Enduring Suffering with Hope and Faith – Lent 2026

Summary

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Suffering touches every life, yet in Christ it is never meaningless. This talk explores redemptive suffering and how uniting our pain to Jesus allows us to endure with hope and confidence in God’s saving work.

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Reflective Study Guide Questions

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“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”

Romans 8:18

1. What forms of suffering am I carrying right now—physical, emotional, spiritual, etc.? Do I believe that Jesus “has an opinion and a plan” for all of my sufferings even when it feels meaningless or overwhelming?

2 . What fears or resistance do I feel when I hear the phrase “redemptive suffering”?

3. Where have I seen God bring good or grace out of suffering in my life or in the lives of others?

4. What is one suffering I can intentionally place into Jesus’ hands today, asking Him to transform it with His love?

Text: Enduring Suffering with Hope and Faith

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Hi, I’m Pete Burak. Let’s pray.

Opening Prayer

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Jesus, we trust in you. Jesus, we trust in you. Jesus, we trust in you, Amen.

A Season of Suffering

Well, recently my family and I have been going through a prolonged, what we’ll call a season of suffering. And if you take each individual thing that’s happened, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal kind of in isolation of each other. Each incident has been very manageable. But when you combine that over seven people in our family and each of us taking turns, kind of going through some things, and going through different doctor’s visits and copays and deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, and all these different things, it’s been a lot. And at a particular time, you know, we had just gotten through a surgery for my wife, and then my one daughter had something going on with her eye, and then our son bit through his tongue.

So we had to go through the emergency room and get some stitches and he’s okay. And then another son had a thing with his shoulder. And then I tore a ligament in my knee. And then our youngest daughter, who is three, her name’s Regina, we call her Reggie, but so little Reggie, we noticed that her elbow wasn’t working right. And so after an MRI and several different tests and everything, blood tests, we come to find out that she has juvenile arthritis, which is hard. It’s a big deal as she has to be on some medicine and have some different measures taken and change some diet. And it’s difficult.

And at one point, I was kind of in that mode of feeling like, okay, Lord, enough already, you know, I think this is sufficient. I think we’re doing the best we can. We’re trying to follow you, we’re trying to seek first the kingdom. We’re trusting that you have a plan for our lives, and we’re trying to live in harmony with that plan. But I think this is enough. You know, I think if you could take a little pause and help us out a little bit, that would be great.

And I was drawn to, it just so happened that this kind of experience came right on the heels of this invitation to present at these Pray More Novena Retreat, Lenten Retreat. And one of the topics was Suffering in our Redemption. And I thought, wow, that hits kind of home. And they were talking about, okay, well think about Jesus in the garden. And so I reread the different accounts of Jesus in the garden, and I was just so struck, and I felt like I was like Jesus, I get you, man. I totally understand it. Where He’s aware of what’s happening. Jesus is not ignorant of what’s about to happen. He knows what His mission is. He knows what his father is asking of him. And he’s stirred up about it, very human emotion emanating from Jesus. He’s anxious about it. He’s, I think you could say he’s scared of what’s about to happen. There’s a real fear. There’s a real weight of all of what he is submitting to.

And in that he cries out to the Lord, you know, “Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me.” And then those wonderful words that are such an inspiration to us, “but not my will, but your will be done.” And I found myself praying and saying, “okay, Lord, father, “I would love for you to take some of these cups “away from our family right now, “it’s enough, please, “but not my will, but your will be done.”

A Consequence of Original Sin

Suffering is a fundamental human condition. All of us have suffered. I would venture to guess that all of us in some way right now are suffering even as we’re watching this, hopefully not because of watching this but over suffering, and all of us will suffer. Suffering is a consequence of original sin. That when Adam and Eve’s sinned, what came into the world was a separation from God. There was a rupture both spiritually and physically that happens. Now all of a sudden there’s a temporal consideration and a spiritually and eternal one. There’s a physical manifestation of the sin and a spiritual reality that comes with it. And just as sin alienates us from God, that alienation has both a spiritual and physical consequence.

So spiritually we are without Christ salvation. We are cut off from God. We are separated from God. And as scripture goes on, tells us that we are actually born into this world under a curse. That curse of sin, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. And so as we enter into this world, we’re actually born under a curse. As St. Paul’s describes it, “As we are sons and daughters of wrath.”

And because we’re sons and daughters of wrath, our relationship with God is separation. It’s been broken. And because of that separation, we have physical consequences here on earth. But then the ultimate consequence of that is our destiny as son or daughter of wrath is damnation, condemnation, ultimate separation. And the good news of the gospel, right, the basic kerygma is that God loved us so much that he was not satisfied with this arrangement, that He sent His son to take on the effect of sin and death, to take on the curse, to become like us in all things but sin and to then suffer for us and with us so that he could break the power of sin and death through his death and resurrection. And then as he rises from the dead, he then through Pentecost and the perpetuation of the church, he pours out his life on all those who believe and have faith. And now through baptism, we go from being sons and daughters of wrath to sons and daughters of God. And therefore our relationship with God goes from separation to intimacy, and therefore our destiny goes from damnation to salvation.

And so this is the story that we’re living. This is what we believe that in the garden, Adam and Eve doubt and disobey, and then many, many years later, Jesus is in a garden, faced with that same opportunity. Do I doubt and disobey? Who do I trust and obey? Adam and Eve doubted, disobeyed and were separated, and the curse of sin and death enters into the world. Now, Jesus, the new Adam, once again in a garden faced with the decision, do I trust and obey, or do I flee and reject? And he trusts and obey. And what does Philippians tell us? I love this passage in Philippians chapter two.

Philippians Chapter Two

“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself  and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

Therefore, because of this, what happens

“Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

So this is what Jesus has done for us. This is what Jesus has modeled for us. This is what Jesus offers us, but this side of heaven, the final redemption of our life, that death becomes a doorway into the fulfillment of all of our desires in heaven, that we who are found in Christ will be found with Him for all eternity. We who acknowledge Him here will be acknowledged before the Father. We who are crucified with Christ here would then live with Him for all eternity. What does Paul say? “I have been crucified with Christ, “it is no longer I who live “but Christ who lives in me.”

St. Paul talks about putting to death the old man so that the new man might live. There is a reality that on this side of heaven in the fallen world, until it is redeemed completely in the second coming, each of us as we enter into this world, both will experience temporal, physical suffering, some of which of our own doing, some of which done by others because free will still exists, and for as long as free will exists until Jesus comes again and establishes a new heaven and a new earth, and every knee will bow and either confess His name in glory and in love, or confess His name in fear and in like radical shame of realizing they’ve rejected him, until that final judgment, what we are living in is this fallen world that the Lord has reentered into through Jesus to claim for himself those who believe.

A Source of Great Redemption

But even as He claims us, even as He draws us into his heart, and even as we live in the power of the Holy Spirit, we still on this side of heaven are living in a fallen environment. And so we’re living in a fallen environment that still includes suffering. And what the church has consistently offered and what himself has modeled for us is that suffering can be a source of great redemption. Suffering can be an opportunity of restoration. Suffering can be a place of purification for those of us who are willing to offer it to the Lord, who are willing to submit our will to His to say, “Lord, if you want to pass this cup, I’m good with that, “but not my will, but your will be done.”

And within the midst of this, there’s just such a robust understanding, theological understanding of suffering. And I’d highly encourage you, there’s several different books. One of them is a book called “Making Sense of Suffering,” by Peter Kreeft, is really excellent. And what we see throughout the scriptures is a God who understands our suffering. Why, because he’s a God who actually suffers with, he’s not a God who stands on the sideline and watches a suffering. But through Jesus, we have a God who enters into the human experience and experiences the fullness of all of what suffering can be. I mean, nobody in the history of mankind suffered worse than Jesus. Like his death and resurrection was not, but his death and the torture that he went through was the maximum of a physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering that’s possible because not only was his physical form being whipped and scourged and beaten and plucked, but his soul was under the intense suffering of taking on the full weight of every sin for all eternity.

And so what we see is the church saying, look at, this is who we are called to be Jesus. And the suffering servant shows us how the pathway of suffering when united to God’s will in obedience to God’s will. And that’s a key point we’ll come back to, when united to God’s will, in obedience to God’s will, suffering becomes the doorway or the pathway to great redemption. The greatest redemption, the greatest victory of all time. Jesus’s resurrection from the dead came from, was at the other end at the end of a pathway of suffering.

We Are Invited Into Suffering

And so we who are disciples who are called to be like the master, to become like the master, to live as the master would live if he were us, to become little Christ are invited into this suffering. And there’s so many different places I could point to, but I’m just going to jump into the book of Romans here. There’s a couple different passages in Romans that are really informative for this. I mean, listen to this. This is, we like this part. The first part of this passage really resonates with us and it should.

“So then brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. But if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, Abba, Father, it is the spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that what, we are children of God. And if children then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”

What is the inheritance of Jesus? Everything. Jesus says that everything the Father has, has been given to him. And the son wants us to share in that, to delight in that, that we are destined now for glory to be united with God for all eternity, to have all of our desires fulfilled in Jesus. This is what it means to be a son or a daughter of God, is to participate in the family of God, in the inheritance of the Son, in the glory that is God the Father.

So we like that. But listen to what it says, “Heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ, what, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Then Paul says, “I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

A Pathway For Greater Glory

So there’s a great deal of mystery in this. But in the Lord’s providence and in His plan, He has transformed suffering, which was an effect of something He did not intend or did not directly will. You know, you have the perfect will of God and the permissive will of God. In His permissive will, He has allowed us in our free will to choose not Him. And when we choose not Him, that automatically produces chaos, damage, and suffering. And so in His permissive will, He has allowed this suffering to exist and to be permeated throughout human history.

But he has given us a pathway. He’s given us an option. He’s utilized in the spirit these sufferings to accomplish an even greater glory for himself and for us. That in His, the mysterious providence, He recognizes and invites us into this mystery of, if we unite our sufferings to Him, it can redeem not only our soul, but those around us, that we can participate in His salvific work not just for ourselves, but for the whole world.

That not only are we invited into this, but we are almost like, it’s almost like demanded of us as disciples to not be afraid of suffering, to not be afraid of death. Oh, death, where is your sting? But to say like I believe and I follow a Lord who has conquered sin and death, and until He draws me to himself for all eternity, I will participate and I will offer to Him everything in my life that is hard, all the good, the bad, the ugly, I’m going to give to Him. And I’m going to believe as scripture tells us, “That all things work for good, for those who believe.”

So as I believe Him and as I trust Him, even the darkest suffering, even the most painful, physical, emotional, spiritual ailment can actually be a source of great joy, source of great fruit, source of redemption if I’m able to offer it to Him. And the deeper, the more painful the suffering, the harder it is to see that. But the deeper, more painful suffering we see often than if we can take a step back, or in light of hindsight as we move through it, we can say, “Wow, look at all the ways “that the Lord has worked through this.”

The Lord Permits It But Limits It

And so here’s my encouragement to you, when we think about suffering. Is that Jesus has an opinion and a plan for every single suffering in your life. I’m going to say that again. Jesus has an opinion and a plan for every suffering in your life. It’s worth remembering that the Lord doesn’t will suffering. It’s not His idea. What we see in the Book of Job, when the devil wants to tempt job and cause suffering in his life, it’s not the Lord coming up with that plan. It’s the devil. And the Lord though often will permit suffering so as to give us an opportunity to be purified, to be closer to Him for redemption as we’ve been talking about.

So the Lord permits it but limits it. Scripture also tells us that none of us will ever be tempted beyond our strength. Nothing that we are asked to endure is beyond what we’re capable of. But because He gives us the strength to get through it, we can say like St. Paul says in Romans 5, listen to how he describes suffering, that this limiting, this permission and limiting, actually produces something in us. And what is it?

“Through Him, we have obtained access to the grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” So we are rejoicing in this hope that someday not only are we getting a taste of the glory of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, but we’ll have the fullness of experience to the glory of God. We have hope for that, firm assurance, confidence, that that’s what He has promised we will receive.

But here’s what Paul says. “Not only do we hope in the future glory of God, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

The fullness of living a life activated in God is this beautiful harmony, this beautiful combination of God’s love being poured into our hearts. And we believe that He loves us in faith. And in that faith in the love, it produces a hope for what is to become a firm trust and assurance of that what we are made for, what we are promised will be fulfilled. But to be able to persist in that love, to be able to stand firm in that faith is to be able to suffer and rejoice in our sufferings. And as we rejoice in our sufferings, Lord gives us strength to endure, and as we endure, it produces character, virtue, a firm foundation with which the faith, hope, and love infiltrate fill us, and we become this beautiful tree that reaches up to heaven, rejoicing in our suffering.

You know, Paul talks about, in Philippian, as having no anxiety about anything, but in everything, giving glory to God, giving our, making our intentions known to the Lord so that the peace that passes all understandings, can guard our hearts and our minds. There’s this completely confusing thing to the world of Christians are not afraid of suffering. Christians are not afraid of death. Christians actually have learned how to rejoice in our sufferings, to offer our sufferings to the Lord because we believe it produces something that we could not produce on our own.

So that even in the lives of the saints, we see their perspective on suffering as they are, they’re not concerned about earthly comfort. It doesn’t mean they don’t have things they enjoy. It doesn’t mean that every single moment of their life is this intense suffering. For some of them it was pretty darn close. But they recognized that I was made for heaven and I’m made for intimacy with God, and I’m made for a glory that I’m not yet experiencing. And they say, “I want that so much “that whatever it takes in order to be purified of myself, “that anything that stands in the way of that glory, “of that relationship, of that destiny, they’re saying like, “put that to death, Lord, “burn it away from me. “Rip it out by the roots.” And suffering uniquely allows that to happen in our lives.

Jesus Still Heals Today

So Jesus has an opinion and a plan for every suffering in your life. And sometimes his opinion and his plan is to heal you miraculously right in the moment. We have to believe that Jesus still heals today, physically, spiritually, emotionally. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t cry out to God to say, “Lord, heal me right now. “I believe you can and I believe you want to heal me. “And so Lord, do it right now, I believe it.” I speak to this need, be restored in the name of Jesus. And we come against anything and we say, Lord, heal us. And His opinion and a plan might be to supernaturally heal you in the moment. His opinion and plan might be to heal you through modern medicine or through time, or through counseling or through the efforts of somebody else. Or just through over time something gets resolved, that might be His opinion or plan. Or His opinion and plan might not be to heal you now, but to heal you in heaven.

And so like, I mean the fact of the matter is, friends, we’re all going to die. You know, I hope that’s not a hot take as scripture say, life is short. It’s like a passing shadow, here today, gone tomorrow, little gust of smoke. And again, as a Christian, we don’t fear death because we know that that is the doorway into new life. And so every suffering will be dealt with in heaven. Every tear will be white, every broken bone will be mended. Everything ruptured will be made whole in the kingdom of God. And so our job is not to guess what Jesus’ opinion about our sufferings, but to ask him, and then to cooperate with whatever his answer is.

So friends in this time of Lent, what a perfect opportunity to receive and cooperate with whatever suffering is in our life, to offer to Lord, to ask His plan, and then to say, “Lord, I believe I trust, “I hope and I love you, “and help me to receive what you’re asking me to receive. “Help me to carry what you’re asking me to carry “and help me to have the wisdom to know what to carry “and what to receive, “and what to reject and what to put down.”

Because Jesus says to us that we are called to pick up our cross and follow him. Cross is an instrument of torture. Cross is utilized for execution. And the Lord isn’t torturing us. He’s not executing us. He’s helping us recognize that when we crawl onto the altar with him as a living sacrifice, when we allow ourselves our suffering to be united to his, we don’t lose, we aren’t defeated, we aren’t cast out and destroyed, but we are made more than conquerors, that he gives us a power we don’t have.

And through the power of the Holy Spirit, he can break the power of sin in our lives, and he can break the power of death in our lives, and we can live like Him, fill of the glory of God now and one day completely fold and united with Him for all eternity. Suffering is a human condition, but it has a supernatural solution in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. God bless you.

About Pete Burak

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