John: Trusting God in the Midst of Suffering

John: Trusting God in the Midst of Suffering

Can you imagine an ad campaign called “Pain & Suffering” to market church growth today?  Sounds absurd, right? Yet, this is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He said, in Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV), “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” 

Take the Apostle John, for instance. While he had seen Jesus’ glory firsthand on the Mount of Transfiguration and was promised a throne and an inheritance in glory by Jesus, in Matthew 19:28-29, his life was not unscathed by pain and suffering.   

Imagine the pain and suffering he must have felt when his brother James became the church’s first martyr in Acts 12:2 and the additional pain and suffering when his friends and companions, the other disciples, were martyred one by one. While they suffered and died, John suffered and lived, even to old age. He was even exiled to a penal colony on the island of Patmos by the Roman Emperor, Domitian. Living in a cave, cut off from everyone he loved, he was treated with cruelty and reproach. Years later, he returned to Ephesus under house arrest for two more years.  In John’s lifetime, he suffered willingly, yet not once complaining about it in any of his writings. Truly, John trusted God in the midst of suffering.     

Beloved, trusting God in the midst of suffering requires a commitment to living as a disciple of Jesus Christ. John lived this way, and you can too, by choosing to deny yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus.  Listen, experiences gained in the furnace of trial and affliction are worth all the pain and suffering it costs if they lead you to Jesus! Just ask John.   

This is Laine Wilder for Carry the Light Ministries, bringing you Insights From an Elder.

by Laine Wilder

author of “Insights From an Elder” for

Carry the Light Ministries