How We Suffer

For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves—cracked cisterns that cannot hold water. —Jeremiah 2:13

Many ask why we must suffer. Let’s ask a related question: How do we suffer? Knowing that suffering is a part of life in a fallen world, this is perhaps the better answer to seek.

The fact is, we will suffer, though we know not how or when. However, accepting this can move us toward either fatalism or faith. Fatalism sees suffering as a thing only to be endured and doubts that any good can come of it. Faith, on the other hand, knows that suffering can decontaminate our soul.

For example, God uses suffering to detach our hearts from things that have no lasting value, from relationships, possessions, and pleasures that run their course and leave us dehydrated. Then God uses that stripping away to attach our hearts to Himself and to the things He wants us to experience and enjoy. He moves us away from leaky cisterns to the lifegiving fountain.
------------------
Habakkuk: Moving from Fear to Faith (Revive Our Hearts series)

Scripture is taken from the CSB.