Seasons of Suffering by John Avant

I don’t like this season I am in. 

Ten days ago my wife had her knee replaced. I am caring for her. It is a privilege. But watching her suffering is hard. 

Now I know this will pass. We have nothing to complain about. 

But in the first few days I had to listen to the one I love scream in pain. And I could do nothing to relieve her pain.

Or could I?

God gives very explicit instructions on what to DO in a season of suffering:

“Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭4‬:‭19‬ ‭

According to God, there are two things I can do in a season of suffering. 

First, I can entrust my soul to him.  

This doesn’t just mean to pray. 

To entrust means ultimate surrender. 

Jesus used a form of the same word when he said “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:45). 

In my mind, it would be a more fruitful season if my wife was not suffering, and I was not sharing in it. God does not desire that we suffer.  Yet, throughout history He has redeemed suffering and used it in the most beautiful ways! 

If you are in a season of suffering, ask God to use this time to align the way you think more closely to the way He thinks!

That is something very important that you can DO about suffering!

Secondly, I can suffer “while doing good.”

Again, this challenges the way I normally think. We love our active lives and ministry. It would seem to be the way we can best serve the Lord. We are normally on the road half the year. We are helping churches and missionaries, leading marriage conferences, ministering on university campuses.  We are going after finishing the Great Commission! 

It feels like this season would be more significant if God would take away the suffering so we could keep doing all that! 

But God has a track record of using suffering to achieve His greatest victories. Even today, people are coming to Christ by the millions in the places where they are persecuted, while the church declines in the comfortable places. 

Who am I to say what season in my life is most significant to God? Why should I think that it is necessarily the seasons I enjoy the most?

“No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire.“ George MacDonald

Perhaps the most important “good” I can do today in God’s view is just bringing a meal to my wife, helping her into a chair, or praying with her in her pain. Or the writing of these words you are reading. 

That encourages me!  I hope it encourages you as well in your own seasons of suffering. 

And don’t miss the fact that the passage says that He is a faithful creator. He has made you and so He understands your suffering. He joined your suffering on the cross. He will take it all away one day because of the empty tomb.  But for now, He is faithful to sustain you through it.  

Together let’s say, “Great is your faithfulness!”