Christians aren’t the only people to think about how to suffer well. Virtually every religious teacher and every ethical teacher has provided ideas about how to suffer well. As I’ve listened to them, their consensus is that suffering is not always bad and that changing our perspective on suffering can help us suffer well. I believe that these teachers provide many helpful ideas. I’ve listed a few of them here. However, I think the greatest resource for suffering well is God Himself.
When I say God, I am speaking specifically about the Christian God. I don’t mean that more general conceptions of God do not help people. I simply mean that the way that God has revealed Himself in the Bible provides the greatest help and assurance in our suffering. It has the potential to enable us to suffer well in a way that no other resource can.
It is particularly the revelation of the faithfulness of God that helps us suffer well (see 1 Pet. 4:19). God’s faithfulness involves His commitment to continue the work of creation. He might have ended it, or He might have saved it. The revelation of God in the Bible teaches us that He is not through with it. He will continue it, and He continues to do good to people throughout the world, in spite of what we deserve.
For the believer, we have even greater assurance of God’s faithfulness. We are His people, bought with the blood of His Son, and a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. We can be totally confident that He will continue to do us good, even though we don’t deserve it. He only asks that we accept that this comes through Jesus Christ, the revelation of God in human form, with a believing heart.
Because God is determined to continue to do us good, we should believe it and live in light of the truth of God’s faithfulness. The great obstacle to believing that God is faithful is the suffering we experience. That’s why God so regularly and often reminds us that suffering is part of life. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Pet. 4:12). This suffering is a seeming challenge to the faithfulness of God. It is a test of our faith.
When we suffer, it’s easy to think that it will go on forever. As suffering Christians, however, we have the opportunity to exercise our faith, believing that suffering does not go on forever, believing that blessing is our destiny. God’s faithfulness means that He will continue to do us good and will deliver us from our suffering. “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Pet. 5:10).
Once we do this, we can see God’s love for us shining through the dark clouds of our suffering. This enables us to experience the faithfulness of God in His continuing aid to us during our suffering. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Even in our suffering, we experience the faithfulness of God as He comforts us, cares for us, and assures us of the future.
Who else can have this assurance that our best days are ahead of us? This is the assurance of the Christian in the faithfulness of God, and it is our greatest resource in the midst of suffering.