Suffering is not an arbitrary punishment from a capricious God. God is not capricious. He is bound by law. He is precisely aware of the degree of light and truth we need to overcome all challenges related to this life, and his gospel consists of everything we need to know to attain that light and truth. Whenever we suffer, it is the consequence of beliefs based on a lack of light and truth—the natural consequence of possessing less light and truth than needed to overcome the world. In spite of how hard it is to see it so, we ought to recognize our suffering as a gift from an immeasurably loving and perfectly wise God. It is a gift in at least two ways. First, no matter how intense our suffering, it is indescribably less than we would endure were we made aware of a full awareness of all truth pertaining to our sphere. Were he to reveal the fullness of awareness, it would literally be hell to those who had not yet built up an awareness of it.
Second, the granting of a slight exposure to some of the natural consequences of our current limited beliefs creates an environment where we can be much more capable and motivated to seek, consider, and adopt higher order light and truth. Suffering helps our eyes see the paths to greater light and truth. Paths that lead to greater light and truth are like diamonds— they aren’t nearly as visible in the daylight as they are contrasted on dark velvet. It is also much less likely that we see the need to change in a setting where we are artificially shielded from the consequences of our lack of limited understanding of reality through the grace of God. You may ask if God is able to shield us from those consequences now, why can’t he continue to do so later? God’s grace can withhold the consequences of our lack of knowledge, but the consequences withheld must include both the negative and the positive. The only way one can acquire the joy that God has is by also acquiring the awareness he has, and that awareness requires one to overcome the negative consequences through the acquisition and application of law—an advanced understanding of good and evil. There is no other way.
The amount of light you acquire in this life is determined by how far you are willing to walk into the darkness. The more darkness you are willing to abide in, the further God can take you. This is because God teaches you truth by a) exposing you to chaos, b) differentiating the chaos, c) inviting you to choose to accept the good and turn away the evil in what you have ordered and defined.
If you turn your whole heart to God, he will subject you to situations that will feel and act like a crucible. They will burn out all your impurities if you trust God enough to allow him to leave you there until it is complete. Too many people ask to be taken out of the fire before their dross is purged. They want to stay at their current level of trust in God, and don’t want to know what trust they yet lack.
As you endure the increasing light, you will have everything ripped from your heart until the only thing that remains is God. That is sanctification. Through this abasement, you become exalted. It is the only way. It is how you gain everything by losing everything. It is how you lose yourself by finding yourself. Your awareness increases, your old principles fail to order the new chaos, and you must discover and assimilate new light and truth to revise or replace them with something greater.
Before the trials we read of in the Bible narrative, Job had overcome all the chaos he knew of in life. Exposed to normal situations, he had deciphered God’s will and followed it. He had derived the principles of God’s will that governed the situations he encountered, and he lived them faithfully. As a result, he had accumulated wealth, wisdom, the respect of his peers, and a measure of happiness. Yet, Job’s life was not perfect. He had wild and disobedient children, and a wife of limited understanding, as evidenced in the former case by his frequent intercessory prayers for his children’s foibles, and in the latter case by his wife’s reaction to his imminent trials. When Satan is first authorized to test Job, Job responds well. His statement is positive, but also betrays ignorance of God’s character. He states that it seems fair to endure some storms, when God has been so gracious to have blessed him so much to that point. Job was considering God’s trait of justice, but justice was not God’s motivation in allowing his testing. God’s love was the motivating factor, as it always is in allowing challenges to arise in the lives of those that love him. God exposes us to situations that are beyond our understanding and seemingly beyond our capacity in order to teach us more about the way things work—about good and evil. This is the only way we can attain a higher level of happiness than we presently occupy. Job should have reacted by saying that any situation that comes to the faithful is exactly what is needed—nothing more and nothing less—in order to teach them what is needed to be saved. Job should have rejoiced in his affliction, taking it as a sign that God loves him and trusts Job enough to teach him more about himself. Instead, his confidence in God erodes as the trials gain in intensity, until his faith reduces to complaints about the seeming unfairness of the situation. Had Job known God’s character better, he would have rejoiced in any seeming injustice, knowing that temporary injustice is the vehicle used by a loving God to bring about greater dispensations of knowledge and happiness than can be had in our previous equilibrium state.
Life is short. This life is the time we have to develop greater trust in God. There are no vacations here. There are no times we can afford to take off.