One thing we know for sure is that not one of us escapes this life without suffering—not unless we die young and suddenly, that is. Suffering is common to all mankind. So, as Clay and Jean E. Jones put it, “If the only thing we know absolutely, positively for sure about our future is that we are going to suffer and then die, we should prepare for that!” Their book, How Does God Use Suffering for Our Good?: Living with Hope While Making Sense of Life, focuses on this challenging yet deeply relevant topic.

Drawing from biblical wisdom and their personal experiences with suffering (which have not been insignificant), Clay and Jean discuss seven truths that can aid and encourage Christians in their suffering.

God Loves Us

The first truth is that God loves us. As they write,

That God loves us, that He wants the best for us, and that He has the power to accomplish what is best for us is the foundation of all the subsequent truths. In Ephesians 3:17–19, Paul writes, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (NIV). May we encourage you, dear reader, to pray Paul’s prayer before you continue reading. We all need a revelation of the love of God.

Sometimes we hear such truths as this, but we don’t take a moment to pause and reflect on them, to absorb them.

We know that one way God demonstrates his love for us is through Jesus (John 3:16). Consider for a moment that Jesus had a choice when he faced the cross. “Jesus did not have to die for our sins…. Jesus went to the cross willingly” (see John 10:17–18 and Matt. 26:51–53). He humbled himself by becoming a man, faced much sorrow, experienced betrayal and mockery, was stripped, flogged, scourged, and ultimately crucified. He did all of this for us—to show us God’s love for us.

Everyone Will Experience Suffering

Second, everyone will experience suffering. Now, to be clear, others may not go through exactly the same things we’re going through, but they will suffer.

Remembering that we are not alone helps put our problems into perspective. The Bible is filled with examples of godly people who suffer. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness with a rebellious people; Job’s family was killed and painful boils afflicted him; Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery; David spent ten years running from the murderous King Saul; and Paul, among many other sufferings, was stoned. So it shouldn’t surprise us when we too suffer.

We can find comfort in knowing that we are not alone, that suffering and hardship are not unique to ourselves.

Everything Will Work for Our Good

Third, God will work out everything, even suffering, for our good. This is just as Paul says in Romans 8:28. But continue a little further, and we see that our good is defined as being conformed to the image of God’s Son (v. 29). A considerable benefit of suffering is that it does this very thing. “At the beginning, our suffering may only feel painful, but later ‘it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.’ Our Father is making us like Jesus, and that’s eternally praiseworthy.” Suffering helps to prepare us for eternity in God’s kingdom. “Although we know for a fact that Christianity is objectively true,” Clay and Jean note, “nothing gives us subjective confidence in the truth of Christianity more than seeing suffering develop godly character in our lives.” And a helpful practice, since we humans are quite forgetful, is to keep a record of how God has brought about good from past hardships in our lives.

Many Have Honored God Through Worse Suffering

Fourth, many have honored God through worse suffering than we will go through. We can be encouraged when we remember this truth that others have endured greater hardships than we have yet still honored God through them. We can look to biblical figures, the saints of the past, and Christian brothers and sisters today (e.g., Joni Eareckson Tada) who have faced much hardship yet endured. “Anytime we honor God through suffering,” whatever that suffering may be, “we are testifying to the world that our faith in a loving God stands.”

We Don’t Know What Will Happen Tomorrow

Fifth, we don’t know what the future holds. We often spend our time worrying about many things that will never actually happen. But Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34). When we find our thoughts turning to the worries of the future, we must take our thoughts captive (2 Cor. 10:5). This takes discipline, to be sure. “We shouldn’t focus on potential problems that might never happen. But the only way not to look at our potential problems is to look at something better.” This brings us to the next truth.

Focus on Jesus and the Joy to Come

Sixth, focus on Jesus and the joy to come at the end of our race. Another benefit of suffering is that it tends to shift our gaze away from the world and upward toward God and the kingdom to come. It helps us not to love the world (1 John 2:15–17).

Hebrews 12:1–2…tells us that as we run our race, we must look “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (verse 2). In other words, Jesus kept His eyes on the prize. By pursuing the joy that would come at the end of His race, Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame”.… Jesus is our example. Just as He looked to the joy to come and was thereby able to endure pain and despise earthly shame, so can we.

Jesus looked to the joy to come, and “Eternal joy and glory await us at the end of our races too.” We can run our races well knowing what lies ahead. Indeed, “The brighter our view of eternal glory, the more easily we will overcome the sufferings of this life.”

We Will Enjoy a Glorious Eternity

Seventh, we will enjoy a glorious eternity. “The best preparation [for suffering],” Clay and Jean state, “is to have a robust view of the glory that will await us throughout eternity, for heaven will be gloriously better than whatever we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).”

Many Christians have such an anemic view of heaven that they fear it will be dreadfully boring. Some fear that eternal rewards won’t be rewarding. That’s a problem because the New Testament encourages us to persevere through suffering and difficulties because God will reward us with eternal life. But if we don’t think the rewards will be worthwhile, persevering will be just short of impossible.

But remember, God is the one who created all the pleasures and all the beautiful things of this world. Heaven is compared to a banquet or wedding feast, a time of celebration, joy, and friendship (Is. 25:6; Matt. 22:2, 25:1–10; Rev. 19:9). We’ll be with the Creator of everything in the universe—all the colors, animals, plants, mountains, and galaxies. Heaven will hardly be boring. More than this, we’ll live without guilt and without pain, mourning, and death (Rev. 21:4). We’ll have meaningful work to do. And we’ll have close relationships with others and with God. Note that our relationship with God is described in the close, intimate terms of husband-wife and father-child relationships (Rev. 21).

So, to sum up, we can be faithful and victorious, whatever comes our way, “by keeping our eyes on eternity.”

Four Practical Steps

Four practical steps Christians can take to prepare for suffering are to abide in God’s Word, be in prayer, be in fellowship, and keep a “truth journal”—a journal that contains “truths, Scriptures, and remembrances of God’s good care.” Keeping such a record also helps us replace false beliefs with truths.

As Clay and Jean discovered, “Not shockingly, it turns out that doing what God says to do has immensely helped us.”

May these truths help you, dear Christian, in your own suffering as well.

We need to conquer, overcome, and be victorious over suffering in its various forms: sickness, accidents, temptations to compromise, and persecution, even when these things might result in our deaths. But if we do conquer, if we do overcome, if we are victorious by honoring God despite whatever this fallen world throws at us, then we’ll receive eternal blessings.