Our Pain Builds Trust in a God Who Raises the Dead

Purpose for Suffering

“My Corinthian friends: Thank you so much for your concern. It was unbelievably hard. We were utterly burdened, beyond our strength. We despaired of life itself. It was like receiving a sentence of a terrible death. But God delivered us. Thank you for your prayers. I needed them more than you know.”

This is a brief restatement of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:8–11, though his purpose-for-suffering statement has been left out. Before we get to that, though, we want to address a question that might be looming in your mind: What on earth happened to Paul that he would describe his sufferings in such dramatic fashion?

Truth is we’re not sure what happened. It looks like the Corinthians knew what it was. We wish we knew more. Here are some possibilities.

It could have been some sort of government-sanctioned persecution. Paul comments in a previous letter to the Corinthian church that he had “fought with beasts at Ephesus” (1 Cor. 15:32). But that passage doesn’t include enough context to clarify whether he literally had been thrown to wild beasts and then rescued just before death or the beasts were people who somehow opposed him.

Maybe the affliction he experienced in Asia was connected to the melee in Ephesus, after the crowd rushed into the amphitheater and, for two hours, aggressively hollered, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:34). Perhaps it was some unrecorded incident of mob violence that occurred after that event. Or maybe Paul’s affliction was an agonizing flare-up of his “thorn in the flesh” (discussed later in this book). Whatever it was, it was truly terrible.

But why did God allow Paul (and his coworkers) to experience such a terrible affliction that Paul found it necessary to use descriptors like “utterly burdened beyond our strength,” “despaired of life itself,” and “received a death sentence” (2 Cor. 1:8–9)? Why would God allow such affliction for you, your close friend, your spouse, or your child? Why does God allow his children to suffer so?

There are probably a thousand reasons why God allows suffering to enter the lives of his children. But one of the most common reasons—and one of the most fundamental—is stated in 2 Corinthians 1:9: “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was [in order] to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” One of the main purposes for divinely permitted suffering is to learn to trust in God and to stop trusting in ourselves.

It is more important that we learn to trust deeply in God than live a life free from suffering. Trust is that important.

The Importance of Trust

Jesus frequently prodded his disciples to have more faith. He also rebuked them for their lack of faith: “O you of little faith.” Matthew mentions this four times in his Gospel to make sure that all later disciples will hear it too (Matt. 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8). Another New Testament author states the need for faith rather tersely: “And without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Heb. 11:6).

God wants his children to trust him in every area of life—from morning to evening and even in the middle of the night—with their finances, their employment, in singleness or marriage, with their children or while waiting for children, with hopes and disappointments, and even while suffering. Perhaps especially while suffering.

Ken lived with his wife, Trudi, in the Middle East for seven years. They resided roughly in the same area of the world where Paul wrote this letter. Two of their daughters were born in that region. Second Corinthians 1:8–11 was precious to Ken and Trudi during the years they lived there. They found comfort in those words that were written two thousand years ago—but just down the road from where they made their home.

Ken and Trudi diligently prayed and labored that God would start churches in that exceedingly unreached region, just as Paul did while traveling and ministering in Asia Minor. But honestly, living and ministering in that region was sometimes difficult—even beyond difficult. Ken doesn’t have the freedom to share all the burdens he carried while living overseas, though they included external persecution and internal struggles.

But after a few years of living in that region, Ken began to observe a pattern of external crises that he labeled the “crisis of the month.” Then it got worse! In fact, there was a period of more than a year when things became so intense that he began using “crisis of the week.” A few chapters after the passage we’re looking at, Paul further describes his afflictions as “fighting without and fear within” (2 Cor. 7:5). Ken and Trudi certainly identified with these descriptions. Employing Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:8–11, they sometimes felt overwhelmed, beyond their strength to endure.

One evening, Ken was so burdened with the thought that Trudi had to carry these afflictions with him that he looked into the eyes of his precious wife and, with tears streaming down his face, cried out, “I am so sorry that I brought you here. I am so very sorry.”

Trudi looked down for a brief second, then lifted her head and fixed her own tear-filled eyes on her husband and replied, “You didn’t bring me here. God called me just like he called you.”

It would be hard to overstate how much strength Ken received in that moment from his wife’s words! Like him, God had called his devoted wife to that region to do ministry, a ministry that included suffering as part of the package.

But why would God call a young, passionate, and idealistic Christian couple to leave behind a comfortable life in the United States to pursue a ministry where they were certain to experience opposition, affliction, loneliness, and pain? Why would a loving God do that to his children? Once again, God may have a thousand reasons. But according to 2 Corinthians 1:9, at least one of his reasons is that they would not rely on themselves. Instead, they would learn to trust in him “who raises the dead.”

Learning dependent trust is one of many reasons why God permits suffering to enter the lives of his children. This shouldn’t surprise us since there is almost nothing more important for a Christian to learn than to trust deeply in God—at all times, in all circumstances, and despite every kind of suffering.

We All Need Reminders!

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It’s Not Just About Trying Hard

Did you know that there’s a holiday called “Get Over It Day”?¹ It’s true. Every March 9, some Americans decide to get over bad decisions, bad relationships, and various losses and griefs. “Get Over It Day” motivates people to use sheer willpower to move on, no matter how deep the scars.

While “Get Over It Day” sounds great on paper, it is woefully insufficient. What we really need is an ever-deepening reliance on God and his power. We simply must stop looking inside ourselves for strength, as though we have adequate power to make it through.

We are insufficient. What we need more than anything is the power of God. Oh, how much we need God’s enabling strength! We don’t have power in ourselves to faithfully endure severe suffering. That would be like desperately trying to swim one’s way out of a vast lake to a shoreline three hundred miles away. We are no more able to endure serious suffering on our own than we are physically capable of swimming three hundred miles!

The fact of our inadequacy appears frequently in the Bible:

For all things come from you [Lord]. (1 Chron. 29:14)

Apart from me [Jesus] you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

But by the grace of God I am what I am. (1 Cor. 15:10)

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. (2 Cor. 3:5)

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (Gal. 6:3)

Please don’t misunderstand. This doesn’t mean that we passively whimper, “I want to want to trust, but I just can’t.” Such a response is a cop-out, a convenient escape clause. Even if the power to trust amid suffering comes from God—which it does—we shouldn’t approach the topic of faith passively. Yes, the Christian who trusts needs first to acknowledge that only God can deliver, “whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20), but the corresponding response isn’t passive. Trust isn’t acting like an empty glove that waits for God’s hand to fill it; trust is a cooperative and committed heart response to God’s commitment to us.

Trust is grounded in God’s goodness and dependent on his dependability. Our part is to present a willing heart to the God who woos us, as those wonderful words in 2 Chronicles 16:9 state, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”

God strengthens the hearts of those who are unreservedly dependent on him. God doesn’t tell his suffering children to just get over it. Instead, he urges us to recognize our utter need for his help, draw close to him, cast our cares on him, and find our strength in him. Job’s radical assertion of to-the-death trust becomes our own: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15).

It is more important that we learn to trust deeply in God than live a life free from suffering. Trust is that important.

Learning Trust Through Suffering

Some years ago, Keith was both a full-time pastor and professor. He had three teenagers at home. Somehow, without any known explanation, Keith contracted an insufferable intestinal infection. It went undiagnosed and undisclosed for nine months, until he finally confessed his unbearable condition to his wife, Lori. To make matters worse, the infection was highly resistant to treatment, and the methods employed wreaked further havoc on his intestinal tract. It’s probably better not to explain exactly what was required to eliminate the infection and make everything right. But eventually Keith was given a “clean” bill of health. Unfortunately, as he was to learn a few years later, things weren’t actually alright. The treatment left him with an indefinitely compromised immune system.

The following spring, Keith tested positive for COVID-19. And because of his compromised immune system, that wicked coronavirus hit him with full force. Within two days, his lungs felt as if they were being crushed in a cement mixer. Every breath was a struggle. His oxygen saturation levels hovered in the low 80s, which could have irreparably damaged his brain and heart. But the last thing Keith wanted to do was go to a hospital and suffer in isolation. So he had an oxygen tank brought to his home to help him breathe.

For weeks he suffered. The whole family went into separate quarantines—except for his wife. Lori cared for Keith night and day. (Of course, she eventually got COVID, too. But that’s another story.) Keith became so weak that his hip socket became severely and painfully compromised. He couldn’t move without screaming in excruciating pain. After that, he lost his voice. (Not from the screams, mind you. Just one of the “glories” of COVID.) It is no small source of anxiety for someone who makes his living preaching and teaching to lose his voice for nearly six weeks!

Eventually, Keith recovered. Mostly. Actually, he lives with the aftereffects of both illnesses that will likely be lifelong.

Coming so near to death and living with its repercussions has powerfully shaped Keith’s understanding of trust during suffering God uses Keith’s present personal weaknesses and suffering to bolster his trust in God’s strength and sufficiency. Keith has to remind himself again and again that God—the all-knowing and all-wise God—has permitted such suffering to grow his prone-towaver trust.

Are you suffering today? How’s your trust? Are you trusting at all? Perhaps you’re struggling to keep your eyes faithfully focused, as we often do. Consider the possibility that one of God’s purposes for permitting your suffering is to awaken your dependence on him. Trust is fundamental to everything else you will ever do in your Christian life.

Keep in mind that the frequency and intensity of our suffering doesn’t necessarily correlate to how much we need to learn to trust. God knows what we need; we can be confident in that. In fact, all of us need to grow in reliance on the Lord. We are all classmates in the school of suffering, prayerfully seeking to learn one of the hardest lessons for Christians: how to deeply rely on the Lord in dependent faith despite suffering.

One of us recently listened to a godly elderly man reflect on some of the harder periods of his life. He commented, “If I had the opportunity to go back and remove those times of suffering, I wouldn’t change a thing. God used those sufferings more than any other to shape my relationship with him.”

Pain is the fast track to growth in Christian faith. In God’s inscrutable wisdom, he uses affliction as the principal means to teach his children trust. In a letter he wrote to Sheldon Vanauken after the death of his beloved wife, C. S. Lewis referred to suffering as a “severe mercy.”² Suffering can be severe—sometimes so severe that we find ourselves overwhelmed, beyond our strength to endure, even despairing of life. But what incredible mercy it is that one of the sweetest fruits of suffering is a growing resilience—expressed in ever-deepening trust—in a wise, powerful, and loving God, the one “who raises the dead.”

This article is adapted from God’s Purposes in Our Pain: 10 Ways God Uses Suffering for Our Good Kenneth Berding and Keith R. Krell.

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