When Suffering Becomes Hope in the Hands of our Redeemer - Denise Pass
Scripture of the Day:
Job 33:29-30 (EXB)
“God does all these things to a person two or even three times so he won’t die as punishment for his sins [ to bring back his life from the Pit]; and so he may still enjoy life [ be illuminated with the light of life].”
Hope Discovery of the Day:
Our redemptive God can take the greatest suffering this life brings and turn it into a blessing.
Job is one of my favorite books of the Bible. I know, I know – I feel the judgment already. How could a story about massive suffering be great? When we have tasted of suffering and seen how God redeemed it, we see suffering in a different light. We would never have chosen it, but we would also not want to trade what we learned from it all and the encounter with God we gained.
What was something to be avoided becomes a treasure when God reveals Himself as our portion in the midst of pain. And there in what feels solely like cruel punishment we recognize God’s deliverance.Our redemptive God can take the greatest punishment this life brings and turn it into a blessing.
Though man wants to blame God for any suffering we endure in this life, our accusations do not restore us. God does. Even while things that happen in this fallen world seem to define us with cruel hardship, God can turn our suffering into a triumph.
God’s goals are always redemptive. He wants us to enjoy life. Sometimes we believe the lies whispered to our souls when life is hard. We can start to accuse and doubt God. We don’t understand why He does not remove our pain. We don’t feel we deserve it. We become deceived into thinking that a pain-free life where all we have is blessing is our hope. But if we will persevere and trust the character and promises of our God when life hurts, we see there is hope even in life’s moments of hardship.
We cannot truly savor the sweetness of deliverance if we have not first seen the pain. If I had not walked through significant suffering, I would not be writing this post today. And I praise Him for it. What a loving God we have who always redeems our lives that we might live the abundant life He promises . . . and know Him.
Our hope was not supposed to be in this life. Yet God still wants to bless us. Though Job lost everything, God ultimately blessed him more than he had been before. Will we recognize God’s blessing when life hurts? There in the pain is our Savior, carrying us and showing us a beautiful purpose in the midst. Our living hope, Jesus Christ, offers hope in all circumstances with His redemptive purposes in all things.
When my life fell apart, God allowed the suffering into my life but He did not cause it. Enduring the hardship as discipline from a loving Father, I knew that somehow He was going to redeem what felt like punishment to me and turn it into blessing.
Even when we think we do not deserve punishment or suffering, we are seeing the pain, but God sees what He can accomplish with the pain. There are things in us that God needs to remove. He loves us too much to leave us in our sin. Temporary suffering in this fallen world might be the effective tool to set us free. And our God is good through it all.
Hebrews 12:7
“Endure what you suffer as being a father’s punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father?”
