An excerpt from the book, The One Year Book of Encouragement, by Harold Myra.

Why Suffer?

Francois Fenelon asks, “Do you wonder why God has to make it so hard on you? Why doesn’t he make you good without making you miserable in the meantime?”

Whatever our view of God’s role in our suffering, we’ve all wondered why it has to be so sever. Fenelon brings us comfort and insight: “I am aware by what suffering can produce. I agonize and cry when the cross is working within me, but when it is over I look back in admiration for what God has accomplished.”

Then he gets even more personal and admits, “I am then ashamed that I bore it so poorly, I have learned so much from my foolish reactions.”

Here was a man well known for his wise responses in the heat of national upheaval in France. He was a remarkable leader, yet he was always looking deep beneath surface.

“You yourself must endure the painful process of change,” he writes in a letter. “God uses your disappointments, disillusionments, and failures to take your trust away from yourself and help you put your trust in him.”

That’s easier said than done in the muck and mire of our daily troubles! Yet if we believe God is at work, we gain perspective. Spiritual maturity often increases in the midst of pain and suffering, but seldom in the sunny day of success.

What, indeed, is God up to? When we find ourselves trapped by health or job problems or inner distress, how do we find spiritual maturity? Francois Fenelon promises, “Slowly you will learn that your troubles are really cures to the poison of your old nature.”

He also encourages with this counsel: “Accept the cross and you will find peace even in the middle of turmoil.”

Heavenly Father, suffering may do awesome things – but your know I cringe at suffering. Help me to respond with courage. Empower me to accept change as an opportunity to grow.

My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees. Your instructions are more valuable to me that millions in gold and silver.
Psalm 119:71-72, NLT