Suffering - Does God Use This?

"This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children." [Heb.12:7]

I read this verse this morning and remembered that recently I've been thinking about the hard times and extra suffering many of my friends have been experiencing. One gal is a very mature Christian. She had tremendous pain, like a belt around her waist and couldn't eat or drink anything without severe pain to result. She eventually had an MRI which showed a large stone in her kidney. A procedure was done to remove the stone. Unfortunately, she had pancreatic symptoms after the procedure and had to be admitted to the hospital for 2 days. She had told the Dr. prior to the procedure not to give her a certain medicine because her body did not respond well to it and would react badly. Unfortunately, her advice was ignored. This was probably the cause of her pain and necessary hospitalization. She is still not fully back to normal.

According to man's way of thinking there can be many reasons for suffering. Ultimately, it can all be traced back to man's fall - sin. Now, here in Heb. 12, another reason is put forth. The idea is that God is using the suffering as discipline to train us, much the same way a parent will discipline his child. The discipline isn't pleasant but in the end the result is good.

This verse does not say that the suffering was caused by God, but that He uses it. He uses it as discipline to train us. This brings to mind the strong words in Rom. 8:28 -"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called to his purpose. [Rom. 8:28 ESV]

God can, and does, use everything that occurs in our life for His greater good.

Consider the tasty cake that your mother used to make. If you were to taste each ingredient that went into the cake one by one none of them would taste good. They would, in fact, be disgusting - just like your suffering is disgusting. But when your mother puts the right measurement of each ingredient in the mix with the others and bakes it at the right temperature, the result is wonderful! In the same way, God knows exactly how much of each experience to mix together and the right temperature to bake it at. It does get hard and hot at times! But in the end He will bring forth the mature son or daughter He wants.