Great Reassurance

God is more concerned with our spiritual growth than our comfort. To one who loves comfort, this statement from the Sunday School curriculum I taught this year at my church might sound harsh. But it is actually greatly reassuring. It means that even if we are uncomfortable- because of physical or emotional suffering, social situations, etc. - we can rest assured that through our discomfort, God will help us to grow stronger spiritually. In fact, it means that we can be assured that the discomfort we experience is the will of God; we need not wonder if we suffer wrongly or if we are suffering for some transgression or if our suffering will eventually overwhelm us and obliterate us. We can feel confident knowing that the source of our suffering is not us but the holy will of God.

So, can we say that our discomfort is actually a good thing? We are inclined not to while we are experiencing discomfort, but how often do we look back at what we have suffered and realize that it was not so bad? When we know the outcome of our discomfort, what we have experienced doesn’t seem quite as harsh as it did while we were in the midst of it. But we don’t need “20/20 hindsight” to believe that there is a good purpose behind that which we suffer through. Instead, we have God’s promise in Jeremiah 32:40-41:

I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

We can say our discomfort is a good thing because we have God’s promise to always do good to us. We do not have to conclude that we suffer needlessly or wrongly if the reasons for our suffering elude us. All we need to understand is that our God does not delight in tearing us down or crushing us beyond repair, but in saving us.