Kindness in Suffering: 12 Ways God Shows His Goodness Through Trials and AfflictionsSample

Suffering Deepens Our Love for Other Christians

Trials and suffering do not just work for our own benefit. In addition to experiencing “the fellowship of [Christ’s] sufferings” (Phil. 3:10), there is also another fellowship of suffering— with other believers. Not only is there a fellowship of common experience among believers who suffer together, but there is also a charge for us to help one another in our affliction. As we endure hardship and receive comfort from God, we are meant to extend that same comfort to others.

Second Corinthians 1 begins with an exhortation of such comfort. We are told that God “comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (v. 4). For example, when a woman has survived breast cancer by the grace of God, she may be far better equipped to encourage another woman who receives her first diagnosis. In this way, we are able to be both “sharers of our sufferings” as well as “sharers of our comfort” (v. 7).

The more we are afflicted with trials and suffering, the more equipped we become to help others who are in pain. And as we consider those around us, we are able to “love one another” (John 13:34) in very tangible ways—through tenderness, service, prayer, compassion, empathy, and biblical counsel. We would also do well to consider that perhaps our own particular trials have been given to us so that, once we have endured faithfully through them, we may be able to help someone else who is suffering in the same way. And in doing so, not only are our hearts knit to them, but theirs to us. As the bond of loving unity grows between believers, we see the kindness of God to grow this sweet fellowship in His grace.