WHAT IS GOOD WITH YOUR SUFFERING?

Have you ever thought that your suffering will be used to comfort others? Oh, I have never thought of this while crying and asking God for clarity of discernment when visited by trials. I am just focused on what I am feeling and what I am understanding about the situation. Many times, this is what humans are, right. Our immediate reaction is for us to focus on our disadvantage and our pain. We are never told that it is not okay to be human. We are never told that we are condemned by God because of our humanity. In fact, this is the opposite. The love of God did not deter when we fall. The love of God did not grow colder when our sinful humanity becomes our new normal. What did God do? He loved us even deeper and did all His best to rescue us and to bring us back into His arms.

Many times, when we are subjected to our sinful humanity’s experience, God is actively doing His best to help us see the light beyond the darkest clouds. There is also one thing that God does. He uses our experience to comfort others. Can you imagine how our pains become healing for people who are experiencing the same? How seeing the work of God in our lives becomes an opening glimmer of hope for people who are suffering the same way. Our experiences, especially our pains, most of the time have become avenues of hope for your brothers and sisters.

This experience is expounded by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians recorded in 1 Corinthians 1:3-7.

“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”

This is just a portion of his letter to the Corinthians. Giving hope and assurance to the suffering of the faithful people of God. Our Christian life is not a life for ourselves because even in our sufferings God made the way that we can be a blessing. In another letter of Paul in Romans 8:28, he said, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Paul’s suffering was not only about his pains and his struggles. His pain had been a tool for him to comfort his suffering brethren. His pain became an inspiration for suffering Christian to find hope and grasp in the faith that holds them all—Jesus Christ!

Friends, your suffering is not in vain.

God can use even your suffering for you to become a blessing to others.