The Glory That Outweighs the Pain

Jesus’ disciples wanted someone to blame for a man’s blindness. Jesus revealed God’s purpose instead, and that same purpose can carry you through your own season of suffering.

By Dianna Hobbs // EEW Magazine Online

Some struggles leave us searching for answers. We pray, we believe and we ask God for healing, relief or a way forward. Yet the situation stays the same, and we begin to wonder why the Lord has allowed the suffering to go on so long.

Jesus’ own disciples wrestled with that question the day they passed a man in Jerusalem who had been blind since birth, and their reaction shows how quickly we reach for explanations when we see someone in pain. “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” they asked (John 9:2 KJV). They assumed someone was at fault and that a lifetime of suffering had to trace back to a sin.

Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (v. 3 KJV).

Some people look at every illness, disappointment or painful circumstance and blame themselves or others for the suffering. Jesus offers us another explanation. Sometimes He allows it so He can get the glory. That is precisely what happened in this man’s case.

Jesus spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle and applied it to the man’s eyes. Then He told him to wash in the Pool of Siloam. The man went, washed and came back seeing. After a lifetime of darkness, he could finally look upon the faces he had known only by voice and behold the ordinary sights others had always taken for granted.

Mud and a walk to a pool hardly seem like the makings of a miracle, and that is exactly what should encourage us. The power belonged to the One who sent him, and God is still not limited by what we understand.

After Jesus healed the man, the religious leaders questioned him again and again. Consumed with discrediting Jesus, they investigated his story, summoned his parents and challenged his testimony. The man could not answer all of their questions, yet he held firmly to what he knew: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25 KJV).

He knew little about the Man who had healed him, though he would soon learn more.

The authorities eventually cast him out. When Jesus heard about it, He went looking for him. He found the man, asked whether he believed on the Son of God and revealed Himself to him.

The man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Him (John 9:38 KJV).

His natural eyes had been opened at the Pool of Siloam; his spiritual eyes were opened as he stood before Jesus. The miracle-working power of Jesus Christ was displayed through his suffering so others, including the man himself, would come to faith.

The same truth holds today.

You may be facing a situation with no solution in sight. Perhaps you have prayed until you ran out of words, or you are holding on to faith while wrestling with questions you cannot answer. Bring all of it to Jesus. He is worthy of your trust, even when you cannot see what He is doing. As you ask Him to deliver you, ask Him also to let His glory be revealed through your situation.

Keep trusting Him. Keep praying for healing, keep believing in His power and receive the help and care you need along the way. Your life is precious to Him in every season. He can strengthen you when you are weary, give you peace while you wait and supply grace for each new day.

And He can still work miracles.

The Apostle Paul knew suffering firsthand. He endured beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonment and rejection for the sake of the Gospel, and still he wrote to the believers in Rome, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18 KJV).

The Greek word translated “reckon,” logizomai, means to calculate, to count up, to reach a conclusion after careful reasoning. Paul was not ignoring his pain when he wrote those words. He had weighed it. He set everything he had endured beside the glory God promised, and the glory outweighed it all.

The man born blind lived that truth. His lifetime of darkness became the very place where the works of God were made manifest, and his suffering led him to the feet of Jesus in worship. Some of God’s glory may be revealed in your life here, the way it was at the Pool of Siloam. The fullness of it waits for the day we see Jesus face to face. Either way, what you carry now is being weighed against something far greater.

Take comfort in knowing your suffering is held in the hands of God. Do the reckoning Paul did. Set your present pain beside the glory He has promised, and let that hope carry you through whatever lies ahead.

Now, let’s pray.

God, thank You for seeing me and hearing my prayers. When the suffering feels heavy, help me weigh it against the glory You have promised, and let that glory be revealed in my life. Draw me closer to You, that I may know You more deeply and worship You more fully, even in my suffering. In Jesus’ name, Amen.