Suffering Is Never for Nothing

by Elisabeth Elliot

agreed that no one participates in God’s joy without first tasting the afflictions of His Son. And before she left, she smiled and said, “Suffering is never for nothing, Joni.” It was so Elisabethan, and I thought I understood what she meant. After all, nine years of quadriplegia had made me take seriously the lordship of Christ in my life, refining my faith, and giving me a deeper interest in prayer and the Word.

Elisabeth Elliot knew that true maturity, joy, and contentment has less to do with a mechanistic assessment of God’s plan, and more to do with being pushed and, at times shoved, against the breast of your Savior.

Turn your energies to service. Whether your service is to be to a husband and through him and the family and home God gives you to serve the world, or whether you should remain, in the providence of God, single in order to serve the world without the solace of husband, home, and family, you will know fullness of life, fullness of liberty, and (I know whereof I speak) fullness of joy.

She was imperfect, a sinner, and was quick to admit it. What was extraordinary about her was the light of Christ that showed through all the cracks created in her by the extraordinary experiences she suffered. But it was never for nothing.

And if we’ll trust Him for it, we can come through to the unshakable assurance that He’s in charge. He has a loving purpose. And He can transform something terrible into something wonderful. Suffering is never for nothing.

There have been some hard things in my life, of course, as there have been in yours, and I cannot say to you, I know exactly what you’re going through. But I can say that I know the One who knows. And I’ve come to see that it’s through the deepest suffering that God has taught me

I’m convinced that there are a good many things in this life that we really can’t do anything about, but that God wants us to do something with.

I’m convinced that there are a good many things in this life that we really can’t do anything about, but that God wants us to do something with.

“Suffering is having what you don’t want or wanting what you don’t have.”

The deepest things that I have learned in my own life have come from the deepest suffering. And out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires have come the deepest things that I know about God.

The gifts of love have been the gifts of suffering. Those two things are inseparable.

And it has been out of that very measure of pain that has come the unshakable conviction that God is love.

It’s only in the cross that we can begin to harmonize this seeming contradiction between suffering and love. And we will never understand suffering unless we understand the love of God.

it make any sense at all? Not unless you see that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world, and the kingdom of an invisible world. And the apostle Paul understood the difference when he made this stunning declaration. He said it is now my happiness to suffer for You, my happiness to suffer. It sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it? And yet this is the Word of God.

“Joy is not the absence of suffering but the presence of God.”5

And I learned in that experience who God is. Who He is in a way that I could never have known otherwise. And so I can say to you that suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth. I Am. I am the Lord. In other words,

God accepted Satan’s challenge. And here we have a mystery that we cannot begin to explain. In fact, it was God who called Satan’s attention to that individual, Job. And He gave Satan permission to take things away from Job.

We may often hear Job called a patient man but if you read the book of Job you won’t really find a lot of evidence that he was patient. But he never doubted that God existed and he said some of the very worst things that could possibly be said about God. And

God is big enough to take anything that we can dish out to Him. And He even saw to it that Job’s howls and complaints were preserved in black and white for our instruction. So never hesitate to say what you really feel to God because remember that God knows what you think before you know and certainly knows what you’re going to say before you even think it.

see Job here dialoguing with God. There is no question in Job’s mind throughout this entire book of the existence of God. He knows that it is God with whom he has to reconcile his circumstances. Somebody is behind all this, he’s saying. And the question “why” presupposes that there is reason, that there is a mind behind all that may appear to be mindless suffering. We would never ask the question why if we really believed that the whole of the universe was an accident and that you and I are completely at the mercy of chance.

He won’t even answer one of them. And he was right. Remember that when God finally breaks His silence, God does not answer a single question. God’s response to Job’s questions is mystery. In other words, God answers Job’s mystery with the mystery of Himself.

why. Like Job, I didn’t doubt for a second that God was up there, that God knew what He was doing. But I couldn’t imagine what He could possibly have in mind. And God’s answer to my why was “Trust Me.” No explanations. Just, trust Me. That was the message.

He is either God or He’s not. I am either held in the Everlasting Arms or I’m at the mercy of chance and I have to trust Him or deny Him. Is there any middle ground? I don’t think so.

When we speak of love as the Bible speaks of love, we’re not talking about a silly sentiment. We’re not talking about a mood or a feeling or warm fuzzies. The love of God is not a sentiment. It is a willed and inexorable love that will command nothing less than the very best for us. The love of God wills our joy. I think of the love of God as being synonymous with the will of God. Young

We are not explaining anything. We are simply affirming. And that’s what Christianity is about. God is God. God is a three-personed God. He loves us. We are not adrift in chaos. To

We’re not adrift in chaos. We’re held in the everlasting arms. And therefore, and this makes a difference, we can be at peace and we can accept. We can say yes, Lord, I’ll take it. The faculty by which I apprehend God is the faculty of faith. And my faith enables me to say, “Yes, Lord. I don’t like what You’re doing. I don’t understand it. You’re going to have to take care of those poor people at the other end that thought I was coming to speak on this particular day. But God, You’re in charge.”

Now faith, like love, is not a feeling. We need to get that absolutely clear. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a willed obedience action. Jesus said again and again, “Don’t be afraid.” “Fear not.” “Let not your heart be troubled.” “Believe in God. Believe also in Me.” “Accept, take up the cross and follow.” Do the next thing. That has gotten me through more agonies than anything else I could recommend. He said

Acceptance is a voluntary and willed act. God was giving me something to do. The next thing was, “Yes, Lord.” Accept it. And that is the key to peace. Now does it make sense to an ordinary human being to say, “Accept this suffering?” Isn’t it contrary to human nature? And I want to make something very clear here because

Whatever is in the cup that God is offering to me, whether it be pain and sorrow and suffering and grief along with the many more joys, I’m willing to take it because I trust Him. Because I know that what God wants for me is the very best. I will receive this thing in His name. I need pain sometimes because God has something bigger in mind. It is never for nothing. And so I say Lord, in Jesus’ name, by Your grace I accept it.