Why Does Suffering Exist? // Suffering Produces Fruit
It can be so hard to wait, am I right? We love our quick-fixes, fast food conveniences, and get-rich-quick schemes. And it seems the hardest time to be patient is in times of suffering. Everything cries out within us to bypass, rush through, or skip the season altogether.
If you are longing to grow in your faith and become more mature as a believer, there is something you need to understand and embrace: God does His greatest work in times of suffering. So as much as your flesh wants to avoid it, instead, embrace it.
Long-suffering, which is showing patience in suffering, produces a great amount of good fruit. To name a few:
Endurance (Romans 5:3-4) - When you learn to be patient in suffering, you produce a valuable fruit that will be a friend in times of trouble. Having the ability to persevere in the face of adversity will carry you through to finish strong. Not only that, but endurance produces character, which leads to much more fruit as Romans 5 describes.
Strength (1 Peter 5:10) - 1 Peter makes it clear that we will suffer, however, that even though we may suffer a bit God will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us. If your suffering molds you to be a person that is secure, strong, and steady, then that’s a season worth embracing.
Eternal Glory (2 Corinthians 4:17) - Suffering prepares us for eternity. In suffering, we often learn where our faith should be placed: God or this world. When we learn in our suffering to place our faith in Christ, there is a shift in perspective that has eternal value.
Although suffering may seem unfair at times, on a personal level suffering has the ability to produce so much good if allowed. On a broader level, God uses the suffering in this world to bring about some good. Although it was not His original design, He uses the pains that rattle our world in ways we may not see it. To try to grasp or comprehend the reasons and validity of everything that happens is an exhaustive endeavor that will leave you discouraged and lacking in faith. Instead, hope for the fruit born out of suffering.
