Is Your Suffering a Reward?

Is Your Suffering a Reward?

A version of this post was originally published on August 24, 2016 under the title “Is God Bragging on You?”

If we are honest, when it comes to suffering, many of us live this life believing God is waiting for an opportunity to punish us. We think He’s keeping a list of checks and balances, shaking His head and tsk-tsking every time we mess up. When life gets good, we wait for the other shoe to drop, for something to go wrong, thinking we don’t deserve whatever good we get from life. Maybe things are only good because God plans to take it all away.

As I’ve been studying the book of Job with the ladies in the Bible Study Academy, I’ve realized this was the consensus among Job’s friends, too. They believed Job lost everything, his herds, his servants, even his children, because he had stepped out of bounds and offended God. Surely, God wouldn’t punish a righteous man! 

But we are told at the beginning of the book that Job was a righteous man. God described Job to Satan as a “blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job. 1:8, ESV). As readers, we have information the participants in the story didn’t have. We are privy to a conversation between God and Satan. And God used that opportunity to draw Satan’s attention to Job. God bragged on Job!

What Causes Suffering?

Suffering

While it is true that we might experience suffering in our lives because of sin we have committed, that is not the only reason we might go through painful circumstances. And the account in Job shows us one reason we might suffer is because of what we are doing right. Because of Job’s faithfulness, Satan attacked him on every front in an effort to make Job turn his back on God.

What if, and stay with me here, this is the rule and not the exception? What if God brags on His children more than we realize? This does not seem so far fetched when we consider that God sees His children through the blood of Christ. Scripture does not reveal many conversations between God and Satan, so maybe the few that are revealed are meant to show us a normal exchange between them.

What if our suffering has more to do with what we are doing right than what we are doing wrong?

My dad passed away in 2017. The last few years of his life were spent battling dementia. I shared details of the disease’s progression and how it affected our family in a post I wrote before he passed. He was a man who had spent his entire life serving the Lord. He was a missionary kid who grew up to go on to Bible college and return to the mission field.

Suffering

He was a pastor and professor who spent 20 years training college students to go to the mission field once God called him back to the United States. But when he should have been enjoying his retirement, his mind was dramatically impaired. We watched him leave us while he was still on this earth. My dad had spent his life communicating the Gospel to those around him, and God chose to take that ability away.

What if God allowed this suffering to show Satan who the truly faithful are? What if God said to Satan, “Have you considered my servants the Lingo family?” To which Satan replied, “If you take David away, the whole family will crumble.”

I know I have taken some liberties here, but if there is ANY chance that this was a test of my faithfulness, I will not fail! If there is ANY chance that Satan is using this suffering to show God I will not remain faithful, I will prove him wrong! If there is ANY chance that God has bragged on me, I will do Him proud! I shudder to think of the alternative.

Are You Suffering?

What about you, friend? Are you enduring suffering today? Could it be that instead of it being God’s punishment, it is actually a reward? Could it be that God bragged on you like He did Job? We may not like it, and we may not see it as a reward in this moment, but James 1:2-4 reminds us that we are to,

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

ESV

There is purpose in the suffering, and there is a glorious reward that will make the sufferings of this world seem insignificant (something we currently can’t even imagine) (Romans 8:18).

I encourage you to stay the course. Run the race you have before you even when it is hard, even when it is heartbreaking. Remain faithful to God because He will prove faithful in the end. One day I wish to stand before Him and have Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

If you are currently in a season of suffering or mourning, or you know someone who is, I have written a short e-book about mourning in a godly way. When I was struggling through the many facets of grief (some still ongoing), I had more questions than answers. God graciously took me through the book of Ruth during that time, which taught me some lessons about mourning, not as those who have no hope, but full of hope and peace.

To learn more about the e-book, Good Grief: Wisdom for Godly Mourning from the Book of Ruth, click the button below.


If you would like to learn more about how to study the Bible, I invite you to download my FREE Bible study workbook, 6 Steps to Study the Bible on Your Own, at the button below.

If you would like to join a group of like-minded women who are pursuing godliness together, check out the Bible Study Academy by clicking the button below.

You Might Also Enjoy:

My Dad, David Lingo

My Dad, David Lingo

Update: My dad passed into glory on August 2, 2017, just shy of his 70th birthday. He is whole again and in the presence of his Savior.

My Dad, David Lingo, is one of my heroes of the faith.

He and my mom raised me and my two sisters not only in a Christian home, but also in a missionary home. All three of us were saved at a young age and participated in the ministry. My parents were adamant God had not called them to the field, He had called all of us. As a result, I never felt like being a missionary kid deprived me of anything. They also instilled in us we are missionaries no matter where we are. So, when we returned to the U.S. for a year-long furlough, we were still to be telling others about Jesus.

God called us off of the mission field when He opened the door for my parents to become professors in the Missions Department at Baptist Bible College. They spent 20 years sharing their vision and the biblical foundation for missions with countless students. “The God of the Old Testament is a missionary God,” is a statement they all remember well. Although my dad was a missionary kid himself and has always had a desire to go back to the field, he understood he could do more for the cause of Christ by training hundreds of people to go than if he went himself.

During the time he spent teaching at BBC, he became the pastor of a rural church after their pastor was killed in a tragic accident. Through the church, my parents were able to extend their reach by training young couples headed into ministry. Their heart has always been to train and send for the cause of Christ.

About five years ago, everything changed.

As a result of several traumatic events in his life, my dad suffered a brain injury. The medical professionals have called it a “stroke-like event.” His official diagnosis, which is supported by the symptoms we have seen, is Dementia. This brain disease has caused him to lose his ability to communicate and to interact with the present world. Although he speaks, sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish, his words are jumbled and rarely make a coherent thought. Many days he believes himself to be a young man or a child still on the mission field with his parents. Several times he has grieved the passing of his dad over again because he doesn’t remember it happened.

One thing that has not changed is his tenderness toward the Gospel. Many times he has made himself understood when he is burdened for the lost and dying world. He makes sure those around him have heard the truth of Scripture. He cries tears of happiness when he thinks of all the missionaries serving Christ today. My dad spent his life in the business of communicating the love of Christ, and, although he has lost that ability, his burden for the lost is still so evident.

My sister reminded me today of 2 Corinthians 4:17 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (ESV). We pray daily for God to heal my dad, and we pray believing that He will. It may not be on this earth, but my daddy will be healed someday. In the meantime, I’m grateful to get to share his legacy with you.

Please pray for our family as we face the daily battles of this situation, and especially pray for my mom as the wedding vows she took 48 years ago, “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health,” are present with her every day. She has lost her spouse, her companion, her best friend, and her leader. He is physically present, but gone in every other way.

Are you facing a “light affliction” today?

Have you lost hope in your situation? Remember your life is only a “mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14, ESV). And when this life ends, we will have eternity to spend in the perfect presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I challenge you to live with the end in mind and stay the course. God will reward your faithfulness.