Ever thought about how much we need suffering in our lives! Some of you are saying, “Are you kidding me?” Well, let’s think about it for a minute. Here are six reasons that suffering is really good for us.
Let me say from the onset that I’m going to lump all suffering together. This is fairly inappropriate because suffering takes on many shapes. For instance suffering a physical ailment is much different than suffering persecution for Christ. Most Biblical passages that deal with suffering refer to the latter. However, the principle is basically the same.
Suffering keeps us humble. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12 that he was given a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from being conceited. It is interesting to look at physical ailments from that perspective. In a time when many in the religious world are trying to eliminate physical sufferings, Paul saw them as a real spiritual benefit. It’s hard to be proud and conceited when you’re lying in a hospital bed exposed to the world. It’s difficult to be arrogant when you are scarred by burns or hunched over with arthritis.
In the same passage Paul gives us the second blessing of suffering. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It is only when we are down that we are truly up. God cannot fill someone who is full of himself. It is only when we are empty that God can use us.
Paul mentioned earlier in 2 Corinthians that we suffer so that we can sympathize with others who are suffering. Compassion is only known completely by those who have “been there” and “done that.” Nothing is as sweet as a Christian who has endured hardship comforting a fellow brother in the midst of the storm. Taking him by the hand, guiding him through the stages of suffering. Finally, the guide proclaiming, “this is happening so that we do not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”
Next, Peter is going to tell us that suffering in the body helps us deal with the sin in our lives. As Christ suffered and died for our sins, we suffer and die to sin (I Pet.4:1). Paul will mention in Romans 6 that we die to sin. Suffering helps in this process (fasting for long periods of time help with this. About the 3rd or 4th day the suffering intensifies and you are more prepared to deal with sin- try it if you are dealing with a difficult sin). That is especially true if we are suffering persecution.
Suffering helps remind us that this world is not our home! Few things bring this truth into focus any better. Some of us have known people who were battling intense suffering when no relief was available. Without exception there was awareness that they were mere sojourners. Paul fought the good fight (don’t you know he had the scars to prove it), he had finished the race (boy was he glad about that…tired to the bone), and now there was laid up for him a crown…..heaven was waiting.
Lastly, suffering identifies us with Christ like nothing else can. We literally bear his name (I Pet. 4:14-16). We are never more like him than when we suffer for him. Paul said, “ I bear on my body the marks of Christ.” You want to be like Christ, suffer for him! “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”