An Example to the Suffering

How we respond to suffering in our lives can have a lasting impact on those in our circle of influence. 

Leading the great assembly of the faithful on suffering well was Jesus. He was the perfect model of what a proper response to trial in our lives should look like. He exemplified trust in God, commitment to the calling of God, and hope-filled faith in his Father's faithfulness to deliver and vindicate him.¹

We can also look to the author of Lamentations as someone who modeled how a suffering saint surfs the difficult seasons of life. Tradition attributes this poetic work to the prophet Jeremiah - although the author’s identity is not known for certain. In Lamentations we read a graphic description of the pain that the author felt in the midst of his suffering. After experiencing the exile of his people and the horrific destruction of his homeland, the poet bears his heart throughout this acrostic before God and man.

Are you suffering? Have you suffered? I’d like to offer three thoughts that I pray will strengthen your faith and revive your hope - three important attitudes that the author of Lamentations clung to in his suffering.³ I know they’ve impacted my life.

• Affirmation 

God is and has been faithful, and for this we can be grateful. He has been patient with you and has used your suffering to discipline you as the child he loves and receives. Your suffering is not a random fate doled out by an unstable universe - your suffering has a purpose, guided by the sovereign hand of your loving Father. You can affirm his every morning mercies and all-day faithfulness in your life.

• Declaration 

It is good to quietly (without complaint or grumbling) bear up under one's suffering. It is important to remind ourselves that we are vessels in the potter’s hand. He is God and we are not; our lives are his. By bold declaration, may we carry this banner: in my suffering, may his will be done and may I trust in him increasingly. There is peace in placing our allegiance to his will and trusting him to do well in our lives.

• Anticipation

Hope has the power to bring joy into the pain of waiting. That is one reason hope is so powerful. We look forward to God’s deliverance from our present suffering - to his saving intervention in our lives. Are you suffering under the weight of unwanted responsibility? Does your pain come from the actions of a noisy neighbor? Maybe a boss is the cause of your heart’s angst. You can know that God will bring you out of your trial once he is done working the junk out of your life; you can anticipate this.

As you embrace these attitudes in the midst of your suffering, you will not only find the burden of your trial to be lighter, your living will also impact the lives of those around you. And you will find yourself walking the hall of faith with fellow Christians who have suffered well and honored God in their suffering.

And not only this, but the Lord has promised a reward for those who have suffered well, because in your suffering something beautiful is being built, a precious jewel is being formed, that will endure the fire and come forth shining as gold.

References

¹ 1 Peter 2:23 - When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

² Specifically citing Lamentations 2:20-3:33

³ Handbook on the Prophets, Robert B. Chisholm Jr., ©2002, Baker Publishing Group, Page 220