Benefits Of Being Justified Through FaithSample

We can rejoice when we suffer

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.”

God is saying to you: “Rejoice when you suffer.” That may sound crazy, but that’s what God calls you to do. Rejoice when you experience a setback, a disappointment, a heartache. Rejoice when you have car trouble or the refrigerator goes out. Rejoice when you have back pain, when you hear the diagnosis of cancer, when you lose a family member.

Rejoice, not because of those things, but in those things. Take joy. Choose to rejoice, to give praise, to give thanks. Don’t complain or grumble or whine. Don’t cry out, “How could God do this to me?” Rather, choose joy.

Let me ask you: Do you do this? What is your biggest burden right now? Are you rejoicing in that suffering? It’s what people of faith do. In Acts 16, when Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail, they were singing songs and praising God. That’s rejoicing in suffering.

When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was in a Soviet gulag prison for eight years, he lost his parents, and his wife divorced him. Yet, in the ordeal of prison, God touched his heart and drew Solzhenitsyn to Himself. Solzhenitsyn later wrote, “So bless you, prison, for having been in my life.” He chose to rejoice. 

But why? Why do we rejoice? Basically, because God says to, and because He’s God. But we can say more. Romans 5:3 continues with, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). God uses these sufferings, painful though they may be, to build our faith, to shape our souls, and to grow our hearts. We need them.

Here is a classic quote from C.S. Lewis: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” 

So rejoice when you suffer.