Most Christians know Paul’s reassuring words from Romans 8:28 – ‘We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.’

But how does this actually work?

Based on the writing of Thomas Watson (The Divine Cordial) Tim Challies outlines 10 ways in which God works suffering for the good of his people.

Here is my own precis.

1. Suffering is our teacher.  It reminds us of our sin, immaturity and dependence.  It is in the crucible of suffering that many parts of God’s written word – especially the Psalms, come alive and apply themselves to our souls.

2. Suffering is the means of making our hearts more upright.  When life is easy and pain-free, our hearts become lazy, and our devotion half-hearted.  We are at ease in the world, and tend to neglect the means of grace.  When sin has bent our souls out of shape, God uses the heat of suffering to straighten them.

3. Suffering conforms us to Christ.  ‘Suffering is like an artist’s pencil that draws Christ’s image upon us.’  If our Saviour was a man of sorrows, why should we expect to be free from sorrow?  If his head was crowned with thorns, why would be expect ours to be crowned with roses?

4. Suffering destroys sin.  The fire of suffering purges the heart of a host of impurities – pride, lust, greed and many more.

5. Suffering loosens the world’s hold on us.  In order to remove a tree from the ground, we must first loosen the roots.  In suffering, God digs away at the roots of earthly comfort and loosens our roots in the world.

6. Suffering makes way for comfort.  Like balm into an aching sore, God pours peace into our pain.  “Your sorrow shall be turned to joy” (Jn 16:20).  The bitter medicine is followed by the sweetness of communion with God.

7. Suffering shows that God cares about us.  He judges us worthy to suffer so that he can work great grace in our lives.  When we suffer, God is treating us as sons (Heb 12:7).  When God’s grace triumphs in and over our sufferings, God is glorified in the world.

8. Suffering is a means to joy.  Suffering draws us closer to God, and to the joy that only closeness to God can give.  When the prodigal was in need was when he returned home to his father (Lk 15:13).

9. Suffering silences the wicked.  Unbelievers may suppose that believers only serve God out of self-interest.  But when Christians hold fast to God in times of suffering, it stops the mouths of the cynical.

10. Suffering prepares the way for glory.  As ploughing prepares the ground for a crop, so suffering prepares our hearts for glory.

In all these ways, then, God works suffering for our good.  Let us, then,

‘train ourselves to look less at the evil of suffering and more at the good, to look less at the dark side of the cloud and more at the light. The worst that God ever does to his children is to drive them toward heaven, toward himself.’