Why Christians Suffer By Billy Graham

Why Christians Suffer

By Billy Graham

Many people have asked me, “Why do Christians suffer?” Suffering, according to the Bible, is a disciplinary, chastening and molding process. Affliction can also be a means of refining and of purification. Many people have come forth from the furnace of affliction more beautiful and more useful. We would never have had the songs of Fanny Crosby had she not been afflicted with blindness. George Matheson would have never given the world his immortal song “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go” had it not been for his passing through the furnace of affliction. Job, who was called upon to suffer as few men have suffered, said: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Affliction is the blast furnace in which saints are smelted. It is in the midst of adversity that their true worth is revealed. The Bible says: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Your sickroom can become a spiritual gymnasium where your soul is exercised and developed. Sickness is one of the “all things” that work together for good to those that love God. Don’t resent it. Don’t be embittered by it. You who are lying on hospital beds realize today that it is the love-stroke of your Heavenly Father, who loves you so much He will not pamper you but will bring all things for your ultimate good.