How Satan Uses Suffering
And yet, there is the promise. The promise that this storm of suffering will break into the peace of joy and hope. That is the barometer of how we weather the difficult providences of this fallen life. Suffering that is endured Christianly produces character which yields hope. Suffering that yields bitterness, cynicism, and alienation is suffering gone awry. Satan loves to use our suffering in this way. He wants to create resentment in your soul rather than the hope that was meant to reside there.
How does Satan use suffering to create cynics rather than resilient believers? First, he wants to isolate us. Scripture is clear that in order to make it through this fallen world, we need a community. This community is meant to help us grow in our faith, celebrate our successes, learn from our failures, grieve through our losses, and give us strength in our weaknesses. The number one scheme of Satan at times of suffering is to make us think that we need to cocoon rather than to lean into the care of Christian brothers and sisters. He wants you to think that you don’t need the help, that you don’t deserve help, that true Christians don’t ever need help — and that others don’t want to help. All of these are lies.
Second, he wants us to focus on ourselves. When we turn our attention primarily inward rather than upward, Satan can trick us into thinking that our suffering is unique, ubiquitous, and ultimate. Our suffering is never any of those things.
Third, Satan wants us to lose sight of our sovereign Savior. There is no moment or place outside the control of our God — even in the places where it hurts most. Satan would have you believe that God is inept or incapable — that your suffering somehow falls outside of his providential care. Because if your suffering can live outside of his sovereign will, then so can anything. Even your immortal soul.
How God Uses Suffering
Suffering isn’t easy. It’s not designed to be. It’s the crucible of Christian hope, beating out its imperfections and smelting it into something more beautiful and pure. A hope unassailable by the world and the devil because it is rooted in the eternal and sure love of a gracious and merciful God.
Just as sure as God loves his people, Satan is out to scuttle their security by making them feel alone, overwhelmed, and incompetent. Knowing Satan’s game plan to rob us of the heavenly fruit of our horrible suffering, though, helps us to persevere in the most difficult times into a hope that is eternal and cannot be put to shame.
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This piece originally appeared at DesiringGod.com, published with permission.
