Joy in Suffering?
While driving Annie and her car home from school this week, we listened to a podcast by John Piper on Why God Wills Suffering for the Children He Loves. This presentation was given to a group of pastors and their wives in Hawaii back in 2014, and he focused his presentation on the connection of joy and suffering in Scripture. It was powerful, and I thought it would be well worth passing along some of the highlights, since suffering can tend to sideline us unless we keep God’s perspective in mind. If you’d like to listen to the entire 15-minute presentation, you can do so.
John Piper began by sharing he had gathered 21 texts of Scripture that specifically connected joy and suffering together. He then read 10 of the 21 texts:
“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Roman 5:3–4).
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” James 1:2–3).
“Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13).
“You had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property” (Hebrews 10:34).
“They left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor” (Acts 5:41).
“I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).
“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering [that means die] upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all” (Philippians 2:17).
“I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24).
“You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part” (2 Corinthians 8:1–2).
After reading these texts, he said, “The New Testament pervasively tells us to rejoice when we’re suffering, whether it’s persecution or whether it’s cancer. And the ground of that suffering clearly is not prosperity, or health, or wealth.” After referencing the Macedonian churches response of joy in the midst of their “severe test of affliction” (2 Corinthian 8:1–2), Pastor John cites “the grace of God” that was their source of joy. Then he said this to the pastors, “How are you helping your people not be happy in money, not be happy in health, not be happy in comforts, but be so happy in God that even if they lose all they’re coming to church with joy? All of your ministry is about how to have your people have a superior joy in Christ over pain and pleasure. The devil has only two weapons: pain and pleasure. He will either hurt you so bad you hate God, or he will give you so much pleasure you don’t need God. And the solution to both is the same: God is more precious than what I lose; God is more precious than what I gain. You can’t have me, Satan.”
He reminded us that “the joy of a Christian is not in circumstances, good or bad. The joy of a Christian is indestructible; it can’t be reached by humans because it’s in God—it’s in Christ. He is precious, He’s our treasure, and He can’t be taken away.”
He closed by sharing what people typically say about the experience of suffering in their life: “How many people have you ever heard say—I’ve never heard one, but you may have since you live here—‘I saw God most deeply and I experienced him most fully on the bright and sunniest days of my life’? But I hear everyone say, ‘I saw God most deeply, I experienced his resources most fully, on the worst days of my life.’”
WOW, no wonder we can have joy even in the midst of suffering. What we have in Christ is so rich, so profound, and so indestructible that suffering can’t ruin it, but only sharpen our hearts to enjoy our eternal treasure in Christ in ways we would have never known without a time of suffering.
Pastor Jeff
“When I look at myself, I don’t see how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ, I don’t see how I can be lost.
”