God has many purposes in human suffering. There at least four: The first purpose of God in suffering is what Paul presents in Romans 5, namely, that God uses our troubles, trials, and tribulations to form Christian character.

In the Great Depression a man lost a job, a fortune, a wife, and a home. He was a believer in Jesus Christ, and he clung to his faith even though he could see no purpose in what was happening. One day in the midst of his depression he was wandering through the city and stopped to watch masons doing stonework on a huge church. One was chiseling a triangular piece of stone. “What are you doing with that?” he asked.

The workman stopped and pointed to a tiny opening near the top of a nearly completed spire. “See that little opening up there near the top of the spire?” he said. “Well, I’m shaping this down here so that it will fit up there.” Tears filled his eyes as he walked away, for it seemed to him that God had spoken to say that He was shaping him for heaven through his earthly ordeal.

A second kind of suffering is illustrated by the story of Job from the Old Testament. Job was a happy and favored man. But suddenly he suffered the loss of his many herds and the death of his ten children, and he did not know why. The Book of Job is a record of the limitations of human reasoning in wrestling through tough problems. The book tells us Satan made the accusation that Job loved and served God only because God had blessed Job. “But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face,” said Satan (Job 1.11).

Job lost everything, he nevertheless worshiped God, saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I return. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”  Then we are told: “In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

A third important reason for suffering in the lives of some Christians is God’s glory. Therefore, although when we suffer, we should always ask God whether or not the suffering is for our correction, we should never assume that this is necessarily what God is doing in the life of someone else. Another person’s suffering may be evidence only of God’s special favor to him or her.

Life is short when measured by the scope of eternity and our chief end is to glorify God – by whatever means He may choose to have us do it.

It was this knowledge that enabled Hugh Latimer to cry out to Nicolas Ridley as they were being led to the stake in Oxford, England, in 1555, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England as (I trust) shall never be put out.”

Only those who have their eyes on eternity can assume this perspective.

The final, and most obvious category of suffering for a Christian is what we can call corrective suffering, that is, suffering that is meant to get us back onto the path of righteousness when we have strayed from it. Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3, “ ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and …accepts as a son’ ” – concluding that we should: “Endure hardship as discipline.… For what son is not disciplined by his father?”

Maranatha!

(mar-uh-nath-uh – “Our Lord Comes”)

Pastor Steve can be reached at PastorSteve@MaranathaBibleChurch.org