Why God allows suffering in our lives
James 1
Trials and Temptations
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.—New International Version
Why God allows suffering in our lives
I. God allows suffering in our lives to teach us we exist for His glory. If we are blessed it is for God’s glory and if we suffer it is also for His glory.
The following is a passage of scripture that once caused a spiritual crisis in my life. I want to share it in today’s message because out of it I see a deeper reason as to why God allows suffering.
Ezekiel 24
Ezekiel’s Wife Dies
15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 "Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. 17 Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover the lower part of your face or eat the customary food of mourners ."
18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded.
19 Then the people asked me, "Won’t you tell us what these things have to do with us?"
20 So I said to them, "The word of the LORD came to me: 21 Say to the house of Israel, ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary-the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection. The sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword. 22 And you will do as I have done. You will not cover the lower part of your face or eat the customary food of mourners .
23 You will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep but will waste away because of [1] your sins and groan among yourselves. 24 Ezekiel will be a sign to you; you will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD .’ ---New International Version
I have to confess that when I first came across this passage of scripture it created a crisis of faith in my life. Why would a loving God cause a man’s wife to die just to prove a spiritual point?
It seemed unjust. Then I looked at Ezekiel 24:24:
"When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD."
It is in our suffering that we can begin to trust in the sovereignty of God. All of our lives belong to God and that we ultimately exist for His glory. God had a reason for taking the wife of Ezekiel and it isn’t for us to understand. What we can, however, believe that whenever God does something He will be glorified in it!
Some other verses to consider:
Isaiah 48
9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to cut you off.
(Whatever God does is for His ultimate glory!)
Isaiah 55
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the Lord .
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
To examine another purpose in our suffering lets look again at James 1:2-4
II. God allows suffering into our lives to grow us.
James 1
Trials and Temptations
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
a. Suffering brings testing
The Greek word used here for testing is dokimion which means “proved genuineness.”
Origin of the word Sincere
The meaning of the word "sincere" comes from the pottery shops of the first century. It is the fine china that is able to stand the test in the sunshine without any cracks or flaws that have been covered up with pearly white wax. The two Latin words from which we get the English word "sincere" means "without wax." Sine meaning (without) and cera (wax) give us the meaning without wax.
The potters would trick the customers by filling in cracks with pearly white wax. Inside the dark shops the customers couldn’t see the wax in the cracks. They would go outside the shop and hold up the plate before the sun and would immediately discern if there was a dark seam revealing wax filling in the cracks. To be sincere is to be without any tricks of the trade designed to deceive the eye. Honest pottery dealers proudly heralded a perfect piece of porcelain with the words sine cera (without wax). Likewise, God brings trials into our lives to test the genuineness of our faith.
b. Testing develops Perseverance
The word used here is hypomone, which means “great endurance, persistence, standing firm.” What this passage speaks of is what athletes call endurance training. All athletes need to develop endurance training to become champions.
Strength endurance is used to develop the athlete’s capacity to maintain the quality of their muscles’ contractile force in a climate of endurance.
Soldiers go through endurance training to prepare them for trials of war. It is through the resistance and trial of arduous training that an athlete’s strength is developed. Likewise, God puts us through endurance training to develop our perseverance.
c. The Work of Perseverance – Character
James 1
4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Romans 5
3Not only so, but we[1] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
The word for character is dokime which means “proved, proof, would stand the test.”
Japanese sword illustration: It is the Japanese who have created the best swords in the world. To create these fine weapons, ancient Japanese sword makers had to create a sword that was hard enough to retain a sharp edge, but at the same time soft enough not to be brittle. Sword makers who made swords by making the steel hard found they could preserve a sharp edge. Such swords, however, were often so brittle that they would often break when they clashed in battle. Soft steel, however, was found to be not as brittle, but would easily dull and be unable to slice through armor. Japanese sword makers, therefore had to forge a sword with steel hard enough to retain a sharp edge, but at the same time pliable enough not to break in battle.
What Japanese sword makers learned to do was to create a sword made of hard and soft steel. Multiple sheets of hard and soft steel are heated, folded and pummeled together over and over again. Japanese swords go through a lengthy forging process until they have up to 33,000 paper-thin laminations of hard and soft metal.
Each of these layers is one hundred thousandth of an inch thick. This is all done to a very precise recipe of temperature treatment. The end result is a finely crafted weapon with extreme pliability and a blade that will retain a finely honed edge.
Just as Japanese sword makers repeatedly hammer together layers of metal to produce a sword that will be strong enough to withstand breaking, so God allows trials to hammer metal into the lives of His children. Just a sword made of hard metal will easily break in battle, so the believer filled with pride will also break in adversity.
It is in the forging hand of God that humility and dependence on Him are developed into our lives to create character that will triumph in adversity. The hard steel in our lives is the word of God. The soft steel in our lives is humility and a dependence on God. These are forged together in our lives through trials and prayer to produce vessels that will give Him glory. We need the hard steel confidence of what we believe together with the soft steel of humility.
1.What is developed by Christian character forged in suffering
a. Humility—mind of Christ
Philippians 2
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature[1] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[2] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!
b. Greater empathy and compassion for others. Consider 2 Corinthians 1:3-5:
2 Corinthians 1
The God of All Comfort
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If 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.
d. Character Produces hope
Romans 5
3Not only so, but we[1] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Greek word is elpis—can mean “all hope” or “expectation.”
Our response: joy
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds”—James 1:2
In October of 1982, Badger Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, was packed. About 60,000 fervent University of Wisconsin fans were watching their football team battle the Michigan State Spartans. After the game started, however, it became obvious that Michigan State owned the ottcome.
The irony, however, was that even as the Badgers were getting pounded into the gridiron, there were eruptions of applause and jubilant shouts from the Wisconsin fans whose team was definitely beyond hope of winning. How could they cheer when their team was so far behind?
What was going on? It seems that many of the Wisconsin fans had walkmans on tuned to a different game seventy miles away. They were listening to the Milwaukee Brewers who were beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the third game of the 1982 World Series.
The jubilant Wisconsin fans were therefore not responding to the dismal performance of the Badgers, but rather to the great victory being won elsewhere.
We put our joy in the victory Christ has already won—not our present circumstances. Our joy is in that we will someday be with Jesus. It was the same joy that Paul knew when he wrote his letter to the Philippians. It was the same joy that inspired Paul to write:
Romans 8
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
We who are in Christ are on a journey headed for glory. I think of what Paul wrote in Philippians 1:3-6:
"I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."--NIV
When Paul wrote Philippians, he was facing a great trial in his life. In his letter he penned to the Philippian church he didn’t know whether he was going to live or die.
He was confident, however, of God’s perfecting grace in his life—aware of God’s perfecting grace in all of his circumstances. Our spiritual life is a journey, not a campout. God calls all of us on a journey to perfection. What I want to challenge you with this morning is to ask yourselves where you are in your journey.
Some of you may need to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Some of you may need to rededicate your life to Christ and resume your journey. Some of you may be facing a difficult trial and may need assurance of God’s grace in your journey.
Whatever you are facing this morning, I want you to know that you don’t have to face it alone—that you too can experience the grace of God in your life. Wherever you are at I want to invite you to come forward or pray in your pews as we sing the closing hymn.
