A man was struggling. His doubt about his ability to endure was evident. He repeatedly suffered at the hand of his enemy. He longed for relief, for respite from the pain. He hoped for a solution. He turned to God. God said, “No.”
One person might think this is amazing. Other people might see it as an opportunity to criticize God for allowing one to suffer while being able to remove that suffering. There is a mentality in our culture that longs for the ideal with no pain. The secularist ideal is that everyone should receive alleviation of pain. No one should suffer. Hardship should be removed. God, though, knows better.
Is some suffering senseless? Yes. Are some suffering a result of evil men doing evil deeds? Certainly. Is all suffering, even that suffering, inherently evil? No. The apostle Paul desired for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. God refused. He refused because He offered something of more value than “absence of suffering.” God offered grace. Paul recounted God’s response as, “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV).
Isaiah prophesied this truth of God to Israel in Isaiah 40 when he wrote:
Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (27-31)
The strength of God overcomes the weakness of man. The grace of God outlasts the most vigorous soldier. In our weakest state, let us rely on God’s grace and His strength, and may we never draw back because of suffering (Hebrews 10:30-39).
