Suffering Redeemed

Suffering Redeemed

As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people. –Genesis 50:20

We’ve seen that suffering can be a natural consequence for our sin or someone else’s sin; a result of living in a fallen, broken world; something brought into our lives by Satan; or the hardship of discipline. So where is God in our suffering? He is redeeming it. He is taking what is bad and using it for good in your life, if you allow him to. Perhaps this is really the starting place for answering the why questions when it comes to the hurts in your life.

It was for Joseph. Sold into slavery by his brothers when he was only seventeen, betrayed, imprisoned, and cut off from his family and their faith, Joseph had every reason to be bitter. But Joseph trusted that God would use every difficulty to make him into the man he needed to be and to put him in the place he needed to be to serve God’s unique purpose for his life.

His recognition of God as a redeemer allowed him to overcome the natural and understandable response of hatred and revenge to his brothers’ betrayal. Certainly they deserved to be punished for what they had done to him. Joseph did not really excuse or make light of what his brothers had done to him. He recognized that what they did was evil and was meant for evil. But Joseph also saw God’s intention to use what was meant to harm him to actually help save the lives of many people. It seems as if Joseph’s recognition of God as the One who redeemed all the hurt and pain in his past so settled his question of why it happened that he had no need to make anyone pay and no need for pity.

Do you believe that God intends to use the suffering in your life—no matter what caused it or how awful it is—for good if you allow him to? He can. Invite him to do this in your life, won’t you?

My Redeemer, I want to believe that you can use the painful, difficult things in my life for good, no matter what or who has caused them. Would you give me eyes of faith to see that you are making something beautiful out of the brokenness in my life as I invite you to do so?

DIGGING DEEPER