What do we do when we experience suffering and pain in life? Our natural tendency to ask God to remove the pain we are experiencing. I am not talking about sickness and disease. I am talking about deep pain that no doctors can heal.
Reading through the book of Job, we would see a man who was in intense pain. He cried for days but God never seemed to answer and when the answer came, there was a valuable lesson to be learned.
We have to understand, in times of pain, God is shouting to us, rousing us to turn our attention on Him. Where we always look for and request deliverance from suffering, the testimony of Scripture is mostly about what God wants to do for us in our suffering.
Job 36:15 English Standard Version (ESV)
15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.
Psalm 119:50 English Standard Version (ESV)
50 This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
In the gospel, the pain of life is not “I’m glad it’s over, but
Job 13:15 English Standard Version (ESV)
15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.
“Sometimes when God closes a door, he doesn’t intend to open a window. Sometimes when God closes a door, it’s because he wants us inside when the building collapses.” – Jared Wilson