One of the most difficult human experiences we will ever have to face in our lifetimes is seeing other people suffer. If you have the love of God inside of you, it will break your heart each and every time you see anyone suffer. This goes double if it is someone that you are close too. Watching someone be in hurt and pain is not easy especially when you know that there is a better way for the person.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick (Proverbs 13: 12 [NKJV]). This is true for when you are hoping for someone to be freed of their pain and suffering. The hope that you have that they will be ok can take you on a roller coaster ride in your emotions if you let it. You must fight the temptation to enter into hopelessness over your loved. You must not let your emotions get the best of you. Especially if your loved has not reached a point where they are able to surrender themselves to God.
The Bible gives two classifications for those who suffer. Those who suffer for doing right and those who suffer for doing wrong.
I Peter 2: 20 [NKJV], “20 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.”
We all have loved ones who go through difficult times. Sometime these difficult times can be directly attributed to sins that our loved one have committed. These sins bring pain and suffering into their lives. They sowed that seed and now God is making them reap it. We don’t like this and we are not judging our loved ones but this is a hard process to watch. God is merciful but His ways are higher and our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. You must learn to surrender this loved one over to God and allow God to be God. Easier said that done because we just don’t like to see our loved ones suffer. Remember, if it were not for God giving you the grace to endure you would not be able to bear what is going on.
The powerlessness of the situation can be unbearable unless you turn that control over to God. If you don’t turn that control over to God watching them suffer can open the door for the enemy to come in and tempt you with untruths about God. You must fight against this in your heart and remember at all times that God is sovereign. You must remember that God gives everyone a way of escape and if they refuse to take that way of escape, we cannot judge God for this. We have to put the blame where it belongs. It must go with the person who in effect disobeyed God in some area.
Our loved ones are often unaware that we are suffering with them. Their pain becomes our pain to a lesser degree. No one likes to see anyone suffer. It is just not the nature and character of God but all sin has consequences. Sometimes God in His mercy allows us to not have to endure those consequences and other times God permits us to receive the due reward for our actions. The same is true for our loved ones. We want better for our loved ones but we cannot make them do better. At times our loved ones walk through periods of suffering. The intensity of that suffering depends on the level of deception that our loved one is in. Where there is great deception, there is also great suffering.
God gives us grace but sometimes our own wisdom keeps us from receiving God’s grace. You must began to understand that God is permitting them to go through that suffering so that He can perfect them. They are in pain for a reason. If you are watching your loved ones go through hard times don’t allow their suffering to cause you to stop serving God. God knows all things and He is with you. Selah