One of the biggest lessons from the journey we have been on the last couple years has been this: Suffering and pain is the path to look more like Jesus.
Ill be honest I am not totally sure why this is God’s chosen path to producing character and fruitfulness that can remain in our lives but we see this theme all throughout scripture starting from the very first book written which was interestingly enough not Genesis but rather the book of Job. As we look at the life of Job we find several painful but all still important truths about suffering starting in chapter one when God tests Job’s faithfulness through allowing satan to attack him. Thats right God ALLOWED satan to attack Job who was a God fearing and righteous man which begs the question what if God allows and even encourages testing through trials, loss, pain, and suffering?
As we read on its also interesting that many of Job’s friends and family even his own wife provide him with some pretty horrible advice even telling him to curse God and commit suicide. God’s response to all of this is almost humorous as he asks Job knowing of all this terrible council “Who is this who darkens council by words without knowledge?” and He goes on “Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this?” Its clear God is making a point as if to say “people stop trying to create answers to problems I'm not trying to solve and solutions to things you clearly don’t and cannot understand.”
The truth is our nature as humans is to avoid pain and pursue comfort. Its for this reason that we often find ourselves developing mindsets, beliefs, and patterns that not only insulate us from pain but validate our comfort systems. This reality is often so deep that not only do we reject suffering in our own lives but we try to insulate those around us from that same pain or sufferingbecause we do not fully understand what God is doing and we most certainly don't recognize that this is often Gods chosen path for us. Learning to embrace deep suffering is vital to the development of character in our lives. We all want miracles instead of pain but miracles don't produce character suffering does. Look at what Paul tells us in Romans 5:
“we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame”
This is the shift in perspective that will give us a voice and vision beyond our circumstance becoming kingdom minded unmoved and unshaken in all seasons of life. Miracles produce faith in our lives but suffering produces character and gives us an authority to become messengers of hope to countless others who might still be in the wilderness of their trial. Gods perspective is always bigger than ours and thats why we are branches while He is the vinedresser. We are concerned with the fruitfulness of our branches while He is concerned with the greater harvest of fruit in the vineyard.
If our chief objective in this life is not to have the greatest testimony or miracle but rather to look more like Jesus then our desire must become to “fellowship in His sufferings”. This is how we begin to look like him and the only way that we don't become trapped in a cycle of having fullness but lacking true transformational power which seems to be a theme in The Church today. I am aware that faith for miracles is an equally important discipline that we must cultivate in our lives however I find that often when our prayers go unanswered we begin to develop theology and language to justify or validate what we don't understand instead of realizing that what we get through suffering is far greater than what we would have gotten through a miracle. Job could have been rescued from pain but in the end he left with twice as much as he started with. Its this revelation that will allow us to rejoice in our suffering and give us endurance to press in harder understanding that our lack of breakthrough today may very well be what gives us the authority to become a voice of breakthrough for thousands of others as it is an invitation to look more like Him.
So be encouraged. You are not alone. God is not punishing you He is simply developing something inside of you that will bear fruit called “hope” that many others will be able to eat of because you endured trial and didn't give up even when you didn't get your miracle and now instead you have become the miracle.
Micheal Miller
@michealgmiller