From John Piper’s 12/19/2004 sermon, Happy in Hope, Patient in Pain, Constant in Prayer.

Tribulation is the normal experience of believers in this life. Some tribulation we share with unbelievers (like sickness and calamity and death) and some is unique to believers (like persecution for Christ’s sake). But my main point here is that tribulation is normal and to be expected in this world. It’s the setting for all our love and joy and hope and patience and prayer. Affliction is where we live. If you don’t live there now, you will. Learning that this is normal will be a great help to you when it comes….

[Suffering] isn’t strange. It’s normal. It comes with the fallen, sinful, futile world….

The affliction of our lives extends from cancer to calamity to conflict to death. These are all normal and they are part of what we must live with on our way to heaven.

We need to know that bad things will happen, and that God is in control, even in the times of difficulty. As John Piper points out, you are much better off if you learn this lesson during the good times, so that when the difficulties come, you are not surprised. You don’t have to try to think through the issues in the difficult times while you are under stress and are not thinking the clearest.

So realize, you will suffer. If you aren’t suffering now, you will be some time. Don’t be surprised. It won’t make the pain of suffering any easier, but at least you won’t have to struggle with wondering how God could allow such a thing to happen to you.

Instead of questioning how God could allow us to suffer, remember, Jesus suffered. As John Piper reminds us:

Jesus was the best man who ever lived. None of us has any right to experience less affliction than he did. If we experience less, it is mercy. We don’t deserve the peaceful lives we have. They are merciful gifts.

Praise God for the mercy He shows us every day as He has spared us from untold suffering.