10 Ways to Know Jesus Better
This devotional is part of our devotional series, 10 Ways to Know Jesus Better. Consider reading one devotional in the series each week. At the end of the article, you will find an action step to help you practically pursue knowing Jesus better.
Part 8: Hold Jesus’ Hand Through Hard Times
All relationships are forged through shared experiences, but the deepest relationships often come about by enduring hardship together. One of the ways that you will come to know Jesus best is through the trials that you experience in life.
In fact, knowing Jesus entirely alters your experience of suffering. No, pain does not hurt any less. Yet as a believer in Jesus, all negative experiences that you have, any trial you face, now serves to test your faith in Jesus and to strengthen it (James 1:2-3) like exercising a muscle. This brings us hope, and even joy amidst the hardest circumstances in life, knowing that all our pain serves our relationship with Jesus.
But we must remember this: everyone—whether they believe in Jesus or not—will face trials and suffering in this life. We are not immune to pain because we love and know Jesus. But with Jesus, our pain serves God’s purposes, and God works through it to do us and others good (Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4). As we walk through trials with Jesus, he strengthens our trust relationship with him.
Jesus himself suffered the greatest emotional pain imaginable (God’s wrath), great physical torture (crucifixion), and extraordinary mental agony (sweat drops of blood, see Luke 22:44) out of love for you, so that you could be saved from the power, presence, and penalty of your sin and brought into a loving relationship with him (Isaiah 53:3-6).
Jesus entered our pain to save us from sin but also to sympathize with us and show us his compassion (Hebrews 2:17). When we suffer, we remember the pain Jesus went through for us. We learn about his compassion in coming to earth as a man to endure pain alongside us. Our suffering can lead us to treasure our Savior more.
The apostle Paul understood that our relationship with Jesus deepens when we suffer with him, and God inspired him to write these words.
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! (Philippians 3:10-11 NLT)
You may have already endured excruciating experiences in this life, suffering greatly. And yet, in this life, you will suffer even more. When we suffer, we often become profoundly disoriented. There are many questions that our hearts cough up that we can’t answer. Why did this happen? Why didn’t God stop this? When will the pain end?
Jesus may answer some of the specific questions you ask in your pain. Remember this—he will always answer you (Psalm 91:15; Psalm 86:7; Psalm 118:5), though he may not give a specific answer to your specific questions. This is not because he has no answer. Jesus has the answer to all our questions, but he may not always share them with us. Many of your questions he will leave unanswered.
Because he is God, there are things he knows and understands that we cannot (Deuteronomy 29:29). There are some things that it is wiser for him to withhold from us, for he knows that the answers would not satisfy us, because we do not share his full wise perspective (Isaiah 55:8-9).
So Jesus offers you something very precious instead, and it’s the gift we all want most in pain—his presence. Jesus will be with you. None of us enjoys the hard times in life. But those of us who know Jesus, like Paul, know that we have the opportunity to see the glory of Jesus in our pain in a way that we could not in our pleasure. The way this happens is a mystery to us, and the fact that pain strengthens our relationship with Jesus is a miracle, and a great mercy.
So even though life with Jesus will include venturing into the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil there (Psalm 23:4). His goodness and mercy follow us even in those awful places, and he aims to show us his glory there (Psalm 23:6).
If you want to know Jesus better, do not resist him when you find yourself in sorrow or suffering. Draw near to him. Cling to him. Always run to him. Ask him for his Holy Spirit to do a miracle in your heart, the miracle of teaching you to trust him in your deepest pain. And ask him to show you the glory of Jesus, that you might know his goodness in this place, more than ever before.
Action Step
Every day this week, ask Jesus to do the miracle in your heart of helping you trust that he is good always, and to show you his glory in your times of deepest pain.