Recently I’ve been pondering suffering. I realize how often I try to mitigate circumstances in order to try and protect myself from what I might perceive as heartbreaking or too challenging. 

But God has been talking to my heart. He is helping me to understand that when I try to protect myself from suffering, I’m apt to miss out on depth of personal experience with God. 

If I don’t let suffering have its intended impact, I am likely going to miss out on the experience of God’s great comfort.

There are many accounts in the Bible of people who suffered greatly, but God was right there with them to carry them through the challenges. 

Consider Joseph. Genesis 37 introduces us to Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son. God gave Joseph two dreams. When Joseph told these dreams to his father and brothers, they were angry, and his brothers plotted his demise. They ended up selling him to Ishmaelites, who sold him in Egypt to Potiphar. But God had plans that no one could ever have conceived of for Joseph, his father, and his brothers!

Perhaps God has good plans for me in the midst of my suffering?

The story continues in Genesis 39. But before we read what followed, I think it is important to stop and consider how Joseph had suffered to this point. His own brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites. They SOLD their own brother! Such betrayal could have made Joseph bitter, but God didn’t allow that. Instead, Joseph bore up under this injustice, and experienced God in amazing ways, as the following verses reveal:

Genesis 39:2-6: “The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.”

Wow! Who could have imagined such immense blessing from God? I’m thinking Joseph was in absolute awe of the Lord! Joseph went from being sold into slavery to being in charge of Potiphar’s entire household. That’s the stuff we’d see in Hallmark movies.

Please consider the relationship God was nurturing with Joseph. The intimacy and understanding of the greatness of God that Joseph gained through his suffering, and God’s blessings in the midst of the suffering was what I consider one of the best experiences of life.

As I consider this, I realize that all the times I attempt to buffer myself from suffering, that I am really hurting myself, because I’m missing out on an incredible experience with God.

Additionally, this experience would have helped Joseph in his next experience of suffering. You can read about his imprisonment when Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife’s advances, and ended up in prison for a period of years because of her false charges [Genesis 39:11-20]. 

More suffering. But God again granted Joseph favor, and brought him out of that prison, and eventually worked events so that Joseph became second in charge to Pharoah over Egypt [Genesis 41]. Amazing!!!

Who would have ever considered that would be the outcome of Joseph’s brother’s selling him into slavery??

What might God have planned for us when we don’t resist suffering but embrace it with God’s power?

Joseph walked with God, and God eventually utilized him to provide for his father and brothers and their families during a severe famine [Genesis 42-45]. Only God could and would sovereignly design such a plan.

What made Joseph “special” was his love and devotion to God, not his leadership abilities, or anything else, but that he loved God. I find evidence of that devotion in his statement to his brothers in Genesis 50:19-21: “But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.”

Only a heart in an intimate relationship with God would be touched by the Lord so that he showed love and compassion to those who had so deeply rejected and hurt him. Please consider this. Joseph could have been bitter and hated his brothers for all his unjust suffering, but God protected his heart, as he remained devoted to Him. 

We don’t like to suffer. We try to protect ourselves from being hurt by others. But God has amazing blessings for us when we allow Him to walk us through suffering. 

Have you ever been the victim of betrayal by someone you trusted? How did you respond? Did you allow God to use your suffering to make you better? What was your experience with God like?

I have been betrayed by those I trusted to love me. But God has helped me to forgive, and to move on with Him in the midst of my heartache. My husband will tell me that I put my heart out there, and far too often my heart has been crushed by betrayal. But God has comforted me. God has used my suffering to make me a better comforter, and to help others to see His love through me. It’s not me. It’s all God in me. I get no credit. He gets all the praise!

In the midst of my suffering, I experience a deepening relationship with Him. That experience prepares me for the next manner of suffering this life will bring, because suffering in this sinful world is inevitable. It also helps me to stop trying to protect myself from suffering, but to trust the One who holds me in His loving arms.

The key to handling suffering is having an intimate relationship with Jesus. Without Jesus you might manage through, but with Jesus, it’s a spectacular journey filled with blessings we cannot imagine, just as Joseph could never have imagined being the one God used to save the Israelite nation during a severe famine.

2 Corinthians 4:17 provides us with God’s perspective when we have struggles: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, I would love to talk with you!  Please contact me at: ButGodCares@gmail.com.

Living for Jesus, Donna

P.S. If this has helped you, please feel free to share it with others!

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Copyright 2022 Donna Shappy  All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – without the prior permission of the author.