06/23/2025
We suffer in our lives, but no suffering is experienced without God using it for His good purposes. The question becomes this... do we see Him working in our most dire circumstances? If we are attuned to the will of God in our lives we should acknowledge His mark, even in our misery... unless, of course, we are blinded to Him by our disbelief.
Jesus suffered in ways that make us gasp, and He knew very well that the suffering and pain was coming... long before He experienced it. If His disciples understood who He was, then they should have seen it coming as He did; after all, Isaiah prophesied of it long before He was born:
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Isaiah 53:3 ESV
God used the suffering of Christ to redeem us, and Isaiah alluded to this in prophesy as well. He told of the physical beating and torture that Jesus would endure, and the degree of His disfiguring, but he also told us that despite this immense trauma He would be lifted up.
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.”
Isaiah 52:13-15 ESV
Whether our own suffering is physical, mental, or emotional, God touches us in our moments of sorrow and changes us in mighty ways. I was on a flight home from my mother's 92nd birthday celebration one Monday evening when I met an incredibly wonderful man of God. We sat next to each other and spoke of our faiths. In the course of our conversation we testified about the wonderful and powerful moments in our spiritual lives. I recounted a time of immense grief and pain in my life, and how, as a saint prayed and laid hands on me, I felt hands all over my back... but when the prayer was complete and I opened my eyes... and there was no one there. My new friend smiled in recognition and told me that he too had been touched in his life, and that each time it had occurred it changed him. I thought back to that moment in my life, and others as well, and realized that this was truth... each time I have been touched I have also been changed, and my faith elevated as if by a rush of wind as it blows a leaf suddenly into the sky.
God uses our times of grief and pain in part because they capture our attention; they become the focus of our lives and we seek Him in our desperation. We seek Him in ways that are unrivaled by joy. In suffering we turn to God in prayers that have no equal, and He meets us in our despair to reassure us, teach us, and change us in powerful ways. God uses every event and moment in our lives, but when things are easy and life is drifting along like a feather on a calm pond, we are less likely to seek Him with the same intensity as we do in our most wretched moments.
I have heard many speak of those moments when the curtain between heaven and earth grows thin. I envision pressing my face against the nearly transparent thinness of the veil in such an instance and breathing the sweet aroma of heaven's incense as if I were already there. Suffering brings us to that place like no other event in our lives; it presses us against the sheerness of the division in ways that only desperation can lead us to. It brings us to a place where we struggle mightily to grasp the feet of The Divine and seek His mercy as we grope and grasp against the smooth barrier between God and man. These are the times when God has our undivided attention. Here we find Him in the midst of our grief and suffering. Such is the moment of our salvation... just as in the sacrificial climax of Jesus.
Let’s never let our grief, our desperation, or our suffering, discourage us; it is here in this moment of suffering that we will most certainly hear Our Heavenly Father, and He will come to us mightily. In such times He will touch us and change our lives.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for all of the joy and peace in my life, but I also thank you for those times of suffering in which you come to me in revelation. I thank you Father for drawing me near and for the fervent nature of my prayers and faith in those times when I suffer and call out to you. Holy Father, I thank you for the passion of Christ and the change that His suffering not only brought to me but to the world. I thank you for the sheerness of the veil during my moments of pain and the cool wind that blows it over me in soothing embrace. You are my God, and in all things I will seek your presence. You are with me always, and I long for your slightest touch. Most Merciful Father, never let my eyes lose sight of your glory... even in the heart of my earthly misery and pain. Your Son is the balm that heals my sin, and the relief of all my suffering, and in Him I find the strength to cast myself at your feet in praise and subjugation. If suffer I must, then touch me in my suffering, hold me in the midst of my misery, hear me in my weeping, and let me come to you in prayer as I seek relief from my desperation... for in such times your mercy and joy will be my reward. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God in whom all things are made to be good… in our good times, and our bad you are always Good. Holy are you who can lift us up from amidst our sorrows, hold us gently in your arms, and increase us in our belief and faith as you pour the blood of Jesus, of your peace and rest, upon us. Our sorrows and suffering are engraved upon the vessel that holds this sweet and fragrant oil that sooths our souls. Take my sorrow today and use it to change me, Abba. Use the sadness and suffering that I experience in this world to demonstrate your grace and mercy to all who watch as I walk through it. Let us see that the passion of Christ was not defeat, but a mighty victory that redeemed us all, and brought glory to your name. Hear this, my prayer, that I lift up to you in the name of your Son Jesus Christ. Hear me as I pray from the midst of every sorrowful season, asking always that your will be done.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah… Amen!
“For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
1 Peter 2:19-25 ESV
“Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53;4-5 ESV
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 ESV
Rich Forbes