Suffering Joyfully!

1 Peter 4:12–13 NLT - Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad, for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

James 1:2–4 NLT - Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

Romans 5:1–5 ESV - Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We have been going through the Bible and highlighting places of tension. These are not personal confusion or personal questions in Scripture, but what appear to be paradoxes, two things that are opposing concepts.

During a Sunday service, Matt shared the paradox of being fully saved, whole, and free in Jesus but also still walking the process of sanctification. If we are already perfect in His sight, we may ask why we still need to be sanctified. Nate taught one Sunday on the tension of God being outside of time yet fully present, the One who was, who is, and who is to come.

As evident from the three verses above, the topic at hand is suffering, specifically the joy in suffering. That phrase alone sounds like a paradox. It raises the question of how one is supposed to be joyful while suffering. Suffering seems to be the opposite of joy.

Suffering is defined as “the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship.” Joy is defined as “a feeling of great pleasure and overwhelming happiness; triumph.” In a human context, these two things feel like opposites. Yet in 1 Peter 4:12–13, Peter says, “Don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad.” By our human definition, the idea of joy in suffering seems contradictory.

Joy in suffering is highlighted countless times in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, this idea is actually taught directly by Jesus in His “Sermon on the Mount”.

Matthew 5:3–12 NLT - “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.”

Jesus never said suffering itself is fun or enjoyable. He is not calling us to pretend that pain does not hurt or that hardship does not weigh on us. He is revealing that there is a Kingdom reality that supersedes our earthly reality. This is a way God sees, works, and moves that is often completely opposite from what we feel in the moment.

In His Kingdom, suffering is never wasted. Nothing you walk through is meaningless. Mourning leads to comfort because God meets you in the place where your heart breaks. Persecution leads to reward because it proves your life looks like Jesus, even when it costs you something. Weakness becomes strength because when you come to the end of yourself, God becomes the source of your endurance.

This is why joy is possible in suffering. It is not because pain is good, but because God is good in the midst of the pain. Jesus ties every form of suffering to a promise. He does not say, “Be happy you are hurting.” He says, “Be glad, because this pain has purpose. I am forming something in you, revealing something to you, and preparing something for you.”

Joy does not come from the suffering. It comes from what God is doing through it. He transforms our character. He deepens our trust. He sharpens our hope. He pulls us closer to His heart. Suffering becomes the soil where spiritual fruit grows. It becomes a doorway, not a dead end. The joy we experience is not fake happiness. It is the deep confidence that God is working even when we cannot see it yet.

Jesus is not calling us to do anything He Himself did not experience and did not do first. He felt every type of human pain, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

Hebrews 4:15 - For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

Isaiah 53:3–4 - He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried.

Hebrews 2:17–18 - Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

1 Peter 2:24 - He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Our God came to earth as a human so that He could feel everything we feel, be tempted in every way we are, and walk through suffering to death, so that when we walk through pain, we are not walking alone.

Hebrews 12:2 - Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Once again, Jesus does not ask us to do anything He did not first do Himself. He felt everything we feel. He was tempted in every way we are tempted. We must let that truth sink in.

Suffering is universal. Whether one is a believer or a non-believer, it will come. How we respond to suffering is what sets the trajectory of our spiritual life. Suffering can either refine us and sanctify us, or pull us away from God if we choose what looks like “the easier suffering,” which is simply bitterness or avoidance. Our lives are meant to exemplify Christ in all we do. We live through suffering while exalting God’s presence and purposes in the midst of it.

There are countless stories in the Bible that highlight joy in suffering.

• Joseph (Genesis 37–50): Betrayed by his brothers, enslaved, falsely accused, imprisoned. Still declares, “You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good.”
• Job (Book of Job): Loses everything, wealth, family, health. Says, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
• The Early Church (Acts 4–5): Persecuted for their faith. They were threatened, beaten, arrested, and some even died. However, they rejoiced for being counted worthy to suffer for God’s name. Acts 5:41 says, “The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.”

Consider the example of Paul and Silas (Acts 16:16–40). Paul and Silas were ministering the Gospel and casting out a spirit from a slave girl. This led to them being arrested and imprisoned. They were beaten, severely flogged, and thrown into prison. Their hands and feet were bound. They were in excruciating pain.

They were not bound loosely and thrown into a modern prison with air conditioning, sleeping pads, and meals. They had none of that. They had metal shackles bound so tightly around their wrists that they were bleeding, and they were hung up on the wall in a freezing, potentially wet, pitch black prison with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Back then, prisoners were sometimes even stripped of those.

Yet in the middle of this suffering, instead of despairing or complaining, they prayed and sang hymns to God at midnight. Beaten, chained, in the dark, they had nothing, and yet their voices rose in worship. This was not empty optimism. It was true joy rooted in God. Their worship had power. Suddenly, a great earthquake shook the prison, opening the doors and loosening the chains of every prisoner. God’s presence was made manifest in the midst of their suffering.

To know that God is good and yet allows bad things to happen is one of the biggest theological struggles people face. It is not a new question. It is a question every generation wrestles with, and even strong believers battle with it. However, this is why the Cross matters so much.

The Cross proves we do not serve a God who simply allows suffering from a distance. We serve a God who stepped into it. Consider this truth, there is no other religion where this is the case. Search all the earth. Every other belief system tells people to fix themselves, become worthy, climb their way up to God, and do everything they can to be god-like. The Gospel says the exact opposite. We cannot climb high enough, so God came down to us.

Philippians 2 says that Jesus emptied Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. This means He did not just die for us, He joined us in pain. When we suffer in faith, we actually suffer like Christ, and that makes us look more like Him.

1 Peter 2:21 says that Christ suffered as an example for us, that we might follow in His steps. When we walk through suffering with our eyes on Jesus, we are not becoming less like God, we are becoming more like Him. He entered the very pain we question Him about. He endured betrayal, injustice, poverty, grief, loneliness, and physical torture to death. Through His suffering, we are eternally relieved of ours. Through His atonement, we are reconciled to the Father.

When everything around us feels unbearable, we are not abandoned. He is still with us. Scripture says He is “very present in times of trouble.” Not less present, not distant, but very present. Suffering is loud, but God is never silent in it.

When we look at Scripture, we see instances of God wiping the earth clean of evil, such as the flood in Noah’s day and the fire that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. If the question is, “Why doesn’t God remove all evil right now?” The answer is painfully simple. If God removed all evil instantly, none of us would remain.

The fact that the world still exists is evidence of His mercy, not of His neglect. The patience of God is mercy as stated in 2 Peter 3:9. It says, “The Lord isn’t slow in fulfilling His promise of Jesus’ return but is patiently waiting, not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance and salvation.”

It is His goodness that keeps the world turning, even though the world is broken. We want a perfect world, but a perfect world cannot exist with imperfect people. A perfect earth can only exist under a perfect King, with perfected hearts, in a renewed creation. That is the promise of Revelation. That is the promise of Christ’s return (Revelation 21:4–5).

The longing we feel for a world with no suffering is actually a longing for Heaven, not for Earth to just work better. Every ache we have is really an ache for our Creator. Nothing in this world can fully satisfy us because we were not made for this world, we were made for Him. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “set eternity in the human heart,” meaning the longing we feel is a longing for the One who made us.

Jesus says in Matthew 11:28–30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” A yoke was a wooden harness used to join two or more draft animals together so they could pull a heavy load. It was a long, thick wooden beam laid across their shoulders, a symbol of weight, work, pressure, and a heavy burden. This image parallels the Cross.

In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Jesus said this Himself. Then, He literally took on the Cross. It was not symbolism. As He explained to the disciples, He took on a physical cross. Jesus uses both images, the cross and the yoke.

In Matthew 16:24, He says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” In Matthew 11:28–30 He says, “Take My yoke upon you.” When Jesus brings up the yoke, it is a representation of the Cross. This presents another paradox. A cross is not light. A yoke is not light. Both, in Jesus’ world, were symbols of suffering, weight, cost, and death. Yet Jesus tells us His yoke, His Cross, is easy and His burden is light.

The beauty of this is found in the design of the yoke. A yoke was never meant for one animal. It was built for two or more. So when Jesus commands, “Take My yoke,” He is not handing you a heavy beam and sending you off alone. You come up under His strength. He carries the weight with you, and He bears the burden of its weight. What feels crushing on your own becomes light when He is the One beside us.

When Jesus carried His cross to Calvary, He broke down because He was too weak to go on. He was continually being beaten and could physically no longer hold the weight. A man was called from the crowd to help Jesus carry this Cross. He carried it for Him to the end while Jesus was barely holding on.

The cross, by definition, is heavy. Suffering is heavy. Self-denial is heavy. But Jesus makes the impossible possible. He makes a cross feel light because He never asks you to carry it alone. His presence turns burden into peace. His strength turns weakness into endurance. His nearness turns suffering into joy.

When Jesus says, “Take up your cross,” and also says, “My yoke is light,” He is not contradicting Himself. He is revealing a Kingdom truth. The weight is real, but the weight is shared. Anything shared with Jesus becomes light because He already took on all of the weight we could ever carry.

We often hear “take up your cross” and instantly think we are supposed to muscle through it on our own strength. That was never the call. Jesus never said, “Pick up your cross and good luck.” He said, “Follow Me.” This means we walk where He walks, we stay where He stays, we move how He moves, and we do not carry this alone.

Isaiah 53:4 says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” Jesus literally carries what crushes us. Psalm 55:22 states, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you…” It does not say, “Cast your burden on the Lord and then pick it back up.” It says He will sustain you.

We have one of the most comforting promises in all of Scripture in Matthew 11:28–30. Jesus says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” His yoke is light because He is the one doing the heavy lifting.

This is who Jesus is. He is strong where we are weak. He is steady where we are shaking. He is present where we feel abandoned. He is carrying the impossible weight we were never built to carry alone. Paul confirms this in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”

Your weakness is not a liability in the Kingdom. It is the exact place where Jesus steps in and makes the weight light. When the weight feels too heavy, that is not a sign God has left you. That is a sign you stopped sharing the yoke. In Jesus’ kingdom, suffering is real, but suffering is never alone. The cross is real, but the cross is never carried alone. Joy is possible in suffering because Jesus is in the yoke with you.

That is why the weight becomes light. Not because life gets easier, but because He gets closer. The ache in us is healed by the presence of Him in us. When you feel that ache of loneliness, disappointment, confusion, or longing, it is not proof God is absent. It is proof your soul is craving its Source. The groaning inside of us is not a sign that God is absent. It is a sign that eternity is present in us. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “set eternity in the human heart.”

The whole gospel includes the call to endure suffering. Yes, the gospel is good news about Christ’s person, death, and resurrection, but it is also a summons to join Him in His suffering.

Are you ready to resist the devil until the day you die?
Are you willing to kill the sin in you until the day you die?
Are you willing to live with unsatisfied desires until the day you die?

This is not because God does not want us to be happy, but because we no longer live for ourselves and our desires. We live for Christ, and Christ alone, and the path is narrow. Matthew 24:13 says, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” This comes with the highest reward!

Our faith is a faith of crucifixion before resurrection. That is not spoken of enough. We tell people, “Come to Jesus, He’ll give you abundant life,” which is true, He gives life and life abundantly. But we do not tell them that abundant life costs everything. Jesus said the road is hard.

Perhaps talking about suffering is not viewed as a great evangelistic strategy. However, the lack of it may be why we have churches full of unbelievers. Christianity is a death sentence to self. When we preach the gospel, whether to ourselves or our friends, we must preach it in a way that requires counting the cost. We cannot expect the narrow way while living like the wide one.

We must preach the whole gospel, faith, obedience, death to self, resurrection power, Christ’s lordship, human weakness, and the daily fight against the dark rulers and powers of this world. Let us not be hardened by this world’s deceitfulness. This inner war between flesh and Spirit is why our endurance and our joy are so necessary. Our greatest battle is not the world around us. It is us. We are the hardest people we will ever have to fight.

The difficulty in your life may be God pressing you deeper into dependence. Hebrews is the perfect book for this, because those believers were tempted to fall away too. It had not been that long. After explaining the supremacy of Christ and His sympathy for our weaknesses, Hebrews points to the saints of old who endured because they looked at God. Noah, Sarah, Abraham, Moses… They could do hard things because their eyes were on Him. God was not abstract to the saints. He was real, present, and trustworthy. That reality gave them the strength to endure.

Hebrews 12:1-2 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

If you focus on anything other than Jesus, you will not finish. Shame tempts us to look at ourselves more than at Christ, but that will never make us holy. Jesus endured the cross and all its shame because His eyes were fixed on the joy set before Him. He did not let shame, suffering, or humiliation distract Him.

In the same way, we are called to fix our eyes on Christ. The only way to endure, to run well, and to persevere through life’s trials is to keep our focus on Him, more than on our temptations, more than on the world, more than on anything else. When we look to Christ, we can face hard things, and even rejoice in them.

This joy in the midst of suffering is only possible because of Christ and His beautiful sacrifice. Following Him means more than loving others and reflecting Jesus in our actions. While this is the foundation of our faith, it also means enduring trials with our eyes set on the joy He promises. Like Christ, we are called to persevere, to endure, and to rejoice, even in the midst of hardship, because our focus is on the eternal joy set before us.

Jesus showed us how to pray and endure in Luke 22:39–43. Even as He faced immense suffering, He prayed, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done.” Father did not remove the suffering; He gave Christ the strength to endure it.

God’s grace is sufficient. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. The challenge is whether we have enough faith to wait on Him. We must learn to wait, to endure, to cry out for sustenance, grace, and strength. We do it because He is worthy, because He is beautiful, good, King, Lord, friend, Father, Messiah, life, and light.

Press in. Make your focus the eternal joy set before you. Fight. The way you fight is on your face in prayer and lifting your hands in worship.

Seeking His face!
Tina

Tina Moncrieffe
Wellspring.Live

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