Devotionals

On Suffering

by Rick Gregory 
08/14/25
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"So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you." (1 Pet 4:19 NLT)

Suffering in a manner that pleases God? This is a hard one for me. I wonder what this suffering looks like. How can my suffering please Him? It must have nothing to do with the suffering itself, but how I face it. How I view it. How I refuse to let it embitter me towards Him. How I refuse to become embittered towards the one(s) bringing it, but instead seeing it as from His Own hand, to make me more like His Son, my Jesus.

I have friends who have suffered unspeakable loss. Of a mate, of a marriage, of a child. There’s never a good explanation. Never a modicum of justice – or even a sense of “fairness.” I have other friends who have lost children . . . not to death, but to a secular worldview that has blinded them to the love of their parents, magnified their parent’s failings (whether real or perceived), and resulted in a complete breach of their relationship, so they no longer see one another – or their grandkids.

Yet, these friends have soldiered on, continuing to believe God, as He says in the Book of Hebrews, ““Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight [maybe the suffering or loss?]  that slows us down, especially the sin [maybe the bitterness, anger or self-pity?] that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus . . .” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT).

Keeping your eyes on Jesus as you suffer is indeed suffering in a manner that pleases God!

Rick is the well-loved husband of Sherry for over 53 years, dad to 3 remarkable children and their spouses, and Poppy to 8 beautiful grandchildren.