Embracing Faith in Times of Suffering: Taking Every Thought Captive

When I was 27 I got sick. I was in and out of the hospital for months and needed surgery. I read accounts of people leaving Jesus’ presence healed, but I suffered for weeks. I thought, “God, if You’re a healer, why haven’t You healed me? Is my faith not enough?”

We often ask these questions when we suffer. We want explanations for our suffering and we question our faith or God’s goodness when things are anything but good.

Instead of hardening my heart toward God, I’ve been tempted to make excuses for Him. Instead of saying “A good God wouldn’t allow this...” I’d be more likely to reason, “Well, He did things differently in the early church than He does now.”

This has been an area of growth in my life where I’m challenged to take my thoughts captive. In the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul addresses the people after having gone through a harrowing experience in his missionary journey. It was so intense that at the beginning of the book, he praises God for being delivered from death! Later, in 2 Corinthians 10:4b-5, he describes our earthly struggles as being spiritual in nature, and that the weapons of warfare we fight back with are spiritual in nature, too. He states, “We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ” (CSB).

We need to do the same. If we start from the truth that our heavenly Father is good (or any other truth revealed in scripture), then our lived experience will be unable to shake our faith and we won’t question His character. We won’t need to make excuses for Him or harden our hearts toward Him. We actually step into an opportunity to live from spiritual realities that scripture depicts regardless of our circumstances.

We’re not promised a life free from suffering. In fact, we’re assured that in this life we will suffer. (Jn. 16:33) Thanks be to God He equips us with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3) that we might walk in Spirit and truth. Following Paul’s example, let’s practice examining our every thought against the truth revealed in scripture. Let’s live according to His truth and not be driven by our feelings and experiences alone.

Meet the Author
Mary Kate Brown

Mary Kate and her husband Brian are high-school sweethearts who left their lifelong home in the Chicago suburbs to build their homestead in rural Western Michigan. She's a homeschooling mama of four daughters and a homebody who enjoys making hot breakfasts, working in her garden, and frequenting the local farmers market. After overcoming health challenges due to autoimmunity, her passion is pursuing wholeness beyond her diagnosis. She encourages other mamas to do the same to shape the wellness of their families.