Encouragement in the Midst of Suffering (Part 1)
First Peter 4:12-19 is a passage designed to encourage believers in the midst of suffering. It is one I have read carefully, and it has encouraged me through nearly 5 years of painful and debilitating pancreatic cancer. I hope and pray it lifts up your spirit with divine truth, as you or one of your loved ones suffers.
Suffering Brings Insights
Our family has been put through the crucible of elevated suffering for the past 14 months as the cancer in my body spread and got worse. Cancer in the bones, they say, is one of the most painful. I don’t doubt it. I have cried out many times in anguish, been on multiple, strong pain killers, and at times had my thoughts become dark due to the relentless pain. Physically I went from being able to jog lightly in the spring to barely moving around in bed by fall. Currently a tumor infringes a nerve in my back bones, so my right arm has lost almost all its strength and coordination. I have gone from 154 lbs. to 99 lbs., and, if you saw me at the point of writing this, you would know I have no more to lose.
My wife, grown children, and even my elderly mom, before she passed recently, have felt the trial as they have walked the path of suffering with me. Through this suffering I learned that I am not a strong man. I am weak. Very weak. Without God’s word keeping me close, without the strengthening of the body of Christ and their prayers, and without my constantly watchful, caring family, I would not make it! But God provided exactly what I needed to get me through and to stay focused on glorifying Christ.
My suffering has given me more insights about how to minister to others who suffer.
Thinking About Suffering Rightly
The experience of people who suffer can be an encouragement to other believers to prepare them for suffering. The main way to prepare for suffering is to make sure you are thinking about suffering from God’s perspective and not the world’s or your own faulty expectations. Mental and spiritual preparation is key. If you don’t think about suffering rightly, inevitably you will doubt God’s individual care for you, and you will likely struggle in your faith. You might even walk away from the Christian faith altogether. It has happened before.
Strangely, though, suffering is an opportunity, not to jettison your faith, but to understand it better and then grow deeper as a believer. Dr. John Piper in a booklet he wrote urged believers, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” He is right. Cancer and other forms of physical suffering can draw you much closer to God. A lot of it is wrapped up in how you think about your suffering.
I believe that is in part what 1 Peter 4:12-19 teaches us. This Scripture helps us think rightly about suffering and respond correctly to it. Just read its insightful words.
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”
Prepare for Suffering
The Christians to whom Peter was writing in the first century were living in a society where their faith was routinely ridiculed. This sounds a little bit like our society today. Christianity was not yet under official persecution from the Roman state. The persecution was mostly social and verbal. In this letter, Peter gives a few glimpses of the kind of suffering they endured. In 1:6 Peter calls the difficulties they were facing, “various trials.” There were a variety of sources to their suffering. No doubt poverty and sicknesses were part of their suffering. In 2:12 it says unbelievers were slandering Christians. Insults were being hurled at Christians, according to 3:9. Intimidation was also going on, according to 3:14. And 3:16 mentions more of the same things.
Because of all this suffering, Peter calls Christians to prepare for suffering in 4:1. He writes, “Arm yourselves for the purpose of suffering as Christ suffered.” Later, 5:9 reveals that the same suffering was going on throughout the Roman world. It wasn’t full blown persecution — yet. They were NOT being thrown to the lions. Nevertheless, their suffering was real, and the winds of more violent persecution were already blowing. Peter wrote this letter to encourage and strengthen them to face hard times. The letter urges believers to put their hope in the future when Jesus is revealed in glory.
8 Encouragements About Suffering
As I studied and preached this passage, I found 8 encouragements about suffering for Christ’s sake. Peter means them mostly for Christians who will be persecuted for their faith. But not all suffering Christians face is persecution. Peter and James and other Scripture authors acknowledge there are many sources of our suffering in this fallen world. I don’t know what suffering you are facing, but I would like to teach these encouragements to you in hopes to strengthen you in the midst of your trials, however strong they are and however long they may last.
Encouragement #1: Suffering Does NOT mean God does NOT love Us — v. 12
God is still with us when we suffer. God is still working His purposes when we suffer. Because of God’s love, be assured everything will work out to the benefit of Christians in the end. When you feel the sting of persecution or other kinds of suffering, don’t think you have been forgotten on high. Don’t think God’s disfavor has fallen upon you. No! As v. 12 states you are “Beloved.” You are “Loved Ones.” “Dear Ones.” 3:12 confirms God’s posture and attitude toward believers, “For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer.” God is actively caring for believers in His Son. Each believer is individually loved by God.
No matter what you may feel as you suffer, you must hold on to the promises of God in the Bible. Indeed, I felt abandoned by God particularly on two overwhelming days. I had never experienced something as dire as that before in my spirit. In the depths of my being, I felt no help was coming! No answers to prayer were around the corner! No relief was on its way. My feelings were deceiving me. They were plunging me into despair. I had to take my mind back to the Bible. The Bible says God is constantly working to our benefit! I had to affirm that truth out loud, because my faith is not a feeling but based on the facts of the gospel of Jesus.
The proof of God’s incredible love is already inscribed in this letter. 1 Peter 2:24 states, “(Jesus) Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” Jesus will not abandon me or you, because Jesus already laid His life down for us in love. He was whipped, beaten, and crucified, and, yes, reviled. Why? to bring us mercifully and safely to the eternal God. Indeed, 2:25 assures us Jesus is “The Shepherd and Guardian of our souls.” The Good shepherd does NOT abandon His sheep when suffering arises.
Encouragement #2: Suffering Should Be Expected — v. 12
We are told NOT to be surprised by persecution. The true church will always be opposed. Jesus said something similar in John 15:20, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” We must remember, we live in a Christ-hating and Christ-rejecting world. Jesus is “the stone which the builders rejected,” it warns back in 2:7. And you represent Jesus to the same sinful, proud, and lustful world. The world today does not love light any more than when it killed Jesus, The Light of the World, 2000 years ago. John 3:19 states, “… men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” But you are “light in the Lord,” according to Ephesians 5:8. So, you’re too bright for their sinful desires to flourish around. That is why they will try to shut you up. Persecution and other forms of tribulation are to be expected.
This is also true of other kinds of trials. Personally, I was never expecting Pancreatic Cancer, but James 1:2 points out that we all “encounter various trials.” That word “encounter” means to fall into and be surrounded by trials. That’s what happened to me. That will likely happen to you also at some time. Don’t be surprised when it happens. Life is not happy-go-lucky. It is not meant to be smooth sailing. If you have that expectation, you are going to have a tougher time when a trial hits you hard.
Expect suffering, and you will fair better when it arrives.
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(In the next post, I will share encouragements 3-6.)