Who Really Controls the Suffering You Go Through?
Suffering is designed by God to transform you.
Is that a difficult statement to accept? Does God design our suffering? Or is it Satan?
Lamentations 3:32-33 says, “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion… For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.”
In the span of a single verse, the Bible says that “the Lord brings grief,” yet “he does not willingly bring… grief.” So, which is it?
As John Piper once said, God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses – through a narrow lens and a wide angle one.
When God looks at a painful event through a narrow lens, he sees the tragedy for what it is. He hates it; loathes it; he’s deeply grieved.
In Ezekiel 18, he says he takes no pleasure in the death of anyone. God feels the sting in his chest when a child dies of cancer or is murdered. However, when God looks at that same event through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy in relation to everything leading up to it, as well as every good thing flowing out from it for all eternity. He sees an intricate mosaic of good stretching before him, and that brings him delight.
But don’t think this means God and the devil are in cahoots. In Luke 22:31-32, Jesus has a conversation with Peter in which he reveals a little of the relationship between God and the devil.
Jesus says,“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you.”
The devil was required to ask permission to cause his mischief, wreak havoc, and stir up tragedies. Satan was required to seek permission from God in order to harm Peter and the rest of the disciples.
We can be sure that Satan didn’t check in with God out of politeness. His seeking clearance wasn’t keeping with protocol, or because it was the courteous thing to do.
No.
Satan could not lay a finger on the followers of Jesus without first obtaining permission. God’s the one in charge. The devil operates under constraints. He cannot do what he wants whenever he wishes. He must clear it with God.
That is why we can know for sure that God is the one who places restraints on evil. He does so because he is good.
What if your trials weren’t screened by him? The devil would be free to do whatever he pleased. The world would be much worse than it is. It would be hell, overflowing with hate, war, violence, greed, and misery. Evil can only raise its ugly head when God deliberately backs away for a specific and intentional reason. Always, it is for a reason that is wise and good, even if hidden from this present life.
It’s a mystery, but God tried this mystery out on himself when he willed the gruesome, horrific death of his own Son, Jesus. He took absolutely no delight in it.
Yet he saw how that death would open the door for untold millions of people to be rescued from hell.
In short, God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
What does that mean for you and me? Although God takes no joy in hardships and afflictions, he nevertheless ordains who will be touched by suffering, and how much. And although we may not understand his purposes at first, it is always for our good and his glory. And so, it gives me immense comfort knowing that my loving God wrote ‘affliction’ into the script of my life, and after more than half a century living in a wheelchair? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There is far more to this topic than what I can address here. If I’ve stirred up more questions than answers, I invite you to get a copy of When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty. In this book, my co-author Steve Estes and I dive much deeper into this difficult question.
One more thing before I close: When God brings suffering into your life, he does not leave you unassisted. He gives you sufficient grace for the trials. The grace he gives may not remove your suffering, but it’ll give you courage, enabling you to trust him through the pain.
Grace gives endurance and perseverance amid your trials.
So, thank the Lord for the balance of painful and joyful things in your life. Thank God for the way he is, by his grace, managing the tribulations that enter your life. And praise him that he is holding back all the other problems with which Satan would love to overwhelm you. Praise the Lord for his wisdom in allowing our suffering. Praise him that he filters everything through his kind and benevolent fingers for your good and his glory.
–Joni Eareckson Tada
God’s Power in Weakness
Looking back on 55 years in a wheelchair, Joni reflects on the Lord’s faithfulness amid her adversity. She shares how trusting God through hardship has given her strength to not only persevere but live with hope and joy!
