No one wants to suffer. In this day and age, we have so many luxuries that we think, “well, why should we have to suffer”? As believers, we have personal access to the God of the universe who can speak one word and heal us instantaneously, provide for us miraculously or create a universe for that matter. So, when we begin to suffer, we cry out to Him for help and if our circumstances don’t change, we think, “what just happened here? Doesn’t He see what I’m going through? Doesn’t He care?”
But what if God is allowing that suffering to do a work inside of us that could not be done through any other means? Or what if God has a greater purpose of salvation through our suffering? After all, wasn’t that what Yeshua went through for us? Yeshua never sinned and never deserved the suffering He endured when He walked the earth. Yet the Bible says that He was well acquainted with sorrow and grief (Isaiah 53:3) and was even separated from His Father when He bore the sins of the world on Himself. Did not Satan himself question Jesus concerning this matter of suffering?
Jesus didn’t need to fast, but He did and He experienced hunger. It was when Jesus was hungry that Satan encouraged Him to use His power to turn the stones into bread. Why suffer if you have the power to change it? Satan then took him to a high place and showed him all the kingdoms and their splendor. “You can have it all, Jesus, and not have to suffer if You will bow and worship me”, Satan said in paraphrase. (See Matthew 4). But this was not the way the Father planned to bring the world salvation. Salvation for all men, women and children would come through Yeshua’s suffering. Remember, Yeshua left His throne to become a human like you and me and He chose this humility and suffering for your freedom and mine. There was a purpose to His suffering.
Many times, this is what happens when we suffer also. Yes, God has all power and all authority over all the principalities and kingdoms of heaven and earth. He can speak one word and alter the course of history. He can heal us instantaneously and there are many times He does! He can open doors to our financial breakthroughs and can rescue us out of horrible relationships and the list of things He can do is literally infinate. Nothing is impossible for Him. But the truth is, His ways are not like our ways. And there is no formula. The only thing we know for sure is that He is good and His ways are perfect. So even when we don’t get what we want, the way we want, and when we want it- it does not mean that He is not hearing our prayers and at work in our situation. It’s just that there are times He chooses to walk through our suffering with us, giving us grace instead of deliverance, perseverance instead of rescue and revelation of who He is instead of the easy way out. When we experience suffering, we can trust the Lord to use it for His glory while we humble ourselves like Yeshua and pray – “Father, not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42).