Does God make us suffer because we do what’s wrong?
Jan 7, 2012
The Vase for Grace - the grace of God from 2 Corinthians, part two
by Mike Gaudet
“For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.“ 2 Corinthians 1:5-7
There’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that God is really good at encouragement.
The bad news is that in order to experience God’s encouragement, we first need to experience discouragement.
God doesn’t insulate His children from trouble, hardship and other discouraging circumstances. Quite the contrary, God causes “the sufferings of Christ” to “flow over into our lives.” Those God loves will experience hardship, rejection and abandonment.
God channels “sufferings” to us so that He might channel “comfort” to us . . . and so that He might channel “comfort” through us to others.
God doesn’t cause us to suffer because we’ve done something wrong. God causes us to suffer so that we’ll do something right. On the far side of God’s dealings with us, His encouragement flows over our banks and into the lives of others who are suffering…“comfort overflows.”
Our problem is that we naturally link human suffering with divine displeasure. We imagine that God rewards the obedient with protection from suffering and punishes the disobedient with exposure to suffering. When we are delivered from illness or hardship, we revel in God’s intervention. When we are delivered into illness or hardship, we wonder how we got on God’s “bad side.” We try to correct the error of our ways so that God will “be nice” to us once again.
An easy life is not proof of being closely connected with God.
“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him . . .” Hebrews 5:7-9
It’s a mistake to assume that God insulates His sons and daughters from hardship. This certainly wasn’t Jesus experience. “Although he was a son . . . he suffered.”
It’s also a mistake to assume that God sends sufferings into our lives so that we’ll stop doing wrong things and start doing right things. Jesus never strayed from the path His Father laid out for Him . . . and yet that path involved suffering.
Those who teach that God rewards obedience with the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain grossly misrepresent biblical truth. The “health and wealth” gospel has no foundation this side of the cross. The New Testament of the Bible does not support such an interpretation.
The sufferings Jesus experienced enabled Him to become, ‘the source of eternal salvation.” He suffered so that others might benefit from being connected to God. God brings suffering into our lives so that He can use us to channel His love to others. In God’s hands, sufferings make us “usable.”
We experience His encouragement in the context of our discouragement. The roots of our faith grow deeper into God’s encouragement in the soil of discouraging circumstances.
A father took his child to get immunized. On the way to the car he noticed a bird with an injured wing. When he attempted to pick up the bird in order to care for it, the bird struggled so much in his hand that the man was forced to release it so as not to cause further harm. He continued on to the doctor’s office with his daughter, where she prepared to receive the painful immunization by wrapping her arms tightly around her father’s neck.
Later, he thought about the different responses to suffering. He reflected on how when we experience suffering, we act more like wounded birds than frightened daughters. Rather than draw closer to God in times of suffering, like the bird, we struggle to break free of the one who wants to bring comfort to us and supply comfort through us.