What Is God Up To?

What is God up to in the midst of affliction?  That’s a big question, and a good one.  And the first response would be to admit that we may know very little about what God is truly intending and accomplishing through our trials.  Can you be at peace with that—with recognizing that the Divine Mind is wise and purposeful and ingenious far beyond our comprehension?  Beware of the attitude that challenges God and demands answers that fully satisfy our aggravated curiosity right now.

In 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul is inspired by God’s Spirit to shed some light on the big questions about suffering.  Consider:

God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (1:4).  So, through our sorrows and losses, God is infusing us with empathy to love others who are hurting.  Not to suggest that’s his only purpose—but it is one key aim.

After describing harrowing afflictions his mission team suffered (Paul didn’t think they’d survive), he explains, “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (1:8).  So, pain and suffering are turned toward the good end of undercutting our proud self-reliance and building humble trust into our hearts.  Not to imply that God endorses sinful acts that lead to the suffering of his people, but he does “repurpose” such trials (see also Genesis 50:20).

After listing numerous trials he’d faced, Paul notes, “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (4:11).  So, faithful Christian service despite persecution is a reflection of Jesus’ self-giving love; we become a living testimony pointing to Jesus when we “take up our cross” (Luke 9:23) and follow in his footsteps.

The Macedonian churches “begged” Paul for the privilege of giving to God’s mission: “In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” (8:2).  So, generous giving despite one’s own desperate circumstances demonstrates the truth of the gospel and the integrity of one’s faith.

Paul wrestles with God over his “thorn in the flesh,” and in the end he comes to see the great positive value in the ongoing endurance of his adversity:  “To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (12:7-9).  Never mind that, in some sense, this affliction was “a messenger of Satan” which the Enemy used to “harass” Paul:  God turned the tables on evil, blessed Paul by saying “No” to his prayer request, and helped the Apostle to see something of the vital soul-care work the Father was doing—all for the glory of Christ.

To be sure, there are many more questions that could be asked about how God is at work in and through suffering, and there are many other Scripture passages that speak to these issues (and I’ll use this opportunity to recommend Tim Keller’s excellent book again, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering).  But 2 Corinthians is one key location of God-honoring wisdom we need today, during our Coronavirus quarantine, “for such a time as this.”  Take time and read through and pray over this amazing New Testament letter.