Selected for Suffering – Sarah Saenz

 

   About a year ago, I was singing in our church choir one Sunday morning. It was a beautiful morning and I was so satisfied to be in the house of the Lord proclaiming God’s praises with God’s people. Pastor Lee came to the podium and made an announcement. A much-loved gentleman in our church had just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The pastor made his solemn announcement and asked us all to lay hands on the gentlemen and his wife for prayer. The news came as a shock to me and I struggled to control my emotions. This gentleman wasn’t just another member, he was my friend and special to me. He and his son had taught us how to faithfully share the Gospel in love and in truth in a wonderful teaching series. He showed us what it meant to evangelize by love and gentleness. Many a time had he edified me in my own walk with Christ. To hear of his diagnosis was heart-wrenching. I cried out to the Lord in my spirit, “No, Lord! Why him? I don’t want him to be sick! Please, Lord, no!” 

 

   The tears began to flow in earnest. I mopped at them, embarrassed. I lifted my hands heavenward and received an unexpected response. “I chose him for this. He has been selected to suffer in this way. He’s anointed for it.” 

 

   “Lord? What? How?” I was shocked at this response. I didn’t understand, how can anyone be chosen to suffer chronically like this? But the word was unmistakable, I knew what the Lord had said. Later, I prayed over my friend and shared with him what the Lord had told me. I cried telling him. I knew he was sick, I mourned the diagnosis, but I had witnessed for myself God’s sovereignty and I wasn’t about to underestimate Him. Jesus had given me a special gift that morning: the hope of understanding. If my friend was selected to suffer for Christ in this way, then the Lord was near to him. Somehow, this would be a victory….

 

   In the coming months, my friend would go on to share the Gospel and living hope of Christ in Parkinson’s support groups, nursing homes, with strangers and family members alike. That same diagnosis that I had so resented had become a springboard for him to share the great hope he has in Jesus with the hopeless and depleted in spirit. 

 

   It was as God had spoken to me, he HAD been chosen to suffer for the advancement of the Kingdom and he was anointed to do it. Even in facing sickness himself.

 

   It seems so contrary to our human way of thinking, to imagine that someone who loves us would allow us to suffer a chronic or terminal disease. But we so easily forget — Christ is unlike anyone else. Not only is He fully acquainted with our suffering (Isaiah 53), He also has the sufficiently to sustain us every moment of it. 

 

   But what is the purpose in the suffering? 

 

  We have only to look at another man’s story, Job’s, to see a fully rendered picture of human suffering. Job, who was a prosperous man, with thousands of animals, a large household staff, ten children, who enjoyed great respect in his community. But what we remember best about his story is Satan’s petitions and schemes for his destruction. We hold to that remembrance with such ferocity that we forget chapter one, verses 7-8, 

 

  ““The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming around on the earth and from walking around on it. The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered and reflected on My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God [with reverence] and abstains from and turns away from evil [because he honors God].”” 

 

   Did you catch that? It was the Lord who first mentioned Job, “have you considered … My servant Job?” Satan had not first suggested Job, the idea originally came from the Lord! Take notice of how the Lord regards Job, “My servant Job,” “one who fears God,” “there is none like him.” The Lord was not angry or displeased with him. Rather, He spoke of him with fatherly pride and affection. He loved Job, and so He suggested him for suffering. 

 

   Because the Lord is all-knowing, I think it is safe to infer that God knew what Satan’s rapturous plans of destruction would be. God’s obvious affection had insured that response. It must have been an irresistible challenge to Satan, to break Job’s faith and cause God to suffer over His loss. 

 

  But God knew His servant Job. God knew that, when pressed, what would come out of Job: new wine. (Matt 9:17) Job’s trials were never a punishment from God because of Job’s sins, but something God had chosen him to endure. 

 

  Towards the end of the book, after Job has suffered loss upon pain, poured out all of his grief, and thoroughly expressed his suffering, something incredible happened: the Lord Himself spoke to Job (Chapters 38 – 42). And in that moment we see what the purpose of suffering really is. He speaks to Job of the mysteries and glories of Creation, of who He has been since before time, and of how He patterned all of Creation. Though Job’s sufferings had been great, this had been its purpose: to know God to a greater depth. The suffering had just been the vehicle that had brought Job to the place of hearing. 

 

Job’s humbled response, 

““Therefore [I now see] I have [rashly] uttered that which I did not understand, 

Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 

‘Hear, please, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct [and answer] me.’ 

I had heard of You [only] by the hearing of the ear, 

But now my [spiritual] eye sees You.””

Job 42:4-5 AMP

 

Job had loved and followed the Lord in prosperity and health, but now he loved Him in grief and sickness. Now Job had tasted AND seen the goodness of God, he had learned that in his suffering. 

 

   If you feel like this yourself, if you feel like you are in a season of suffering and you don’t understand why this is happening, consider my friend and consider Job. And count it all joy. You have been selected to know the Lord in a deeper and more intimate way. You are not forsaken but are more loved now than before. Look for His purpose in your suffering, trust that His will is good. Remember Job’s words to his wife, covered in sores, mourning his children, having lost all his wealth, 

 

“Shall we indeed accept [only] good from God and not [also] accept adversity and disaster?”

Job 2:10 AMP