Why Affliction and Suffering Are Part of God’s Plan

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Why does God allow us to go through suffering and affliction? It’s actually part of God’s plan.

Affliction Was Good

Why does God allow us to go through suffering and affliction? It’s actually part of God’s plan, but no one I know would come up to me and say, “Hey, I was afflicted the other day, and it was good!” No, we try to avoid such things, but the Psalmist sees the good in affliction, saying, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). He thought it was good to be afflicted because during his affliction, he returned to the Scriptures. In fact, he learned more of God’s statutes in his affliction than when things were going well, so the result of his affliction was positive, even if he didn’t feel like it at the time.

Before I Strayed

The lesson is not complete about afflictions because the Psalmist had said earlier, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” (Psalm 119:67). He admits he went astray before afflictions came…and so do I. We all do, like sheep we are prone to wander from the Shepherd, but since he was afflicted by situations or circumstances, he now obeyed or kept God’s Word more stringently. If he had not been afflicted, he would possibly be living in disobedience and not be keeping God’s word. In his afflictions, he’d be learning more about God’s ways (statutes). If afflictions or suffering help us obey and learn His Word better, then it would have been more than worth it.

They Humble Us

I don’t have to try to convince you that being afflicted can really humble you. Sometimes the word affliction is used synonymous with fasting, and when the saints in the Bible met challenges they couldn’t overcome, they fasted. Today, people still fast like when they’ve lost a loved one. When you’re afflicted, you don’t even feel like eating, but affliction keeps us humble and we know God’s grace flows downhill, to the lowly, meek, and humble (James 4:6).

Only Shadows

We know that afflictions are good for us, even though they don’t feel like it; we know that they humble us. These afflictions can be temporary, although that may not feel helpful at the time, but truly afflictions are all working together for our good. We have God’s promise on that. If we look at afflictions as being used by God, our perspective on afflictions will change. Whatever comes our way is for our very best (Rom 8:28). We have God’s promise on that. What we are going through today cannot be compared with what’s coming to us in the eternal Kingdom (Rom 8:18), so we can truly say, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4). A shadow is not as bad as what is casting the shadow. I would rather get hit by a bus’s shadow than the actual bus.

Clay Vessels

I once heard about a man who said that we are not meant to solve problems; problems are meant to solve us. Trying to solve problems that have no human solution is like Jacob wrestling with God…you can’t win. Look at problems as opportunities to grow and not as obstacles or roadblocks. Besides, a good roadblock could save your life. Clay vessels that resist the potter’s hands with the washing of the water of the Word (Eph 5:26) will eventually turn hard and brittle and begin to crack, and once it’s cracked, it begins to leak. It’s hard to be filled with the Spirit when you have a leaky vessel. Pray that we don’t become a “crack pot!” Humility will guard against that happening.

The Rock and the Hammer

When people rush into situations and try to solve people’s problems, they might actually be interfering with what God is trying to do in that person’s life. Besides, there is the risk of enabling someone by providing for their needs and then they have no incentive to seek out God in prayer. Maybe God’s trying to humble them. I’m not saying don’t pray for them or help them, but God allows problems to bring people to Christ or back to Him in repentance. We never want to get in between the rock and the hammer because God may be trying to soften their hearts to bring them to repentance and faith in Christ or to discipline them as He does all His children (Heb 12:6). If He brings them to an end of their own selves, how bad is that if they trust in Christ? Problems can be tools in the hands of a sovereign God, but we’ve got to be sure not to get in God’s way in trying to reach others.

Strength Through Weakness

God doesn’t waste anything in our life. Whatever happens, happens for our ultimate good (Rom 8:28), even if it doesn’t look like it. God will use life’s experiences to shape us, mold us, and conform us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. The final product we should desire is to be more like Christ! I want to be pliable in the hands of the Living God and not resist His work in me. How about you?

The Apostle Paul knew that God had told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…” (2 Cor 12:9-10). That kept Paul humble. So why did God allow the Apostle Paul to suffer so much? The same reason other people do. It was to keep him humble. It’s hard to be prideful when you’re hurting. It’s hard to boast or brag when you are suffering, so Paul writes that it was “to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited” (2 Cor 12:7).

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles by Valentin de Boulogne (public domain).

Revealing God’s Power

When we are weak, God is more able to display His power, but if we’re trying to go through things on our own power, then God’s power cannot be openly displayed. This explains why Paul wrote, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:9b). Christ’s power cannot rest upon us if we’re not glad in our weaknesses or if try to get through life alone by our own strength. It is only when our weaknesses are displayed that God’s power is clearly seen.

Learning Contentment

When we are weak, ironically, we can be strong, but only because Christ will strengthen us, but we also have a chance to learn something important in our weaknesses and that is we can learn to be content in all circumstances. Paul wrote that it was “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10), and “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim 6:6).

Dependent Upon God

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When you are weakened by health problems, a potential serious diagnosis, financial troubles, or relationship issues, we more often than not run to the Father and seek His supernatural strength and help. If we never had any problems, why would we ever need God, so our weaknesses are actually good because they force us to depend on God? The Bible teaches us that our weaknesses can keep us humble, and they also display God’s power much more clearly to others, and these weaknesses keep us dependent upon God. These same weaknesses present us with an opportunity to learn contentment, and you can’t learn contentment without experiencing weaknesses or difficulties. Trials can knock us down but we don’t stay down.

Conclusion

I pray you’ve been brought to repentance and faith in Christ. If not, you are in perilous times because after death, you will be judged immediately (Heb 9:27), and if still living when Christ returns, the final judgment will come swift and suddenly (Dan 12:2-3; Rev 1:7, 20:12-15) with no chance to repent for it will be too late. Today is the day to trust in Christ. Tomorrow may not come or Christ may come back this very day and your fate is forever sealed.

Here is some related reading for you: How Tests, Trials and Tribulations Make us More Like Christ

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: pain, Suffering, Temptations, Tests, Trials