Christian Philosophy: Everyone Has a Philosophy. It's The Lens Through Which They View The World and Make Decisions. by Andrew Wommack

Author:Andrew Wommack [Wommack, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781606835586
Publisher: Harrison House Publishers
Published: 2013-05-14T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

What About Suffering?

Certain Bible verses dealing with suffering have frequently been misinterpreted and are sometimes used to suggest that God uses suffering to teach us a lesson or to help us grow spiritually. I believe those interpretations are harmful and cause people to have a wrong understanding of God’s true nature. One of the frequently misinterpreted scriptures says,

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

James 1:2-4

These verses have been used by many to imply that praying for patience means God will put trials and temptations in our way in order to teach us patience. We’ve all heard someone say, “Be careful what you pray for,” as if problems are actually the work of God intended to bring us to maturity. The church I grew up in talked about problems as “heavenly sandpaper” that rubbed off all of our rough edges and made us better people.

Let me make an obvious statement: If suffering and problems were what make you a better person, then the people who have suffered the most should be the holiest, most godly people on earth—but that isn’t the case. In fact, the opposite is usually true. The people who have suffered the most are often bitter, angry people whose lives are a mess. It simply is not an observable truth to say that suffering produces holiness.

On the other hand, it is true to say that when you respond to hardship by trusting in God, it brings to the surface things God has placed on the inside of you. As you depend on God’s strength, you become stronger in your faith—but the hardships aren’t what make you better. What makes you stronger is exercising your faith in God and trusting in Him. The strength comes through the improvement of your relationship with God as you seek Him, so hardship might cause you to seek God, but suffering doesn’t make you a better person.

The Vietnam War was a trying situation on my faith, and I came out of it much stronger than when I went in—but God didn’t organize the war to make me holy. God didn’t have people criticize me for my stance on Christianity or put me in a bunker that was wallpapered with pictures of nude women. The Lord didn’t do those things to make me stronger, but I did become stronger through those trials because I kept my faith and trust in God.

When I was drafted into the Army, they taught me how to fire a rifle, how to throw grenades, plant mines, and defend myself in hand-to-hand combat. The Army spent six months training me to fight in a war, and then they sent me to Vietnam. But training and information are not equal to experience. After I had been in Vietnam for a short period of time, I learned to be wary of new recruits who had just arrived in country because they were dangerous.

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