we are to be like Christ and so it only comes to figure that we will share in the entire Jesus experience and that includes His joys AND sorrows, His health AND suffering.

Going back to the scriptures, here’s what we learn:

...we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:5

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:26-27

Jesus is the Head of the body and each Christian believer is a part of that body. So if Jesus, the Head of the body, suffered than every part of the body will suffer with Him. Christian belief is not immunity from suffering. Rather, it validates why we do suffer as we share abundantly in the agony and pain He endured to save us. This is why we find Paul exhorting Timothy in today's verse to suffer along with Him, like a "good soldier of Christ Jesus". A soldier understands that when they go to battle with their leader that there is a risk for suffering and even death. Paul hoped Timothy would be willing to do whatever Jesus commanded and accept any hardship or suffering that might result.

So how we are we to respond to sharing in the suffering of Jesus?

We aren’t to curse that suffering but rather rejoice in it. God’s word tells us so:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12-13

We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame. Romans 5:3-5

Suffering actually produces a lot of important character traits for Christian believers, perseverance and character among them, but note that all this leads to the one thing we need to hold onto in the midst of suffering, the salvation and eternal life we have through believing in Jesus as Savior, the slain Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29). This hope is the hope of glory, the blessed promise that will come to all Christians when this worldly life is over.

Again, we go to the scriptures:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:17-18

When we place our belief in Jesus, we become a child of God and a co-heir to the Kingdom and the everlasting life in it. Between the time of our belief and our death, we will share in the sufferings of Jesus in the world but nothing we will ever suffer through will overshadow the wonderful, magnificent glory to come when the Lord makes us new and ensures we will never suffer again.

God’s word tells us that Jesus, the pioneer of salvation, was made perfect by God through His suffering (Hebrews 2:10) and anyone who places their belief in Christ becomes immediately justified or made just as sinned never existed in that person. Or in other words, because of Jesus’ intercession and bearing of our sins, we too are made perfect as we enter into the same glory that Jesus has already entered into.

Friends, suffering will come to us as Christians. As it does, let us remember that we are joining in what Jesus endured to save us as we, like Him, look forward to the day when this life is over and our suffering-free life will begin, a life where we will abide of our Father God and Brother Jesus forever more.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.