GOD REDEEMS OUR SUFFERING

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to… comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion -- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.”  (Isaiah 61:1a, 2b-3 NIV)

In our personal lives, when we place our sorrows and suffering in God’s hands, we find God redeems the suffering and uses it for our good…

A man who recently had a brush with death wrote to say, “My wife says I am a different person, more loving, more caring, more compassionate, more appreciative of everyday things since my diagnosis, and she is right.” A woman who went through a two-year period of unemployment tells me that, while she would not wish this on anyone, her entire perspective on life and faith was changed as a result of the experience. She told me that today she thanks God for this time of adversity. I have walked with dozens of parents who have lost children. They don’t thank God for the loss of their children; they know that God did not “take” their children. But they do tell me, years later, how God sustained them and used their pain to change them, and how the trajectory of their lives was different, deeper, and more meaningful, as a result of the terrible grief they endured. 

-- Adam Hamilton in “Why?: Making Sense of God’s Will”

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