By Donald T. Williams
III. THE POWER OF SUFFERING
The point needs only to be made to be understood. There is no more irrefutable, undeniable testimony to the truth of the Gospel and the reality of God than the Christian who bears affliction joyfully, without bitterness, with love. For only God could produce this kind of spiritual reality, and without suffering it could never be seen.
History is replete with illustrative examples. Think of Paul and Silas singing in the Philippian jail, leading to the jailer's conversion. Think of Corrie and Betsy ten Boom in the concentration camp being asked, "Why has your God of Love put you here?" Betsy replied quietly, "To obey him." Think of Elizabeth Eliot and Rachel Saint returning with love, forgiveness, and the Gospel to the Auca Indians who had savagely murdered their husbands. Think of Joni Eareckson Tada, the quadriplegic, sitting in her wheelchair with a paintbrush clenched between her teeth, bringing beauty out of her pain and signing it "PTL" — "Praise the Lord."
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Bring the most hardened and sophisticated atheist in the world into the presence of such redemptive suffering, let him experience firsthand such faith, and I defy him to deny the reality of the God whose Son suffered for sin with any conviction in his voice. Redemptive suffering is powerful.
CONCLUSION:
Why does preaching lack power today? Why does revival tarry? Why is the American Evangelical church, in spite of its numbers, so impotent to make any real impact on our society? Because by and large God's people are not willing to suffer for the Gospel. We prefer the theology of prosperity and success, even if it is in the milder and more subtle forms that do not so loudly betray their heretical origins. We prefer to think that God's love for us involves his intention of pampering us with an endless and uninterrupted series of successes, blessings, and victories for which no price has to be paid. But is this not an open invitation, tempting the Devil to accuse us as he did Job (1:9-11)? And why should God exempt us from the task of proving Satan wrong, any more than he exempted his servant Job?
I pray that God will grant us continued peace and prosperity as a nation. I pray that He will protect you from all unnecessary suffering. But I also pray He will help us to accept the affliction He does send us, understand it biblically, and bear it redemptively.
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Donald Williams is Director of the School of Arts and Sciences at Toccoa Falls College, Toccoa Falls, GA.