Let Suffering Produce Joy

“But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:13

I’ve noticed a common sentiment in our culture that seems to me to strike at the heart of what our world gets wrong. It is at the root of our victimhood olympics. It is the source of our lack of self-control and pursuit of overindulgence. It is the reason we treat doctors as heroes and politicians as saviors.

As I was chatting with some people, they were commenting on the incredible peace and joy a particular person had despite so much hardship in the man’s life. They marvelled, “He’s such a happy person! Can you believe it? After all he’s been through?”

To most people in our society, suffering in any way gives you a pass to be bitter and miserable. It is a badge of honor that gives your grievance power over others because hardship stole your happiness. Your difficulty gives you license to indulge. And it makes you dependent upon experts to care for you in your permanent weakness.

Then someone comes along who faced incredible tragedy, who is also deeply joyful and hopeful, and it shatters our preconceived categories. Instead of letting such examples challenge our worldview assumptions, we just dismiss them as a strange outlier.

But what if that is what should be normal? Peter tells us to rejoice in our sufferings. Jesus suffered, “with the joy set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul said that suffering produces endurance, character, hope, and love (Romans 5:3-5). God designed suffering to produce holiness that draws us near to the fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

Hardship strips away the things that don’t matter eternally (Phil. 4:11–13). It focuses our confidence on God’s power (2 Cor. 1:9). It reveals to us the smiling face of God (Acts 7:55–56). And by suffering with such faith, we become much more filled with God’s joy.

Brothers and sisters, “do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). But let your suffering have its intended effect of producing an uncommon joy that is a witness to our neighbors of God’s surpassing power filling these clay pots (2 Cor. 4:7).

Don’t fall into the same pattern of the world that allows grievances to lead you to bitterness and extended grumpiness. Don’t join the chorus of complainers who multiply victimhood. Allow difficulty to create a moment of contradiction for your neighbors. Let it have its full effect and make your joy and perseverance a powerful witness of the grace of God in Christ in your life.

Delighting in the grace at work in you,

Adam and the elders