All Things NewSample

I once thought that if I loved God and made solid, biblical choices, I would be blessed with some version of a really good life, void of heartbreak or catastrophe or sickness. As I grew older, I gradually realized that following God didn’t guarantee this premium package, this safeness. Still, I somehow felt that if I did my part then God would be obligated to do His: build me the kind of life we covet in America and protect me from pain. 

For the record, I do believe obedience yields blessing and that God delights in giving us material and relational gifts, often in response to our following Him. Even still, my understanding of how suffering fit—or didn’t fit—into the bigger paradigm of the Christian faith was deficient. The Bible reveals that suffering has its place in our lives and even Hebrews 2:10 explains that Jesus was made perfect through suffering. What I’d missed in pining for what made me feel good and attempting to protect myself from whatever I feared “coming upon me” (in the words of Job) was really quite simple: suffering is part of the blessing. 

The thought of suffering shouldn’t thrust a bolt of terror through our hearts because God is especially present in our suffering. But neither should we set out for a life of pain, martyrdom, and victimhood in Jesus’ name. Bottom line, we shouldn’t fear suffering, but we don’t need to be looking under rocks for it either. 

Paul opens his letter to the Corinthians by acknowledging two of God’s characteristics that meet us in our afflictions (trouble or tribulations). Notice Paul didn’t say that God is a merciful Father, though He is, rather that He’s the Father of mercies. He’s the very source and origin of all compassion. He is compassion’s first and only fountain—the Father from whom all compassion flows. This is a paradigm shift for the person who sees God as someone who only occasionally taps into His kind side. 

Let’s consider the original language of the word mercies (compassion). It means “bowels in which compassion resides, a heart of compassion, emotions, longings, manifestations of pity” or “the inward parts.” When we look at the definition of this word, we get a strong sense of feeling. According to Scripture, I want you to hear today that the Lord feels for you. He compassionately and mercifully loves you.