We can suffer for many reasons. Mental, emotional, and physical are the three types of suffering that happen in this world. And, most certainly, they are all involved when any one of these types of suffering is occurring.

Because the Word of God is for all of us here in this world, it, too, is filled with suffering but there is much we can learn about suffering from the Bible. I'll have some quotes at the end of this chapter. Have you considered that suffering comes in two ways? (1.) We can suffer in defiance and (2.) we can suffer in compliance.

Let's look at suffering in defiance. This is suffering brought on by complete rebellion against the principles laid out by God through the Bible. Suffering in defiance is deliberately going against what God says we must do and reaping the results of this which is suffering. This type of suffering can either lead to greater suffering in defiance or it can lead to repentance, or changing one's thoughts and beginning to comply with God's commands. Even when we do this, however, it still leads to suffering, but it now has a new name: Suffering in compliance.

Suffering in compliance leads, eventually, to joy. Unfortunately, suffering still happens when we turn our lives around and align them with God's commands because people are fallen and this world is basically carnal. Jesus came to bring a light into the darkness. He has asked us to take Him into our hearts and shine our lights and not hide them under a bushel. If we are suffering in defiance (that is, in complete rebellion), we are contributing to the fallen world's agenda and, more than likely, suffering the pains brought on because so many are so thoughtless and inconsiderate.

Suffering in defiance is synonymous with an attitude that many in this carnal world have major problems that they thrust onto ME. I am fine. It is they who reek of disgusting and revolting attitudes. It is they who are immature, self-centered, and obnoxious. When we see so much sin outside ourselves, it is we who are in pain. Nothing seems to work out right. People are constantly bumping into us, rubbing us the wrong way, being disrespectful and deceitful. This feeds the fire in us and makes us all the more upset with them, the world and ourselves. And, of course, many really are this way. There is no doubt about it. But whose pain is in need of healing? We cannot heal other people's pain. We can only heal our own pain, but in doing this through prayer and communion with God, other people's pains are often healed as well.

How is this so? When our pain is no longer perceived as coming from outside us, we begin the process of healing ourselves. We can realize that we look through a glass darkly when we view others as coming at us with torches and pitchforks to slay us. The "glass darkly," however, is removed when we no longer see them as coming to slay us but, instead, see them as suffering and in need of Christ's healing. Again, this does not mean our suffering ends, but it does mean our suffering changes to suffering in compliance and the suffering is no longer unbearable.

How can we find peace and healing?

We must repent, or change our mind, and go from suffering in defiance to suffering in compliance. Suffering in compliance does not do away with bad people and maddening situations. What it does do is remove our responsibility from changing the world and everyone in it, to just being responsible for our own reactions.

Why is this important? Because Jesus asked us to do this. He asked us to love our enemies, bless those who persecute us and "turn the other cheek," when someone does evil to us. Trying to force others to change does not work.

People will come to the Lord by our example, not by force of our will. "You'd better change or else.." does not work. However, when we respond to hate with love, when we respond to being treated unfairly with a blessing and prayer, when we respond to any of the worldly traits with the fruit of God's Spirit, we are erasing from the face of this earth much of the power of sin. We are no longer contributing to the world's empty solutions to its countless problems. Instead, we are untangling the many-knotted strands brought on by those who are suffering in defiance. Consequently, we are paving the road to Heaven and the abundant, eternal life with Jesus (not only for them, but for ourselves as well.) This can only be done one incident at a time. Each time we respond in like manner to someone's hate or inconsideration, we make the world's cycle of rage, harder for everyone to escape. Each time we respond with love, we make the road to Heaven smoother.

What other purpose do we have here on this earth? I, for one, am sorry that religious institutions seem to have a monopoly on God and Jesus. God and Jesus MUST be integrated into the workplace and into all of our relationships. Remember, Jesus saves us from our sins now as well as the future. He can't save us if He isn't allowed to be a real and viable help in our minds and hearts, while we are here in the world. He gave us Himself and told us to take Him into our hearts. He does not, then, just become a pretty flower in a vase upon our mind's mantel. He becomes a Mighty Companion, able to give us both strength and joy as we comply with His instruction in the Word. We are not going into suffering in compliance alone. Nor will we go unrewarded.

The first reward will be a peace in our hearts that comes from knowing we are now doing something the way God has instructed. We are no longer in defiance toward His peaceful approach. The second reward will eventually show up as joy.

How is this? When Paul and Silas were singing songs of joy while in chains in prison, they rose above the earthly circumstances of suffering. When our hearts are full of the joy of the Lord, no matter what circumstances we have before us, our suffering cannot reach us, nor hold us, nor harm us.

We must remember what we want. Since we are going to suffer in this world anyway, it makes sense that we go from suffering in defiance to suffering in compliance which eventually leads to joy as we are resurrected from the suffering.

If we try to fix the world any other way than through suffering in compliance, we will find its ungodly tentacles slowly wrapping around our necks, strangling the life from us. This deliberate defiance actually puts Jesus back upon the cross and scars His body once again. Do not disgrace our Lord and Savior by placing His instructions to us on so low a scale of priorities. Remember Jesus, who sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, for each of us, who carried the cross to Golgotha, for each of us, who chose to do His father's will and suffer in compliance for us, and did not do His own will. Do not make His journey to the cross as some small thing. Suffer in compliance with Him, so that, eventually, all suffering might end its grip on God's children.

God brings people to us who are in sin so that our response to their "suffering in defiance" will be our "suffering in compliance" and possibly bring relief for them by our example. The result will be either a seed planted, eventually leading to Jesus or a conversion right then and there. Ultimately, both they and we will experience the deep relief and peace that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

In Job, we find another kind of suffering in which Satan gets permission from God to tempt Job to disavow God. This testing that Job went through cost him his family, his health and even tested his marriage as well as some of his friendships. But, through it all, Job remained firmly convinced that God is the rock on which he builds his life. Though his wife, at one time when his health was exceptionally bad, suggested he "curse God and die," it was not in Job's heart to do that. Though his friends, meaning well, offered that Job had done something wrong to bring all these things on, ultimately, by Job's perseverance for God and his willingness to serve God "even though He slay me," proved to be the proper response to what life (and Satan) gave him (based on the end of the book when Job got rewarded many times over).

With regard to what appears as "randomly generated" suffering, we generally go through a defiance first, as we resist it. We cry out to God, sometimes in bitterness and resentment, "Why did He let this happen to us?" Then, as we realize that God's perspective is so much greater than our tiny one, we submit to Him once again, and fall into His arms, knowing that "all things work together for good to those who love the Lord." We lay our burdens, once again, on the Lord, and rest in the knowledge that He will use this experience in some way to mold us, refine us, and make us more like Him.

It is important to recognize that we can receive what we would label "unwarranted evil" which can cause us to suffer, but we still have a choice as to how we are going to respond to that "gift." We can choose to resist it and go into a state of defiance, kicking and screaming, but we know that eventually we will fall into the arms of God for our true rest and healing. Why not choose that option as soon as possible? That means, in the case of unwarranted evil, which leads to our suffering, we can choose suffering in compliance and use this event to drive us to our knees where we come to know God in a much deeper and moving way than we've ever known Him before. Pain and suffering CAN bring us to new depths in our relationship with the Almighty God, and this is never bad.

Bible quotes with some commentary

Act 16:22 The crowd [also] joined in the attack upon them, and the rulers tore the clothes off of them and commanded that they be beaten with rods.
Act 16:23 And when they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.
Act 16:24 He, having received [so strict a] charge, put them into the inner prison (the dungeon) and fastened their feet in the stocks. Act 16:25 But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the [other] prisoners were listening to them, Act 16:26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the very foundations of the prison were shaken; and at once all the doors were opened and everyone's shackles were unfastened. (Amp)

Paul and Silas counted it a joy and a privilege to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Later, when the prison guard was about to kill himself because he thought all the prisoners had escaped, Paul halted him by saying that they were all still there. The prison guard gave his heart to Jesus shortly thereafter. It is quite possible that God had Paul and Silas brought into that prison only so that the prison guard could be saved.

We need to be alert to suffering in compliance for purposes that go far beyond our own selfish insinuations and judgments. "Nasty" people are seldom "not nasty" just before their conversion. They are brought to you because the Lord knows they are ready to receive Him. Your response to another's "nastiness" will make the difference as to whether they accept the Lord at this time. If they are already saved, your response will reinforce God's message of love in their hearts. Not a bad piece of work for the day!

Our first case of suffering in defiance is found in the story of Adam and Eve.

Gen 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, [2 Corinthians 11:3]
Gen 3:5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil and blessing and calamity.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good (suitable, pleasant) for food and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate.
Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron-like girdles.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 But the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you?
Gen 3:10 He said, I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Gen 3:11 And He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?
Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me--she gave me [fruit] from the tree, and I ate.
Gen 3:13 And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled (cheated, outwitted, and deceived) me, and I ate.
Gen 3:14 And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all [domestic] animals and above every [wild] living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust [and what it contains] all the days of your life. (Amp)

First, we see here, man blaming woman and woman blaming serpent. Blame after blame after blame. Notice how it is always someone else's fault when we are suffering in defiance.

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel. [Galatians 4:4]
Gen 3:16 To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your grief and your suffering in pregnancy and the pangs of childbearing; with spasms of distress you will bring forth children. Yet your desire and craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.
Gen 3:17 And to Adam He said, Because you have listened and given heed to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground is under a curse because of you; in sorrow and toil shall you eat [of the fruits] of it all the days of your life. (Amp)

The result of ignoring God's will brings us into suffering because of our defiance.

In 2nd Samuel, Chapter 11, David falls for Bathsheba, Uriah's wife. David has Uriah sent to battle in the front lines to have him killed so that he can have Bathsheba for himself. This infuriates God who causes David to suffer in defiance. No matter how hard David prays, their first son is taken away by God. Fortunately, this experience led to David becoming closer to God, so suffering in defiance led to suffering in compliance for David.

When Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac, Abraham suffered by compliance.

Gen 22:2 [God] said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I will tell you.
Gen 22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then began the trip to the place of which God had told him. Gen 22:4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Gen 22:5 And Abraham said to his servants, Settle down and stay here with the donkey, and I and the young man will go yonder and worship and come again to you.
Gen 22:6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on [the shoulders of] Isaac his son, and he took the fire (the firepot) in his own hand, and a knife; and the two of them went on together.
Gen 22:7 And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. [Isaac] said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice?
Gen 22:8 Abraham said, My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two went on together.
Gen 22:9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there; then he laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the wood. [Matthew 10:37]
Gen 22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took hold of the knife to slay his son. [Hebrews 11:17-19] (Amp)

Here Abraham is suffering in compliance. Isaac has submitted fully to God's will (amazingly, even to the point of death).The Bible does not record that he had a struggle here. Abraham, however, is about to sacrifice his son because God has commanded it. Can you imagine the suffering he was going through, at knowing he had to offer his only son up as a sacrifice?

Gen 22:11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from Heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here I am.
Gen 22:12 And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son.
Gen 22:13 Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering and an ascending sacrifice instead of his son! (Amp)

Later, God would offer up His Son as a sacrifice. And as His Son suffered in compliance, forgiving everyone from the cross, God raised His Son from the dead thereby assuring us all eternal life. All this, because God's Son was willing to suffer in compliance for us. When we suffer in compliance at the hands of the wicked, we are showing them God's Son and giving them the opportunity to witness our living out His words and instructions. Is this not the least we can do for others? Since we are going to suffer anyway, should we not find it joyful to suffer in compliance for Him, rather than in defiance for ourselves?

1Pe 4:16 But if [one is ill-treated and suffers] as a Christian [which he is contemptuously called], let him not be ashamed, but give glory to God that he is [deemed worthy to suffer] in this name. (Amp)

Rom 8:28 We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose. (Amp)

Job 13:14 Why do I go out on a limb like this and take my life in my hands? Job 13:15 Because even if he killed me, I'd keep on hoping. I'd defend my innocence to the very end. Job 13:16 Just wait, this is going to work out for the best--my salvation! If I were guilt-stricken do you think I'd be doing this-- laying myself on the line before God? (The Message)

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