The Blessing Hidden in Suffering: A Faith-Based Perspective
- My Art of Vision
- Sep 6
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 8
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The Privilege of Suffering
I’ve recently been watching an animated series called Heroes of the Faith. The show highlights pioneers, martyrs, and missionaries of the faith. Notably, they all sacrificed or suffered somehow for their faith.
The other night, I was watching Richard Wurmbrand's story. As a Pastor in Romania, he expressed that "suffering for Christ was a privilege, not a burden."
He said:
"Faith, that can be destroyed by suffering, is not faith."
If you read his story, you will know he endured harsh suffering under a communist government and harsh imprisonment. He believed that suffering allowed him and others to share in Christ's experience and to receive blessings from God because of it.
How Do We Look In The Face of Suffering
As believers, we are taught—on this side of the world—of a prosperous God and that we should not have trouble or hardship. Since watching Heroes of the Faith, I’ve witnessed people who found the Word of God to be such a treasure to share, suffer for, or even die for—and great joy fills their hearts in this belief.
During this season of my life, I realized there were agnostic tendencies that came up in my hardship. I acted as if I had no God and that I was an orphan child—forgotten. As believers, we may do the same and look like the world in suffering, as if we have no hope in Jesus.
Difficulty, adversity, and suffering will come—but as believers, we must learn to persevere and suffer well. Listen to what Paul says to the Church at Colossae:
Colossians 1:24-25 MSG I want you to know how glad I am that it's me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.
Listen to what Paul has laid out for us. He acknowledged that the world offers suffering and it reproduces more. However, his attitude welcomes it as a gift. Paul recognizes his call to the Church is as a servant that will suffer.
Suffering Is A Gift That Shapes Your Character
Psalms 119:71-72, MSG My troubles turned out all for the best— they forced me to learn from your textbook. Truth from your mouth means more to me than striking it rich in a gold mine
David stated it was good for him to be afflicted. He found the good in his suffering, thus forcing him to learn about God and draw closer to Him. He received newfound value in God's Word over worldly possessions.
Galatians 5:22-23 KJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Longsuffering is a gift from God to us—aside from just endurance in hardship. Longsuffering is not 'that' you'll suffer, but 'how'. How you show restraint, patience, mercy, and calmness in the face of adversaries and adversity. In Greek, it translates as long-tempered. It is the ability to suffer well.
Suffering Teaches Why Not Me
Job 2:9-10 NIV His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
When suffering hits, we automatically believe this idea of "Why me?" We never seem to say, "Why not me?" Why shouldn't it be you or I? What disqualifies us from experiencing suffering? Trust me, I don’t like it, but God uses suffering to reveal what we may not know is in us.
Job was wise enough to know that God can give both good and trouble, and he was willing to accept it even in the turmoil he faced. It didn’t mean he didn’t experience the pain and emotions associated with suffering—he just refused to sin in the face of it.
Suffering Builds Patience
Romans 12:12 NIV Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
The reality of suffering is that there is an end date. However, no one knows that date. Therefore, all we can do is be patient. This patience isn't passive. We are asked to have joy in the hope we desire and to be faithful in continual prayer as well. This is an act of perseverance—no matter what.
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Our faith as believers is that trouble won't last always.
Suffering Has Meaning
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Suffering is the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. There is nothing sweet about it. No one wants to experience loss of any kind, catastrophes, or calamities. We are human, and experiencing this can make some feel abandoned by God.
It makes you wonder—where is He, and why hasn’t the storm lifted yet? So how can our suffering have meaning?
2 Corinthians 4:17 KJV our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
We view suffering as something to escape.
However, this Scripture reminds us that it’s all working for us and is not wasted.
Romans 8:28 tells us that God is working it all out for our good. In His sovereignty He finds place for things in our life to have purpose. God doesn’t choose suffering for us—it’s a by-product of the human experience. Therefore, the hardest truth is that some things have to be endured no matter what. But God provides hope that He will see us through.
💬Final Thoughts:
Suffering is a faith builder. As Paul spoke in other passages, it forced him to rely less on himself and more on God (2 Corinthians 1:9). He even boasted in later passages in weakness because he knew God’s strength would show forth where he ran low. (2 Corinthians 12:9-11).
Just like a car, when the gas light shows it is empty but still has reserves to reach a gas station—we also have a great God who is even greater in us when we run low trying to keep it together.
Let us learn to see Christ even more glorious in our suffering. Christ didn't come to take every affliction away but to be a friend to us—to say, "Me too. I understand, and I will be with you through it."
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