The Power of Suffering (Part 5)

I (11) To change your focus:

When you experience suffering you often focus your attention on the cause and effect. You are concerned with what caused the difficult circumstances and the terrible effect it is having in your life.  God wants to change your focus from struggling to understand the temporal situation to recognizing the benefits of the eternal:

2 Corinthians 4:17, 18 "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

1 Peter 4:12, 13 "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."

2 Timothy 2:12 "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him."

(12) To change the old nature:

God said of the nation of Moab:

Jeremiah 48:11 "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste  remained in him, and his scent is not changed."

Because Moab had not experienced the troublesome pouring out and stirring similar to that necessary to develop good wine, the nation did not change.  Moab was at ease and settled in prosperity and because of this did not develop and mature properly spiritually.  Therefore there was no change. His "own scent" remained in him.

Suffering rids you of the old nature.  As you are stirred, troubled, and poured out, your spiritual scent changes from carnal to spiritual. 

(13) To prepare you for ministry:

You have asked to be used by God. You desire to be more like Jesus and prayed to be a chosen vessel for His use.  The answer to your prayer may come through suffering:

Isaiah 48:10 "Behold I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."

It is through affliction that you move beyond the calling as a child of God to become chosen of God.  Affliction according to the will of God refines you for His use just as metals are refined in a furnace in the natural world.

(14) To prepare you to reign with Christ:

2 Timothy 2:12 "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him."

(15) To give you spiritual blessings:

Jesus said:

Matthew 5:10-12 "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:  for great is your reward in heaven:  for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

(16) To teach you obedience:

Hebrews 5:8 "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered..."

(17) To test the Word of God in you:

Psalms 12:6 "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."

(18) To humble you:
Deuteronomy 8:15, 16 "Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water;  who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end..."   

(19) To enlarge you spiritually:

This means you grow spiritually:

Psalms 4:1 RSV "Thou has enlarged me when I was under pressure."

(20) To help you come to God intimately:

You come to know God on a more intimate basis through suffering.  Job, who suffered much, learned this truth and said in Job 42:5, 6 "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear:  but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."  

Some of us know God only second handedly. When we are experiencing the blessings of life, God is often a luxury instead of a necessity.  But when you have a real need, God becomes a necessity.
 
Job came to know God more intimately through suffering.  Before he suffered, Job knew God through theology.  Afterwards, he knew Him by experience.  This is why Paul said in Philippians 3:10:

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death."

You can only come to know God in resurrection power through the intimate fellowship of suffering.

Throughout his ordeal, Job questioned God as to the cause of his suffering. It is not wrong to question God.  Jesus knew the purpose for which He had come into the world was to die for the sins of all mankind.  Yet in His hour of suffering He cried out, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

It is what follows the questioning that is important. The Lord's  next words were, "Into thy hands I commit my spirit."