Sermon Archive
Don t Waste Suffering

Don't Waste Your Suffering 

John Piper was diagnoses with cancer a few years ago. He underwent surgery, which for now took care of the cancer. As he experienced that life-threatening circumstance he thought about how we are to respond when life is hard. I want to share some of his and my thoughts on ways to avoid wasting your suffering.
 
I believe in God's power to heal—by miracle & by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Suffering is not wasted when it is healed or immediately relieved by God. So NOT to pray for healing or release may waste your suffering. But healing or immediate deliverance from suffering is NOT God's plan for most of us. And there are many other ways to waste your suffering. I am praying for you and myself that we will not waste our suffering.
 
1- You will waste your suffering if you do not believe it is designed for you by God. 
 
What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees the issue of your suffering, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Romans 8:28 is one of the best-known verses in the Bible. It has been likened to a pillow on which to rest our weary heads. “And we KNOWthat in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to the purpose.” The verse begins with “we know”. We know about God’s providential care for those who love him. But keep in mind that there are many things we do NOT know! For example in verse 26 we are told that some times: “We do NOT know what we ought to pray for…” It is just as foolish to claim to know what we do not know as it is to NOT confess what we do know. What we do know is this: God is purposefully working for our good in all things. Nothing is beyond the overruling, overriding scope of Gods divine influence. If you don't believe your suffering is designed for you by God, you will waste it.
 
2- You will waste your suffering if you believe it is a curse and not a gift."There is therefore now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). You will waste your suffering if you spend your time looking for why or what God is punishing you for. God doesn’t punish his kids, he disciplines them.
 
In Hebrews 12:1-11 we read: “For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” Our earthly fathers, though fallible and sometimes unfair, disciplined us “doing the best they knew how.” God, however, is perfect, consistent, fair, and always uses appropriate discipline.
 
3- You will waste your suffering if you refuse to think about death.
 We will all die, if Jesus postpones his return. Not to think about what it will be like to leave this life and meet God is stupid! Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." Numbering your day’s means thinking about how few there are & that they will end. How will you get a heart of wisdom if you refuse to think about this? What a waste, if we do not think about death.
 
Satan and God's designs in your suffering are not the same. Satan designs to destroy your love for Christ while God designs to deepen your love for Christ. The Apostle Paul put it this way: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." And to know that, therefore, "To live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 3:8; 1:21).  Death would be gain because he lived life with eternity in view.
 
4- You will waste your suffering if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with God and others.
 
When Epaphroditus brought the gifts to Paul sent by the Philippian church he became ill and almost died. Paul tells the Philippians, "He has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill" (Philippians 2:26–27). What an amazing response! It does not say they were distressed that he was ill, but that he was distressed because they heard he was ill.
That is the kind of heart God is aiming to create with suffering: a deeply affectionate, caring heart for people. Don't waste your suffering by retreating into yourself.
 
5- You will waste your suffering if you treat sin as casually as before.
 
Are the sins that attack you on a regular basis as attractive as they were before you had suffering? If so, you are wasting your suffering. Suffering is one way God uses to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness, — all these are the adversaries that suffering is meant to attack. Don't just think of battling againstsuffering. Also think of battling with suffering. All these things are worse enemies than suffering. Don't waste the power of suffering to crush these enemies. Let the presence of eternity make the sins of time look as useless as they really are. "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" (Luke 9:25).
 
6- You will waste your suffering if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.
 
Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do. Consider what Jesus said about painful, unplanned circumstances: "They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness"(Luke 21:12–13).   So it is with suffering. This will be an opportunity to bear witness. Christ is infinitely worthy. Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life. Don't waste it.
 
7- You will waste your suffering if you grieve as those who have no hope.
 
Paul used this phrase in relation to those whose loved ones had died.
He said, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Thess 4:13).
 
There is a grief at death. Even for the believer who dies, there is temporary loss. But the Christians are to grieve differently — our grief is to be permeated and saturated with hope.
 
As Christians we are to live with this hope, and it can keep us going when life is hard. We realize that God isn't finished with us yet. The time will come when He will restore all things. So now we wait, yet with the confident hope in God’s ability to "work all things together for good,"
 
Listen closely as I read the last sentences of Romans 8 that remind and reassure us of his love for us: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 
Suffering is difficult to understand & even more difficult to experience. You may not know the “why” of suffering, but you know what it isn’t. It isn’t because God doesn’t love you! It isn’t because he doesn’t care. God’s great love for us was demonstrated when Jesus went to the cross.
 
Let me close with this message sent from the Apostle Paul to some who were struggling: “We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such troubles.”  (I Thess 34:2b-3 NLT)
 
Suffering and struggle are no fun, but it's part of the journey.
 
So what must I do in order to not waste my suffering? I must be convinced that my growth is of such great importance that it warrants suffering and struggle.
 
PRAYER:  Lord, thank you for reminding me of the pathway to Your best. It is not always paved with ease and leisure. It is not necessarily found in getting things my way. But I will follow you regardless of the cost.
 
As you join in this communion experience we remember and reflect on God’s great love for us as seen in Jesus death on the cross.