But Why Me God? / subject: suffering

Scripture: Isaiah 53: 10,11 -- "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied... "

Observation: The above verses are a prophecy about Jesus. Though we all know that Jesus suffered and died for our sins, I don't think we really consider these verses and their implications for us very deeply. How do these verses apply to our own suffering? Is it ever God's will to crush us and cause us to suffer, as it clearly states here was Father God's intention for Jesus? If the answer is yes, then what is the purpose for our suffering and how should we respond to it? We know the purpose for Jesus' suffering; it was for our healing, forgiveness, and restoration to relationship with God. Rarely do we know the reason for our own suffering. Can we take some lessons from the life of our Lord when it comes to responding to suffering? Notice that in these verses the after-effects of suffering are good. Jesus is said to "see his offspring"(that's us) and "see the light of life and be satisfied". He also has the promise of having the will of the Lord prosper in his hand --- all due to suffering.

Application: Jesus told us that the student isn't greater than the master; If He suffered persecution, we would too. IITim. 3:12 reiterates this, stating that "all who live godly shall suffer persecution". Why, then, are we surprised when we suffer? And what does the Word tell us about how we should respond? First, I would like to say that there are 2 reasons we suffer: We suffer for our own sin and we also suffer for righteousness' sake. The first is a reaping of the disobedience we have sown in our lives. Yet I'm amazed at how some Christians get angry with God when they endure this kind of suffering. I once talked to a young mother whose baby was born with birth defects and she was very angry with God, even though she had been taking drugs and smoking when she got pregnant. Her response reminded me of the verse in Prov. 19:3 which says, "A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord". We really have no right to complain if we willfully sin and then reap a bad harvest. By God's grace we often don't reap all the "bad harvests" we have sown, but we should not expect God to stop them all. Obedience would hold no reward if He did. The other kind of suffering is more difficult for us to understand. I, myself, like most Christians, have gotten caught up in the "Why me?" syndrome when I've obeyed God and yet have suffered. But the word tells us we will go through this. James tells us to "count it all joy" when we suffer for righteousness sake". Rom. 12:4 says that in our struggle against sin, we haven't yet had to shed our blood as Jesus did. (Translation: "Quit your whining! Jesus suffered a lot more than you ever will!). We need to do as Jesus did when he suffered: We need to look to our future reward! We're so used to our comforts in the here and now that we don't like the idea of delayed gratification. But God promises us a reward for suffering for His sake. And if we allow it to, that kind of suffering will draw us into a more intimate relationship with our Lord. We "share in the fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil. 3:10) and so come to understand and know Him better. This is the attitude we need to adopt when we go through undeserved trials.

Prayer: Father, help us to learn from everything we go through; help us to "grow" through it all. Thank You for suffering for us so that we may know the wondrous bounty of Your love and forgiveness and JOY. Make us into BIG people like You are and help us to have a right perpective on all that happens in our lives. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.