Why do we suffer?
Have you ever wondered why Jesus was so badly beaten before being crucified? Why did He have the crown of thorns driven into His head? Why was He lashed so severely that His flesh was flayed from His body even before being crucified? Why was He forced to carry His cross and be spit upon and cursed by those around Him? The Romans did not usually whip and beat criminals in this manner before crucifying them. Any normal man would have died before ever making it to the cross. Yes. He had to go through all of that suffering in order to pay the price for all of our sin, but there was something else going on as well. It is in this deeper understanding of Christ’s sufferings that we might find some commonality with our own sufferings. Do you remember the story of Job?
Job was “blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” according to Job 1:1. It was the Lord who brought Job’s name up to Satan in order to show Satan that there was a man who honored and loved Him more than anything else in the earth. It was the Lord who told Satan that Job was “a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.” It was after that statement that Satan told God if He would stretch out His hand against Job that he would surely curse Him to His face. Satan wanted Job to suffer because he believed that in the suffering Job would lose faith in God and blame Him for the suffering. The Lord told Satan in Job 1:12, “Behold, all that he has is in your power: only do not lay a hand on his person.” You will note that God did not agree to raise His hand against Job, but He did give Satan authority to bring calamity upon his head. Why would God allow Satan to attack Job? Wasn’t He concerned that Job might lose faith in Him? God knew that His grace was unlimited, and He could give Job enough grace to withstand the suffering. God was not trusting in the strength of Job, but rather, in His own grace.
As the story moves forward, we see that Satan increasingly makes Job’s life more miserable as God allows him to take more and more from Job until all that is left is his very life. Satan turns many of Job’s friends against him, and he causes Job to begin to doubt the faithfulness of God. Satan’s end game was to try to get Job to lose his faith in God. Satan knew that Job’s righteousness came from his faith and belief in God’s goodness and faithfulness to those who believe in Him. Satan knew that the “spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” as Jesus said in Matthew 26:41.
Part of our flesh is our mind. From our mind, we can develop patterns of thought that can open or close the door to the enemy’s lies. James 1:15 tells us how our minds can play a role in birthing sin in our lives. It says, “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.” The conception of lust occurs in our thought or in our minds. God created our mind to help us formulate patterns and habits that can help to stand against the enemy’s attacks. Prayer and worship are some of those patterns that can be adopted in our daily lives.
Job’s worldly possessions and his family members were taken from him one by one. Finally, even his physical health was severely debilitated, but he still chose to worship and put his faith in God because he chose to keep his thoughts under control. He did not allow the enemy’s attack on his life to cause him to sin by accusing God of his suffering. It wasn’t until his mind was attacked by those closest to him that he wavered and found himself struggling with doubt and fear while allowing the enemy’s lies to take root in his thoughts. Job realized his error in time and was able to seek God’s grace and forgiveness while being restored in his relationship with God and his place within the earth. God restored to Job all that the enemy had stolen and then some.
Satan attempted to bring the same “blame game” offensive in his battle against the Son of Man, Jesus. The Father made it a point to let the world know about the pleasure He took in observing the life of His one and only son, Jesus, when He walked upon the earth as a man. In Matthew 3:17, the Father spoke at the water baptism of Jesus and said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Like Job, Satan wanted to prove to God that His pleasure in Jesus was misplaced. It was moments after hearing the Father speak these words that Satan attacked Jesus in the dessert. He tried to shake His faith in the Father. The Father allowed this spiritual attack to occur because He knew His grace was sufficient, but He did not allow Satan to harm the flesh of Jesus. The Father even sustained Jesus despite His lack of water and food for forty days. Jesus was also attacked by many people during His time on the earth, but God did not allow His son to die until it was “finished.”
The torture and abuse Jesus had to bear during the entire process of the crucifixion, was allowed by the Father. Like with Job, God knew His grace was sufficient. It was Satan’s final attempt to weaken the faith that Jesus had in the Father. Satan went after the flesh of Jesus. Since Jesus had a physical body, Satan knew the weakest part of Jesus, like Job, was His flesh. The Father did not raise His hand against the Son though just as He did not raise His hand against Job. He allowed the suffering to occur because it was going to serve a greater purpose. The Father was going to take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it into something good. The Father would be glorified through it all because Jesus would not lose faith in the Father, but instead, He would show His ultimate faith by committing His spirit into the Father’s hands as it says in Luke 23:46. He died with His faith secure in the Father’s love for Him never blaming the Father, but rather, He would go through the suffering silently as it says in Isaiah 53:7. “He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”
Have you ever wondered how your life can be going so well when, all of a sudden, the bottom drops out beneath you. You might be flying high along with the Holy Spirit, and everyday seems like you are getting stronger and stronger in your faith until one day it appears that Satan himself is in your rear-view mirror. Everywhere you go and everything you do seems to be a catastrophe. Relationships that were strong and seemed to be blessed by God are now fragile and weak at best. You might have lost your job, lost close family members, lost financial security, lost your physical or mental health, had lies and slander brought against you, and maybe even have found yourself losing your faith in the faithfulness of God. Do you ever question whether your life even pleases God at all? I am here to tell you, if you have faith in Jesus and love Him while obeying His word, He is not only pleased with you, but He and the Father will come and dwell within you. That is a promise from Him in the scriptures. John 14:23-24 says, “Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
When the enemy comes against you, take heart. First of all, remember that God’s grace is sufficient and unlimited for those who believe, so ask Him for more of it. The enemy cannot see the future and can only act reactively to what they see happening in your life. The enemy sees and hears of God’s pleasure in you when they observe His blessings and grace in your life. The enemy can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life as well. They are limited in their ability to wage war against those who love and serve the Lord. They will not waste time attacking someone who they already have in their back pocket, so do not mistaken calamities in your life that are brought on by sin as the enemy’s attempt to destroy your faith in God. Remember the story of Job. God told Satan that Job was “blameless,” and we know that Jesus was perfect. If then we are believing in Jesus while loving Him and obeying His word only to be viciously attacked by the enemy, we can be sure that God is still in control and rejoice because our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life. We can worship God in the midst of the trials knowing that He will ultimately pull us through our struggles, and God will receive glory because our faith in Him will stay strong.
When we are suffering in this world, we should remember what we have in common with Job and Jesus when they walked on the earth. We have a common faith in our God. It is only through our faith in the resurrected Jesus that we can have eternal life with the Father. We must not allow the enemy to rob us of that faith at all costs. Instead of grumbling, complaining, and blaming God for our suffering, we can choose to worship Him and believe in His goodness and love for us. Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
You can read more about this and other truths by obtaining a copy of “Prodigal to Prince” by Beau Walsh at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com.
