“We cannot read God’s favor or disfavor by assessing how troubled a person’s life is… Suffering reveals the genuineness of faith in Christ. And suffering produces genuine faith. For example, when you struggle under affliction, the Psalms become real. True faith deepens, brightens, and grows wise. You grow up in knowing God…
david powlison
Suffering is both the acid test and the catalyst. It reveals and forms faith. It also exposes and destroys counterfeit faith. Afflictions expose illusory hopes invested in imaginary gods. Such disillusionment is a good thing, a severe mercy. The destruction of what is false invites repentance and faith in God as he truly is. Suffering brings a foretaste of the loss of every good thing for those who profess no faith in the one Savior of the world, God’s inexpressible gift, the Lifegiver. Affliction presses on unbelief. It presses unbelief toward bitterness, or despair, or addiction, or ever more desperate illusions, or ever more deadly self-satisfaction—or to a reconsideration of what lasts. To lose what you are living for, when those treasures are vanities, invites comprehensive repentance. We can read God’s favor or disfavor by noticing how a person responds to affliction.”
Reflection:
We are meaning makers, which means that we can’t help but attempt to interpret the events that take place in our lives. We are constantly trying to draw conclusions from what we take in around us. And one of those things that we try to interpret most regularly is suffering.
Whenever something goes against our plans and dreams, causes us pain, or creates stress on us or fear in us, we immediately begin to try and determine what this means. Looking at the world through the lens of the Bible, we learn that we actually cannot determine how God feels about us by whether our life is going well or poorly. But while the Bible teaches us this, it goes against everything we naturally feel inside.
So why is it that suffering isn’t a sure guide to knowing God’s heart? Because sometimes suffering is used to crush our idols, sharpen our character, and lead us to blessings. Surely, sometimes we suffer because we have been foolish or because we deserve it. The key is realizing that we can’t automatically assume that trouble in our lives is connected to God’s displeasure.
In the end, suffering is used by God to reveal our trust in Him or our lack of trust in Him. If we trust Him, then suffering will bring out good things in our lives. And if we don’t trust God, then suffering will drive us further from God. So, a better interpreter of where we stand with God is how we react under the pressure of trouble, rather than the trouble itself. A person of faith will receive affliction from God as a severe mercy.
To order your copy of God’s Grace In Your Suffering by David Powlison, CLICK HERE
