Suffering Is Never for Nothing

by Elisabeth Elliot

If your prayers don’t get answered the way you thought they were supposed to be, what happens to your faith? The world says God doesn’t love you. The Scriptures tell me something very different.

Acceptance, I believe, is the key to peace in this business of suffering.

Suffering is a mystery. It is not explained, but it is affirmed. And we must remember that all of Christianity rests on mysteries.

That’s why it isn’t explanations that we need. It’s a person. We need Jesus Christ, our refuge, our fortress, the stronghold of my life. It takes desolation to teach us our need of Him.

If your faith rests in your idea of how God is supposed to answer your prayers, your idea of heaven here on earth or pie in the sky or whatever, then that kind of faith is very shaky and is bound to be demolished when the storms of life hit it. But if your faith rests on the character of Him who is the eternal I AM, then that kind of faith is rugged and will endure.