A Holy Intent For Suffering

 My eyes fall on a certain passage of Scripture and it's as if the whole thing has suddenly become clear in this moment. And I can't get my gaze off these two verses because I see that the answer to all this struggling, praying, hoping lies right here in these precious words. The Word always is right. 

Briefly, I stop listening to the sermon and fix my attention on the profound meaning behind what I've just read. While the pastor continues to preach on, I refuse to let go of the truth that's suddenly just become alive and more meaningful than ever before. And I feel the Lord Jesus a bit closer in this holy place. 

As Christ made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and began to look toward His impending suffering and eventual death on the cross, He gives His disciples a deep insight into His human yet divine feelings on what is to come. He tells them that the real abundant life comes in the dying. That, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" and that "whoever loses his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" and will be honored by His heavenly Father (John 12: 24-26). 

But then He goes even further...and here I find the hope I've been seeking:

"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 

'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this 

purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name."

(John 12:27-28)

And somehow I just now realize that the pattern for how to suffer well was established by the Lord Jesus himself. His heart was troubled as He drew nearer to the time of His ultimate sacrifice. And don't we know a troubled heart, too? 

But then He shows us what to do with an aching heart. He shows us that the question really isn't how can we best be spared from our pain but rather, how to discover our purpose in the midst of the pain. Because He never afflicts unnecessarily. And His plans are always good, even when they appear most ugly. 

And it dawns on me that our greatest moments of tragedy and soul-splitting hurt are never without a heavenly intent. And God always brings us to the season of our adversity with a purpose in mind. And the heart-cry He is most looking for and is pleased best by is the one He uttered Himself: 

"Father, glorify your name."

When the glory of God becomes your aim, somehow all suffering takes on a hopeful outcome. You seek a different way through the valleys of your life. Because you no longer ask to be saved from your hurts, but you ask to be saved from your own unbelief. You ask to make much of Jesus in the midst of your pain. Because you're more concerned with His glory than your own comfort. And in this, the soul surrenders its need to know, it's need to control. 

Throughout His journey to the cross, Christ asked multiple times for the cup of suffering to pass by Him. He pled with His Father for another way but ultimately had to submit to the reality that there was no other way. There was no way around the suffering. The only way was through it. And just maybe we need to acknowledge the same with our own? 

Perhaps, in the midst of our trials - be they sickness, death, addiction, depression, anxiety, financial loss, unemployment, or a host of other scenarios - perhaps, in asking God to turn around our situation we've failed to ask Him the most important thing: glorify Your name. Because this life isn't about us anyway. And we're only participants in His story. 

And because He's the true Author, just maybe we're requesting Him to write a certain storyline that He knows isn't fitting to the eventual outcome. And we actually do know the ending to the story because God's told us that He ultimately wins and that one day, everything sad will come untrue. But in this moment of our deepest struggle, maybe we've lost sight of that fact and are asking amiss as a result. 

The secret to walking well through your adversity isn't to ask God to take it away so you'll be happy but rather to keep you there as long as is necessary to refine, re-shape, renew, redeem, and restore you. Because He's after resurrection in all of us. And His glory is more important than your personal comfort. 

The question is, am I willing to keep letting God do whatever it takes to bring about this holy intent for my suffering? I say, let Him put my heart through the fire. He's promised I won't be burned. I may feel the heat, but the only thing I'll lose is what doesn't belong in my life anyway. This struggle will only make me stronger. But I have to keep reminding myself that I will be changed. That all of this is for good. That, in the end, I win because He's won for me already on the cross. And somehow, that should give me faith to endure.