Have you ever viewed suffering as a friend and not a foe? While no one wants to go through periods of suffering, God will often use suffering and trials as His way to make us more Christlike. And isn’t this something as Christians we all should long to become – more like Christ! Since we know from (Romans 8:28) that God works all things together for good, and that includes suffering, we need to cultivate an attitude of thanksgiving to God, even when this goes against our human nature.
I think that A. W. Tozer was right on the money when he shared the following insight: “If we understand that everything happening to us is to make us more Christlike, it will solve a great deal of anxiety in our lives.”1
God uses all of the circumstances of life for my everlasting good if we only allow Him to work in our lives. And not only that but everything that we face in life can make us more holy.
So Christian, what about you? Are you suffering from an illness? Have you recently lost your job? Or has your wife just had a miscarriage? In all of these situations God has allowed them to happen because God has a master plan in which He wants to use your tragedy for His glory. Our role is to trust God that He will use our suffering in unique ways if we just turn them over to Him. So, rather than question God in these above cases with the refrain: “why me,” I much prefer to ask God how can you use these negatives to bless others, help me to become more holy, and make me a God glorifying vessel.
If we begin to view the trials of life in this way it will go a long way to reducing anxiety because when we realize that God is working all things to make us more Christlike and to give us the privilege of using these periods of suffering to bring Him glory we can relax, rejoice, and rest in the Lord. And while suffering is part of the package of being a disciple of Christ, anxiety does not have to be!