To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

2) Re-focus on the ultimate goal in life: Christlikeness.

Job 42 [5] I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. [6] I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.

Job gained deeper spiritual understanding. He had the eyes of a renewed faith. He had a deeper insight into God’s character. Comparing this new awareness of God with his previous experience is like comparing seeing with hearing. Christianity is meant to be a personal relationship with God in which we grow closer to Him. Being humbled through suffering is meant to draw us closer to Him. When you are flat on your back it’s easier to look up! What else can you do!

Romans 8 [28] And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans.

All things work together for good — not necessairly for pleasure, comfort, prosperity, health, or joy, but for good. It’s the perspective of the temporary vs. the eternal. How can Paul say that he would rather glory in his bad health? This is what kept him humble so that God could use him. He knew that his own pride would have kept him out of touch with God’s eternal purpose for him. We must look at suffering through the eyes of perspective

2 Corinthians 12 [10] Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite happy about “the thorn,” and about insults and hardships, persecutions and difficulties; for when I am weak, then I am strong - the less I have, the more I depend on Him.

So the good has to do with molding me into being more like Christ. It’s only then that I will understand the spiritual journey that I began more fully. All things work together for the one good purpose of being made more like Christ. It takes a variety of experiences to cause this to happen. Some of those experiences include suffering. A diamond has to be cut to bring out its beauty. Gold must be refined to bring out its purity. The vine must be pruned to bear more fruit. Clay needs to be molded before it becomes a magnificent work of art. In the same way the child of God must be cut, refined, pruned and molded to become more like Christ. God has not promised to make us totally comfortable, but He has determined to make us conformable.

Beware of falling into the trap of cut and dried theologies that reduce the ways of God to a manageable formula that keeps life safe and comfortable. That’s not always God’s plan for us! Look for God’s higher purpose in your life. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.