In the human experience, whether we know Christ or not, we certainly know suffering. While culture (and much of the Church) searches and preaches the light-within, we all fall short of a Glory that brings relief - the Glory of Christ. Every new day brings news of death, abuse, war, famine, sickness, and loneliness.
We all suffer.
In our suffering some of the most notable songs have been written; some of the most notable times of worship have come at our darkest hours. The songs of humans who know Christ sounds completely different from those who aimlessly suffer. We purposefully suffer while the world aimlessly suffers. God uses our suffering for His glory.
The Scriptures are filled with truths that suffering leads to doxology (God-glorifying praise). It’s in God’s purposes that we see and sing a greater purpose beyond ourselves. What we believe about suffering can either heighten or dampen our worship of God.
Satisfied In Christ
Let’s camp in Ephesians for a moment. “To the praise of His glorious grace” is our foundation of worship. (Eph. 1) Relief from sin was on God’s mind before it was on yours. Grace is a purposed activity to bring God glory. In Ephesians 2 we learn that while we were dead in sin (spiritually deaf, blind, dumb, mute, and lame), God made us alive together with Christ. In Ephesians 3, the peculiar grace of God at work in suffering sinners (Eph. 3:11) is why the Church glorifies God in every generation (Eph. 3:20-21).
I think the more our generation confesses our weakness, the more we will praise Him rightly. What greater suffering is there than to need the soul made right with a holy God.
Suffering Awaits Redemption
Many of today’s songs are filled with “heaven on earth” supplications - as Christ prayed the Father’s will and bowls of heaven are filling with prayers of the saints. More than ever, I think the global Church is singing about what’s to come! Friends, worship awaiting the day that our redeemer comes to bring wrath to the world and deliverance for His own. Sing with confidence that the God of heaven will certainly bring His unfiltered physical presence to His people and “wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:4)
Every gathering is an opportunity to anticipate (Rom. 8:23) the end of “the former things”. History tells of many great men and women who fervently loved Christ, but suffered depression, anxiety, addictions, and great loss. In their suffering, they, like Spurgeon, who was often bed-ridden by depression and rejected by many in his profession, “blessed the Lord continually”.
You Are Not Your Own
“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.” (Rom. 14:8) He owns us. The scriptures are clear - we are objects of mercy for the sake of His own glory and Name. Worshipper and worship leader, do you have such a theology of God’s Church? Are you singing about God’s sovereign work in both our salvation and our daily living? In your suffering do you sing of God’s glorious work?
Every person in the Scriptures who took God at His word also confessed his ability to mold every facet of this world for His purposes. (Is. 46:8-13) Friends, you and your congregation will be most at home and most at rest with God when you depend completely on His ability. We may suffer, we may be physically affected by this fading world, but we are held fast by God himself - the Creator, Author, and Perfector of our faith. This approach will increase our intimacy to want Christ and to know him more and more. (Phil 3) Intimate spiritual worship comes through suffering as we discover how ever-satisfying Christ is.
Suffering exist because sin exist and yet, Christ has come to redeem us from its curse so that we may live to God! When we ground our worship in the truth of God’s promise and work, we sing Spirit-filled songs that are higher than a world that is passing away. We sing to glory of God though the person of Jesus Christ.
