Why You Shouldn't Fear Suffering by Kelly Minter

Why You Shouldn't Fear Suffering I once held the idea that if I followed the principles laid out for me in Scripture—if I loved God and made solid, biblical choices—I would be blessed with some version of a really good life, void of heartbreak or catastrophe or sickness. As I grew older, I gradually realized that following God didn’t guarantee this premium package, this safeness. I’d seen really godly people suffer and read about such believers in Scripture. Still, I somehow felt that if I did my part then God would be obligated to do His: build me the kind of life we covet here in America and protect me from pain. This seemed like such a reasonable expectation. For the record, I do believe obedience yields blessing and that God delights in giving us material and relational gifts, often in response to our following Him. Even still, my understanding of how suffering fit—or didn’t fit—into the bigger paradigm of the Christian faith was deficient. The Bible reveals that suffering has its place in our lives, even Hebrews 2:10 explains that Jesus was made perfect through suffering. What I’d missed all those years of pining for what made me feel good and attempting to protect myself from whatever I feared “coming upon me” (in the words of Job) was really quite simple: Suffering is part of the blessing. I’ve yet to meet a person who enjoys suffering. But I’ve met many who’ve found intimacy with Jesus in the midst of their suffering. There are certain parts of Jesus you just can’t know on a path of ease, and once you’ve tasted that closeness with Him you wouldn’t trade it for the smooth course. Excerpted and adapted from All Things New: A Study on 2 Corinthians by Kelly Minter © 2016. LifeWay Christian Resources. Used by permission.