The Purpose of Suffering
I am in the process of taking counseling courses with CCEF. I will complete my Introduction to Biblical Counseling Certificate after this semester. One thing I have been learning is that the initial agenda in counseling is not to come at them with a long list of ways they need to change but to help them to see. They are spiritually blind to what God is trying to do in them through their circumstances. It is not enough to tell them but to open up their eyes through good questions and the use of scripture.
One area where this is difficult in sickness, death, and overall suffering. “Why is this happening to me?”, “Is it because I did something bad?” “Is it because I’ve sinned and God is trying to punish me?”. It is hard for people to see what God is doing in the midst of difficulty. Thankfully God gives us his word!
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
– John 9:1-3
But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
– John 11:4
These two passages popped out at me while I was doing my Bible reading this morning. The man was born blind not because of any sin or punishment. The purpose of his physical disability was to display the work of God. Lazarus’s death was for the purpose of glorifying God and Jesus. There is a God honoring purpose for these instances of suffering. Our jobs as counselors is not just to give comfort, which needs to be done, but to help people see God, his glory, and his work in the midst of their suffering. They need to see the redemptive value in what God is doing in their lives.