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

Suffering Dislodges Our Hearts From the World

The Bible tells us not to love the world—the earthly kingdom of darkness set up against the righteous ways of the Lord. “For all that is in the world,” John wrote, “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:16). When we are redeemed by Jesus Christ out of that darkness (Col. 1:13) into God’s kingdom of righteousness and light, our hearts still must be dislodged from our old way of living. How does the Lord remove us from the world while we are still living in it? Through suffering and trials.

In his timeless classic Confessions, fifth-century pastor and theologian Augustine of Hippo recounts his spiritual journey from being a lover of the things of the world to a lover of the things of God. He confesses to the Lord his former desires, which existed as lusts within him, but then praises God for prying him away from the deadly grip of the world:

I was eager for fame and wealth and marriage, but you only derided these ambitions. They caused me to suffer the most galling difficulties, but the less you allowed me to find pleasure in anything that was not yourself, the greater, I know, was your goodness to me. Look into my heart, O Lord, for it was your will that I should remember these things and confess them to you. I pray now that my soul may cling to you, for it was you who released it from the deadly snare in which it was so firmly caught.

Our addiction to worldly things often dies hard. And almost always, the only way to sever the “old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit” (Eph. 4:22) is to suffer hardship under the hand of God. In the throes of suffering, our hearts do not cling to the fleeting pleasures of earthly things, but to the God who delivers us out of spiritual deadness and into new life. Worldliness is a deadly spiritual addiction. But in God’s kindness, He detoxifies us through trials and suffering.