The good life in Christ: rejoicing in suffering

Michael Reeves  |  Features  |  everyday theology
Date posted:  5 Mar 2025
Share Add       
The good life in Christ: rejoicing in suffering

Source: iStock

Is ‘the good life’ a life without suffering? Ease and prosperity in and of themselves are not really what make up the good life. Christ Himself was made like His weak and tempted brothers in order that He might help those who are tempted (Heb.2:16-18), and in the same manner, it is weak and suffering people that God has chosen to minister to the weak and suffering.

The great Refiner uses the days of small things. He uses the setbacks and discouragements, and even severe suffering, for our ultimate blessing. He did just that at the cross: it was through that darkest and most discouraging day that He definitively overturned and defeated the very root of darkness and suffering. Through that death He defeated death; through our comparatively light sufferings He is able to defeat our selfish independence and our foolish wandering and to make us more like His free and victorious Son. For those who have even glimpsed the unfettered beauty of Jesus, that thought itself puts mettle in our joy.

An important response when we encounter suffering is to look to God. When all seems broken, uncertain, or wrong, remember God the unchanging one who, through it all, cannot be broken, uncertain, or wrong.

Share
< Previous article| Features| Next article >
Read more articles on:   suffering  /  theology
Read more articles by Michael Reeves >>
Features
What is the most urgent need of the church today?

What is the most urgent need of the church today?

What is the most urgent need of the church today? Better leadership? Better training? Healthier giving? Orthodoxy? Moral integrity? Each …

Features
Even our trials are in His kind hands

Even our trials are in His kind hands

‘Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something …

Subscribe

Enjoy our monthly paper and full online access

Find out more

Give a subscription

Our monthly newspaper is the perfect gift for those who love to think deeply

Give here