I was a competitive dancer growing up. When you dance as much as I did, your body starts to develop some battle scars, so to speak. My feet took the brunt of the scars.
One thing you should know about dancers is that we are proud of things like calluses. We worked hard to get our feet to where they were so tough that it didn’t hurt anymore. The majority of people would do everything in their power to get rid of things like this. Dancers, on the other hand, work hard to keep them. Our feet suffered, but it was worth it. It identified us as legitimate dancers.
Paul lived in much the same way. In Colossians 1, we read that Paul endured much suffering in his physical body. Instead of being angry or resentful of this suffering, Paul was proud. While he knew that suffering wasn’t part of God’s original design for the world, he also saw it as an opportunity to be a witness for Jesus Christ. The way he viewed and testified about his scars showed others a small picture of what it looked like for Jesus to suffer.
Since you are an adopted child of God, He cares about your suffering just as much as He did Paul’s. And similarly to Paul’s story, God can take the pain of brokenness He didn’t design to do powerful good in our lives.
God Can Use Our Suffering to Strengthen Us
Recalling my dance classes again, I think of how every class wore my muscles and body down. But through that wear and tear, my body was forced to become stronger. Each painful trial prepared me for the next class. It made me stronger.
As Romans 5 reminds us, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” If we trust in God’s promises to never leave us and to ultimately deliver us to new life free from suffering, then God can in turn use our painful trials to strengthen us.
At the same time, I want to stop and make a very clear statement. Sometimes, before we hear the truth of how God can use our pain, we need to hear that we are not alone and that someone cares. If that’s you, I encourage you to pause reading. Please know that this is not what God ultimately wants for this world or for you, and He is walking closely alongside you through this season. The rest of the truth of this blog can wait for another day.
God Can Use Our Suffering to Teach Us About Him
Paul knew that suffering for Christ was far greater than even the best moments on earth. It connected him to his Savior in a unique way. He writes that his suffering is essentially a teaching moment for the church.
When we’re walking through suffering, the enemy loves to tell us that we are alone, that God has forgotten us, or that He is punishing us. In these moments, we have to push back against these lies. Instead, we can look to the faithful believers before us who have suffered well as encouragement. We can turn to others within the body of Christ to help carry our burdens. And most importantly, we can look to Christ and His Word.
We see that Christ’s suffering sets an example for us (1 Peter 2:21-23). We share in His suffering and comfort (2 Corinthians 1:5).
Hebrews 12:2-3 tells us, “keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Think of him who endured such opposition against himself by sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and give up.”
When we consider Christ in our suffering, we are reminded that we have a Savior who loves us deeply enough to endure incredible suffering on our behalf. He has given us a living hope that helps us through the darkest moments in life. Suffering is one of the greatest theology lessons we can receive.
God Can Use Our Suffering to Bring Us and Others Closer to Him
Paul’s example shows us that while suffering is part of life for every person in history, it looks fundamentally different for those who trust in Christ. Unlike the lost world around us, we don’t suffer without hope. Rather, we know the end of the story. We know that our suffering does not have the final word.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we aren’t allowed to hurt, grieve, or question. Suffering is not what God originally intended for mankind, and we see throughout scripture, notably the Psalms, that it is appropriate for those who trust God to cry out to Him in their pain. But those same Psalms also consistently turn back to God’s promises for hope in the midst of grief.
We have those same promises to sustain us. Jesus promises us that one day He will return. He will make all things new, and we will never have to face hardship and suffering again. And because of that hope, our journey through suffering ultimately leads to a very different response than that of those who do not trust in God.
The Apostle Paul was no stranger to suffering for the sake of Christ. He experienced physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual suffering while seeking to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Most of us would understand if Paul had lost hope through those trials. He could have easily turned his back on God for all that he faced, but he didn’t. He rejoiced in his suffering.
Can you imagine the testimony this was to the people around him? When we look at the world and those experiencing suffering, they are usually marked by lasting bitterness and deep despair. But for Christians, we can suffer differently. Paul showed the people in Colossae that there’s another way to view suffering. There’s a hope that far outweighs the trouble of this world.
Our suffering matters greatly to God, and it is right for both him and us to grieve it. But some of the most beautiful truths of our faith can ironically be seen more clearly in our suffering. We have a God who does not leave us in our suffering. We have a God who loves us enough to subject His Son to terrible suffering on our behalf. We have a God who promises, at the proper time, to deliver us from all suffering forever. Let us cling to these truths so that God can strengthen us, bring us close, and lead others to Him.
