Just know this: many people don’t “need God” (which more so means – “their wanting in their own mind” – since we all need God to live), until they do need God.
When you were at your lowest, did you ever cry out to God in agony and apathy?
When someone in your family commits suicide, how do you make sense of that?
When the exact opposite of your life plan unfolds, do you get frustrated?
All these experiences can create pain in the heart of the unbeliever and the believer of Christ.
Then, suffering can abound.
That is, unneeded suffering, or suffering that stems from the desires of one’s heart.
You know what due suffering is appreciated though? Suffering for God’s sake. (ref: Phil 3:10-11)
See, any experience that shocks your mind and heart like the clap of a thunderstorm, are opportunities for the doorway of the Lord to be entered into. Those doorways are all provided by God Himself, through many different ways, such as: nature, other people, random occurences, realizations in our own mind gifted by God, etc… All for the purpose of understanding Him and Loving Him more.
Even further, think about the Ultimate sacrifice and suffering from the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. He experienced the greatest suffering ever. Yet, it’s through that exact suffering of his sacrificial moment of dying on the cross that all people are led to Him.
It’s through His suffering that we understand Him further, are accepted by His Father who is in Heaven (ref: John 14:6), and are most importantly able to live.
Jesus is the Provider of Life through the taking of His very own.
Thus, and similarly, it’s through our own suffering that we then go onto that same path. Like a taking up and carrying of our own cross, of sorts. (ref: Matthew 16:24-26)
Little do we know this in our daily lives.
Little do we know that we are suffering everyday.
Yet, it’s the belief in Jesus Christ that truly saves us.
Just as Phillipians 3:10-11 says, “I want to suffer with him, experiencing in His death. So that, somehow, I may experience the resurrection from the dead.”
Through said suffering of one’s own, we experience Jesus – only if we’re able to see such a cathartic opportunity each time we suffer from a painful occurence.
Even better, if we suffer to spread the Kingdom of God here on earth, we are in due alignment with Jesus Christ. We are closer than ever to Him through the Holy Spirit – in that case.
So, whether it’s an individual who abanoned the faith that comes back to Christ after a heartbreak, life-threatening experience, or any other painful moment, he/she is still led back to Jesus because an experience of suffering happened.
Same goes with an individual who is with the faith that has been focusing on Christ when going through a trial, doing mission work in a jungle in Asia, or elsewhere, because he/she is led back to the exact thought of his/her initial intention of their specific actions:
“Why am I doing this? What’s the point of it all?”
Of course, it is always for Jesus.
That answer then makes said person stronger, since they are doing it for the grandest of purposes.
Such an affirming statement is re-affirming.
It’s Strength provided by God (Phil 4:13),
for the purpose of persevering,
for the suffering of God’s Glory.
(Read that above point once more, yet slowly, so that it doesn’t pass over you)
I say all of what I say about suffering because I’ve seen it first hand in my own life.
I’ve experienced relational heartbreak, in which my heart was only repaired when I turned to God for help. I was struggling to come to grips with the void in my heart from not having the woman I truly cared about in my life. Then, God delivered me from that through His Love and Comfort in Him.
Like a father coddling it’s child.
In my own life, I’ve lost many people close to me and my lack of understanding of their passing was only answered through the submission to God’s Will.
In letting go of my control to understand it all, I was able to trust in God because His Works are perfect.
That’s how great God is. He does things that we don’t always understand, yet for such a deep benefit – for Himself and for us (if we’re able to see it as so).
I say all of this because I’ve seen first hand how suffering has benefitted others lives.
Just as I experienced heartbreak, deaths of the people closest to me, and unique adversities, so have others.
I’ve talked with many people on this point and each one always shares how a moment of turmoil in their family brought them closer together or how a death of a fellow family member of theirs eventually led them to seeing their own sin and temporalness.
Thus, allowing them the gateway into seeing the beauty of God and extinguishing of their apathy unto and by Him alone (apathy simply means: being tired of being tired).
As it goes in Phil 4:19, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His Glory in Christ Jesus.”
I say all of this because it’s the Truth laid out in the Word of God – The Bible.
There is no denying it.
I say all of this because if it weren’t right, we would all be able to change course in our habits and in our life by our own doing, whenever we want.
We would all be able to address our own insecurities in a moments notice.
We would all be able to accomplish whatever we want, whenever we want.
Does that happen? No. So, the Truth is the truth.
Suffering is necessary and is the gateway to understanding God further – as He was the ultimate example of that through His Son Jesus.
Just as we are made in the image of God, so is everything else here on earth. The creations come from the Creator.
So, as a tree must endure seasons and shed leaves in order to grow;
as a caterpillar must use its cocoon and chrysalis to transform into a new creature – a butterfly;
or a mother can only bear a child through a painful birthing process;
it is all a small representation of suffering – the Ultimate suffering – in which God sacrificed Himself through His Son Jesus Christ in order to save all souls here on earth – that come unto Jesus Christ thus unto Him, that is.
