Randy Alcorn on "Suffering"

Facebook reminded me that, last year on this day, I posted a link to a post by Randy Alcorn:
http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2019/01/suffering.html

Direct link to his blog entry:  https://www.epm.org/blog/2019/Jan/21/good-we-never-ask-suffering?fbclid=IwAR3SY1nX440ejCFnZ4p1x3HpSI_ALg1bwQZ_WCEY9DPeOUjXcTcvLHoaW-Q

I re-read it today, and was struck again by the wisdom in the words - possibly even more so because last year when I read it, we still believed that Dwayne was going to be living, that we would be facing the trials of his disease together. But, that wasn't in God's plan for me or for Dwayne...

What can suffering do for me? It can show me the impossibility of finding true happiness outside of God. When what I once leaned on for happiness—my health, career, wealth, or popularity [Patti addition: or my marriage, the one who was the most special to me]—crumbles into dust, the way is cleared for me to see that God is my only solid foundation.

We’re right to ask God for relief. Nevertheless, every time we ask Him to remove difficulty, we may be asking Him to forgo an opportunity to declare His greatness or deepen our relationship with Him. When did you last hear someone say, “I grew closest to God when my life was free from suffering”?

Ten months after his son was killed in a car accident, Greg Laurie told me, “What I wish is that I could have learned and grown and drawn close to the Lord just like I have, but that Christopher was still here.” Greg captured it perfectly—I too wish I could have all the good God brings through adversity without all that pain. But it doesn’t work that way, does it?

Oh, don't we all wish that we could have all the good God brings through adversity without going through the pain!

God doesn’t command us to cheer because we’ve been betrayed, diagnosed with cancer, or lost a loved one. Rather, our joy comes in the expectation of adversity’s by-products, including the development of godly character, greater dependence on Jesus, and countless reasons hidden to us for now (but crystal clear in our Father’s mind).

Expectation, hope, the knowledge that God has my good in His mind - those are the things that I can depend upon. Scripture gives me promises...

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  (1 Cor 4:8-9 NIV)

When I look back over this year, I am thankful for all that I have learned, about God, about myself, about depending fully upon God, about His love for me, about His sovereignty, His provision. I certainly have not "arrived", but I can look back and be grateful for what He has taught me.