Rejoicing in Our Suffering

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that 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.”—Romans 5:3-5

Suffering to the Christian is what physical training is to a football player. Suffering helps produce the core ingredients that reveal Christ’s presence in our lives. Which is why Paul said, “We rejoice in our sufferings.” He could only say that “we rejoice” because he understood suffering’s product—Christlikeness and glory to God. Whenever we suffer, we are weaned from this world and onto Christ. This world is transitory and passing away, but we will be in Christ’s presence for eternity. Through suffering, we are able to see the transitory nature of this world and set our hope on the world to come. This enables us to endure greater and more prolonged suffering, which in turn leads to more pronounced marks of Christ’s presence in our lives producing character. Our character is shaped through suffering, much like a piece of steel on an anvil. The anvil hurts and is painful, but is necessary to hone and shape us so that we might be of use in the Master’s hand.

Suffering has value for us personally, but it also has value for us evangelistically. The lost see Christ magnified through our suffering. We are showing that Christ is of more value to us then life itself—and that is attractive to the lost. Much like a teabag in hot water. It is not until the teabag is plunged into hot water that the flavor is released. And it is not until we are plunged into the hot water of suffering that the presence of Christ is released in us making it sweet to the taste to all those with whom come into contact with or hear our story.

The world sees no redeemable value of suffering. Suffering is seen as a violation of our personal comfort, which we wrongly believe God is obligated to give us. We must put on the corrective lenses of Christ and see suffering as a growth and ministry opportunity, whereby God’s presence is revealed in our lives and others are drawn to Him—for God’s glory and our joy. Amen.