The Power Of Christian Contentmentনমুনা

Contentment and Suffering

Perhaps you are reading today’s words with intense interest because God has struck your world with a sharp and painful blow. You are still reeling and asking questions from the depths of your being. Or perhaps you are just reading the next day’s entry—the suffering in the world, although real, is not personal. Your life has yet to taste its offerings. Regardless of your experience with suffering, pain is a part of the human condition and is what God allows into our lives to shape our souls for eternal glory. 

Our contentment in the face of harm, uncertainty, even devastation, can be a light to a hurting and even angry world. There is no time in a Christian’s weary and painful pilgrimage to heaven when contentment is so precious and yet so hard to come by as during times of suffering. The greater the suffering, the more this divine and supernatural contentment will be vital to our souls, glorifying to God, and fruitful in eternity. Such forging is accomplished through difficulty and pain.

The world of unbelievers does not know this kind of supernatural hope and joy during suffering because left in darkness, one cannot understand that God allows purpose through pain. The megaphone of pain is not heard by a truly deaf person; neither is it heard by a truly dead person. The unbelieving world is “dead in [its] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). Spiritually dead people will not hear God’s whispers in pleasure, his speaking in conscience, or even his shouting through a megaphone in pain. 

As we previously learned, God’s providential care allows us to view our pain in context of the bigger picture with purpose and an end. Our pain is not a meaningless, random circumstance of the universe. There is a story behind it. That story is for our and the world’s redemption. 

We Christians are alive, not dead, and we are not entirely deaf. But like the man who saw “people . . . like trees walking” (Mark 8:24) and was (initially) partially healed from blindness by Jesus, we are partially healed from deafness—we can hear somewhat dimly and fuzzily in pleasures and conscience. The megaphone of pain is intended for Christians, and it is only effective for them. That’s where Christian contentment comes in. We must put Christian contentment on display before this angry, indignant, suffering world to show that the true answer is Christ. 

In prayer, spend a few minutes naming the places of suffering in your life. Offer these words to the Lord with the hope of His healing the pain in your life. Ask God to show you His love in this moment.