A Purpose in Suffering

Hi there, and welcome to today's Our Daily Bread. I've called today's reading, A Purpose in Suffering.

I'm Sheridan Voisey. So what you're saying is, it may not be my fault. The woman's words took me by surprise. Having been a guest speaker at her church, we were now discussing what I'd shared that morning. I have a chronic illness, she explained, and I have prayed, fasted, confessed my sins, and done everything else I was told to do to be healed. But I'm still sick, so I thought I was to blame.

I felt sad at that woman's confession. Having been given a spiritual formula to fix her problem, she had blamed herself when the formula hadn't worked. Even worse, this formulaic approach to suffering was disproved generations ago. Simply put, this old formula says that if you're suffering, you must have sinned. When Job tragically lost his livestock, children, and health, his friends used the formula on him.

Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Eliphaz said in Job chapter 4, suspecting Job's guilt. In chapter 8, Bildad even told Job that his children only died because they had sinned. Ignorant of the real cause of Job's calamities, they tormented him with simplistic reasons for his pain, later receiving God's rebuke. Suffering is a part of living in a fallen world. Like Job, it can happen for reasons we may never know. But God has a purpose for you that goes beyond the pain you endure.

Don't be discouraged by falling for simplistic formulas. Today's scripture reading is from Job chapter 42, verses 1 to 9. My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now, take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.

You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shoahite, and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. Let's pray together. Lord, we bring you our needs today, physical, emotional, and spiritual. We ask you for healing. If there's something for us to do to be well, please show us what it is. Otherwise, we trust in you today for our healing and the healing of those we love. We ask this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.