Affliction will come. Evil is truly evil. Our world is truly broken. Yet God is truly sovereign, wise, and good. And in God’s gracious providence the afflictions of the saints are not a means of death but rather a path to more satisfaction in God alone. Trust the giver of your afflictions to woo you closer to himself in the midst of your sufferings (1 Peter 4:19).

God is sovereign and good, and yet life is hard. It is filled  with bruises and  brokenness, trials and hardships, sorrows and tears. Yet, in Christ, nothing we walk through is wasted or worthless.  For the believer, no tear is  wastefully shed, no cry is worthlessly expressed, and no pain is futilely suffered. God is always working in our affliction. Always.

The past twelve years have been an extended season of trials and sorrows for my family and me. I never imagined my college years would include helping care for my ailing mother, and then sitting at her bedside as God took her home.

I never imagined my wife and I would celebrate our first anniversary in the hospital at the bedside of our son who was born prematurely with Down syndrome and complex heart disease. I never imagined caring for a son who walked through over twenty surgeries including five open-heart procedures. I never imagined I could feel so much sorrow and pain as a father watching my precious son struggle on a ventilator, struggle with a trach, struggle to be around people, struggle to communicate, struggle to eat, struggle to play, struggle to sleep, and struggle to process the world around him.

I never imagined that life as a husband and now a father of four would so constantly bring me to the end of my own strength and resources. I never imagined that the Lord would bring so many tears.

Yet I also never imagined that life could be this beautiful, this full, this filled with joy, and this blessed. Grace lavishes (Ephesians 1:7–8). Hope abounds (Romans 15:13). My refuge and salvation are sure (Psalm 18:2), for mine is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). God truly is faithful.

Why Do God’s Children Suffer?

As Job asks, “shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Ultimately, God ordains and brings affliction into a believer’s life (Ruth 1:20–21). He  is sovereign over all our suffering, though he uses means to accomplish his purposes (Luke 23:25; Galatians 1:4). Each affliction always flows from a good God working for his good purposes (Psalm 119:67–68; Romans 8:28). God ordains bitter suffering in order to bring about sweet redemption, just as he did at the cross (Acts 4:27–28). Ultimately, God causes what grieves him for greater purposes that glorify his name and strengthen his people (John 12:27–28).

Richard Baxter, a 17th century Puritan, wrote a magnificent book entitled The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, Or a Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints, in Their Enjoyment of God in Glory. At one point he asks, “Why do the people of God suffer so much in this life?”

I dare not pretend to know the depths of God’s purposes and reasons for afflicting his children. Nevertheless, we can conclude some purposes on this side of final redemption. Here are five Baxter-inspired reasons that God graciously afflicts his saints.

1. To prepare us to fully enjoy rest.

Life is a vapor (James 4:14). It is here today and gone today. The day is coming for every believer when God will call us to depart from this sin-soaked world into the ravishing delights of a paradise with him (Psalm 16:11). But until we see him face to face, this everlasting rest is built upon the foundation of  earthly suffering and affliction (Acts 14:22).

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