God refines us in our suffering and graciously explains why: “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this” (Isaiah 48:10). For emphasis, God repeats the reason.

G.K. Chesterton’s character, Father Brown, said, “We are on the wrong side of the tapestry.” How true. We see the knots, the snarls, and the frayed underside. But God is on the right side of the tapestry—the side He is weaving into a beautiful work of art.

Before my mother would make a cake, she used to lay the ingredients on the kitchen counter. One day I tasted the individual ingredients for a chocolate cake. Judging by the taste of each component, I never would have believed cake could taste so good! In a similar way, the individual ingredients of trials and apparent tragedies taste bitter to us.

Psalm 107 begins, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this.” The psalmist details the sufferings of God’s people, wandering in desert wastelands, without homes, hungry, and thirsty.

There’s a common saying: “God won’t give you more than you can handle” or “…more than you can bear.” Certainly, God gives us things which we can’t handle by ourselves. But He also promises that He is sufficient and able to sustain and strengthen us.

Randy was on a panel speaking about suffering and walking through the difficult things in life. He answers several questions and shares his experiences and truths from Scripture 

There are varying responses to questions about suffering, and the good ones all require trust that a good, loving, holy, and just God knows what He’s doing.

How we think about suffering will radically affect how we see God and the world around us. If you believe God should always bless you and your loved ones with material abundance and good health, you are setting yourself up to lose your faith. 

In this clip from his conversation with Davey Blackburn from Nothing Is Wasted Ministries, Randy answers the question, “Why is a proper view of suffering imperative?”