SUFFERING;
TRIALS: INEVITABILITY OF

The Bible has a great deal to say about suffering and most of it is encouraging.…

We cannot afford to neglect it, for whether we understand it or not we are going to experience some suffering. As human beings we cannot escape it.

From the first cold shock that brings a howl of protest from the newborn infant down to the last anguished gasp of the aged man, pain and suffering dog our footsteps as we journey here below. It will pay us to learn what God says about it so that we may know how to act and what to expect when it comes.…

There is a kind of suffering which profits no one: it is the bitter and defiant suffering of the lost.… To such there is not much that we can say.…

As long as we remain in the body we shall be subject to a certain amount of that common suffering which we must share with all the sons of men—loss, bereavement, nameless heartaches, disappointments, partings, betrayals and griefs of a thousand sorts.… We should be watchful lest we lose any blessing which such suffering might bring.

But there is another kind of suffering, known only to the Christian: it is voluntary suffering deliberately and knowingly incurred for the sake of Christ. Such is a luxury, a treasure of fabulous value, a source of riches beyond the power of the mind to conceive. And it is rare as well as precious, for there are few in this decadent age who will of their own choice go down into this dark mine looking for jewels.… Such as these have said goodbye to the world’s toys; they have chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God; they have accepted toil and suffering as their earthy portion. The marks of the cross are upon them and they are known in heaven and in hell.

Romans 5:3–5; 2 Corinthians 9:9–10; Philippians 3:7–16; Hebrews 11:24–26

The Root of the Righteous, 151, 152, 153.