I think it helps to expect suffering as a normal feature of life.
Jesus promised us that in the world we would have tribulation, but in him we would have peace (John 16:33). So I expect suffering. It is one of God’s main training/shaping tools in my life.
I’ve had pain that I did not deserve.
I’ve never had pain that I did not need.
I have learned that if I want to be friends with God, I have to make friends with my pain. I don’t have a different way of looking for God on the bad days. Each day, I ask him to speak to me, to redeem my pain, to let me feel his affection and gaze on his beauty and to grow in my love for him.
The bad days aren’t my problem. I need God to make it through those days. It’s the good days, the abundant days where I tend to forget him. And on all days, he will frequently surprise us because he is the God who does immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that works within us (Eph 3:20)
