God’s perspective on suffering
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
1 Peter 1:6 (NIVUK)
Three things are true about suffering: it is real, it hurts, and no one is immune from it. To be frank, when I’m going through a trial, I’m inclined to see everything through the prism of my suffering. My entire horizons can be consumed by even the smallest of aggravations. How on earth can we ‘greatly rejoice’ when suffering ‘grief in all kinds of trials?’
There are never any glib answers when people suffer, but when we’re feeling overwhelmed by trials or grieving with someone who is suffering, Peter’s comment that they are ‘for a little while’, is particularly helpful because it reveals to us God’s perspective. Time can be a strange thing, can’t it? Three or four minutes is no time at all for some things, yet that would be a long time for me to hold my breath so a ‘little while’ needs to be understood within its context.
Sometimes our suffering goes on for a long time, maybe months, years, or even a lifetime. So, when Peter reminds us that our trials are for a ‘little while’ he is placing them within God’s perspective of eternity. Thus, a long period of suffering in this life is still, within the framework of God’s plan and purpose for his children, ‘a little while’.
Of course, that is not to say that such suffering will feel brief to us, especially when we are in the middle of it. For many, suffering means that a minute can seem like hours, a day can seem like weeks, and a year can seem as if it’s never going to end. But we can and must cling to the promise that these afflictions cannot compare to the eternal glory that awaits us.
The Apostle Paul was able to write, ‘…we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). This perspective is captured in a contemporary Christian song:
Though trouble’s hard, it’s only momentary
And it’s achieving our future glory.
We will meet Him in the air
And then we will be like Him
For we will see Him, as He is
Then all hurt and pain will cease
And we’ll be with Him forever
And in His glory we will live. 1
With this perspective, though troubles are hard, we can greatly rejoice in the sure hope of our eternal glory.
Prayer
Loving Father, when we experience a season of trial and suffering our perspective can be so limited and narrow. Give us eyes to see that our weeping may last through the night, but eternal joy comes in the morning, when there will be no more pain and suffering. Please speed that day, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.
Study by Barry Robinson
1 There is a Day, Nathan Fellingham, Phatfish.
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International and Regional Pastor for Southern England.
Local congregation:
Grace Communion International central London
Indian YMCA
Mahatma Gandhi Hall
41 Fitzroy Square
London
W1T 6AQ
Local congregational contact:
Barry Robinson
Email: london@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church