Suffering

by Mark Gierus

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I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).

Read Romans 8:18–25

Suffering is not something we enjoy going through in life. We don’t want to suffer; we want to be comfortable in the things we do. Many of us hate being out of our comfort zones, and we may hear people tell us to ‘push through’. However, sometimes, are we only dealing with first-world problems?

Recently, a question was asked on a local radio station about things that make people suffer. One lady called in and said that the cupholder in her new BMW was too small to fit her coffee travel mug. Another caller said he now had to park one level lower in the underground parking at his workplace, and he couldn’t get full phone coverage there.

We might laugh at this, but do we sometimes place too much emphasis on our first-world problems? Yet, in the face of true suffering – in loss and grief, in physical, emotional and mental struggles, in seeing poverty and war – we are encouraged to not even compare them with the glory that awaits us in Jesus.

The same Jesus who holds us now in his love, presence and comfort in his word, is the same Jesus who will come again one day to take us to be with him forever in all his glory.

The old hymn ‘It is well with my soul’ was written by Horatio Spafford, who lost his four daughters in a shipwreck. Horatio didn’t go on the journey, and only his wife, Anna, survived. He received a telegram from Anna after she was rescued, with only two words, ‘Saved alone.’

Horatio went to see Anna. As the ship he was sailing on passed the place where his four daughters drowned, he wrote the hymn.

In his grief, he didn’t need to compare his suffering with what was to come, for his eyes were on Jesus in faith, knowing he could say, ‘It is well.’

Know that in your suffering, Jesus holds you, for in him, all is well in the depths of your soul.

Dear Jesus, it is well with my soul because you have saved me. You died for my sins, and, in your name, you give me hope and peace, day by day, no matter what suffering I face. You walk with me through it all, and you will take me to be with you forever in the end. Amen.

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