Status Updates From God's Purposes in Our Pain:...

"God wants his children to draw near to one another as they help each other during times of need. To this end, God sometimes allows his children to suffer so that they will do just that." 

"To walk by sight is to grasp at all the health and wealth we can possibly obtain, believing this life to be our best shot at happiness. In practice, though, a life lived "by sight" ends up full of worry since we will never get all that we try to obtain. Far better to learn to walk "by faith"!

"The hope of heaven encourage you and increases your confidence so that you can cope with a disintegrating body."

"Longing for heaven and comparing eternity to the present is one of the main purpose for which God allows us to suffer."

"We don't desire suffering for its own sake. But when we do suffer, we should long for others to see Jesus in us, despite our weak, broken, and hurtling-toward-death bodies."

"God sometimes allow his children to suffer so that people will see Jesus in us. We will never have a better opportunity to display Jesus to others than during periods of suffering."

"God allows difficulties into our lives so that we-and those watching us-will be reminded that the power is entirely from him, not ourselves. Amid the pressure, there is treasure." 

"Pain is the fast track to growth in Christian faith. In God's inscrutable wisdom, he uses affliction as the principal means to teach his children trust." 

"Our all-knowing and all-wise God may intend a thousand purposes for our suffering, many of which he us unlikely to reveal to us."

"God receives the sacrifice of Jesus' suffering and invites us to share, in a small way, in suffering with him. Then he uses our sufferings to help others who suffer." 

"...looking for a single explanation for a particular instance of suffering is misguided because God's purposes are manifold and multifaceted. God is so great and his purposes so vast that for us to reduce the experience of a heart-wrenching event to a single explanation-even two or three-risk dishonoring God's greatness."

"..the Bible rarely looks backward to explain the whys of suffering, particularly the suffering that Christians, hi spiritual children, face. Bu the Bible does commonly highlight forward-looking reasons why God allows suffering."