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“[God] comforts
us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others . . . When we are
weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we
ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can
patiently endure the same things we suffer” (2 Corinthians 1:4a, 6 NLT, second edition).
Your pain often reveals God’s purpose for you. God
never wastes a hurt! If you’ve gone through a hurt, he wants you to help
other people going through a similar hurt. He wants you to share it. God can
use the problems in your life to give you a ministry to others. In fact, the
very thing you’re most ashamed of in your life and resent the most, could
become your greatest ministry in helping other people.
Who can better help somebody going through a
bankruptcy than somebody who went through a bankruptcy? Who can better help
somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who’s struggled with an
addiction? Who can better help parents of a special needs child than parents
who raised a special needs child? Who can better help somebody who’s lost a
child than somebody who lost a child?
The very thing you hate the most in your life is
what God wants to use for good in your life.
The Bible says, “[God] comforts us in all our troubles so that we
can comfort others . . . When we are weighed down with troubles, it is for
your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will
certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we
suffer” (2 Corinthians 1:4a, 6
NLT, second edition).
This is called
redemptive suffering. Redemptive suffering is when you go through a problem or a pain for the
benefit of others. This is what Jesus did. When Jesus died on the
cross, he didn’t deserve to die. He went through that pain for your benefit
so that you can be saved and go to Heaven.
There are many different causes for the problems,
pains, and suffering in your life. Sometimes the stuff that happens you bring
on yourself. When you make stupid decisions, then it causes pain in your
life. If you go out and overspend and buy things you can’t afford and presume
on the future, and then you go deeply in debt and lose your house, you can’t
say, “God, why did you let me lose my house?” You can’t blame God for your
bad choices.
But in some of your problems, you’re innocent.
You’ve been hurt by the pain, stupidity, and sins of other people. And some
of the pain in your life is for redemptive suffering. God often allows us to
go through a problem so that we can then help others.
Talk It Over
- What are
some of the problems in your life that you have questioned God about or
wondered why they had to happen to you?
- How can
you use your painful experience to minister to others?
- Why do
you think God does not always reveal his purpose to us? How should we
respond when this is the case?
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