A Christian Approach To Personal Suffering

Meditating on His Suffering Can Help Us in Our Suffering prepared by Daniel Keeran, MSW

A Christian Approach to Suffering

A Christian Approach to Personal Suffering: Meditating on His Suffering Can Help Us in Our Suffering It is an honour to suffer because we know it is a small bit of what Christ suffered, and it is a way of sharing His suffering. Only Christianity provides this approach to suffering because only Jesus Christ suffered and died for humanity.

I was able to endure excruciating pain by thinking about the suffering of Jesus on the cross and realizing my suffering was much less than His suffering. My suffering was painful, and it was like His suffering in some way, yet my suffering was so much less than His suffering. Strange as it sounds, I welcomed the painful spasms as an opportunity to go to the cross and in a way to join the suffering of Christ. I did not try to make the spasms happen, but when they came, I could endure them as an honour to share even a small part of what His suffering must have been like.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

- Psalm 22:14-15 his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness – Isaiah 52:14 But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and afflicted….

- Isaiah 53:6-7 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will….

– Matthew 26:39 And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.

– Luke 22:44

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

- Hebrews 2:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

- Romans 8:28 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

– Philippians 3:10 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

- 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…

- James 1:2 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

- James 1:12 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

- Luke 9:23

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

- Romans 8:39 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

- 1 Peter 5:10 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling‌ - 2 Corinthians 5:1-2 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

- Colossians 1:24 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope‌ - Romans 5:3-4