Truths to cling to in the midst of suffering.
“How can you still believe in God when experiencing so much pain and suffering? Where is God in these moments?”
The 8th-grade students in my English Language Arts classroom posited these real and raw questions as we wrestled through Night, Elie Wiesel’s memoir on the Holocaust. Elie, a practicing Jewish teenager, asks these same questions on his journey through four different concentration camps.
Where is God?
While discussing these thoughts with my students in previous years, I was able to keep myself at a safe intellectual distance. Process. Challenge. Cite the text. Listen. Repeat. This year, the intellectual became personal. The “Where is God?” became “God, where are you?”
Despite the fact that God is with us no matter our circumstances, suffering can shake the foundations of our trust in Him. My trust has definitely been shaken as my husband and I grieve over our miscarriage and our continued struggles with infertility. In this season of loss and waiting, I have had to face hard truths about suffering, my feelings, and God’s presence in my life. If I’m being honest, though these truths are mostly comforting, sometimes they are aggravating, like sandpaper on my skin. I want answers! Answers to my questions (right now) and answers to my prayers (in the specific way I want them answered–the Lord is working with me on this one).
Can anyone else relate?
Similarly, I don’t want Bible-verse-adjacent platitudes quoted at me; they don’t seem to match my lived experience. I don’t want the “God has a plan, so it will all work out” speech. Like David in Psalm 13, I want authenticity and rawness before the Lord, asking our real questions and admitting our real emotions. I share this because eight months ago, some of the thoughts I write below would have rubbed me raw. I could admit that they were doctrinally sound, but they didn’t feel true or comforting. Sometimes they even felt like an indictment against me, showing me what a failure I was for not believing and trusting (this, my friends, is a lie from Satan. We see in the Psalms that God welcomes our questioning and doubt when we come to Him with them!). Wherever you are in your journey with suffering, I believe that our Father is gentle and understanding with our fragile and pain-riddled hearts. He knows us, and He loves us.
Truths to Cling to in the Midst of Suffering
The Bible tells us we will experience suffering in this world
I start with this first point because I caught myself believing the foundational lie that if I followed God’s “best practices” for life, I could avoid hardship and would receive blessings… in this life. This lie gave me a sense of control, which is probably why I subconsciously believed it for so long! If I do X, I will receive Y. If I follow this path, I will arrive at this outcome. Plot twist! Although God’s plan is always best (intended for His glory and our good), it does not mean that we are exempt from suffering or hardship. In fact, in John 16:33, Jesus exhorts his disciples: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (ESV). Suffering is part of the Christian life in this world, but, as a Christian, we have hope that God will make all things right in the next world (1 Peter 5:10). Even on dark days when this truth doesn’t feel comforting, it reminds us that suffering is painful but normal… and not in the minimizing sense. What I mean is that suffering is part of being human in this fallen world. As Alan Noble insightfully reveals in his potent little book, On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living, “Your suffering is unique but not special.” Our suffering matters to God, and we all experience our pain and grief uniquely, but suffering itself is normal in this life.
Which leads into the second truth:
Suffering does not mean God loves us less or has forgotten us
Have you ever met someone who seems to have their life together? I have, and I will tell you that it is challenging not to compare their lives to my own. Suffering can have a similar effect if we’re not careful. When we see people receiving the gifts that we so earnestly desire or observe others enjoying a season of abundance when we are fighting to, well, simply get out of bed, it can foster the lie in our hearts that God plays favorites or has forgotten us. Our suffering and circumstances do not impact the Lord’s love for us, nor do they imply that He loves us any less. In fact, Psalm 34 promises that God is “near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (vs. 18, emphasis added). I have spent hours praying to tangibly feel God’s nearness (because knowing the biblical truth is different from experiencing the truth), and He has shown up in immeasurable ways. When I find myself still asking in my prayer time, “What about me, Jesus? Have you forgotten me?”, I remind myself of these qualities of our God:
God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:11; Acts 10:34-35)
God holds us tightly in the midst of our suffering–He is near (Ps. 27:5, 10; Ps. 34:18; Ps. 63:8; Ps. 139:10)
God weeps and grieves with us (John 11:35; Is. 53:3)
God does not enjoy our pain (Lamentations 3:33)
God loves us unconditionally and limitlessly (John 3:16; 1 John 4:8; Ps. 33:5; Ps. 36:7; Romans 8:38-39)
God is the ultimate “reward.”
I love this life, and I believe that life is beautiful… but grief and suffering can sometimes make life feel unbearable. If not unbearable, at least morosely gloomy and hopeless. In those moments, we need more than the motivation of the “simple joys of living.” We need the Lord and the perspective that it is God Himself and eternal life with Him that is the ultimate good and our ultimate “reward.” God is our portion, as Psalm 73 puts it. Even if our lives were a vale of trials of Job-like proportions, we would still have a reason to hope and a reason to worship. We have God, and He is good. He is enough. Period.
I don’t know where you’re at today or why you chose to read these reflections… but I pray that whether you’re in the pits of suffering or on the mountaintops of rejoicing, whether you’re in a season of spiritual drought or in a time of spiritual abundance, you (and I) can learn to trust our Father’s loving heart for us in the midst of suffering.
Peacefully Yours,
Faith
*This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting The Peaceful Haven!
