Is Discomfort Getting in the Way of God's Best?
why suffering does not signal failure, abandonment, or misalignment
Sometimes, it is the will of God that we suffer, but my anxiety would disagree. I find suffering abhorrent, and I use all my energy to either avoid it or worry about its arrival. And I find this law at work within me: I have secretly believed that if something is God’s will, it should feel affirming, relieving, and/or comfortable. It’s as if I think God only does miracles, and the rest, well, the rest is an interruption of His blessings on me.
If something comes my way that I didn’t want or I imagine will be the opposite of comfortable, all my focus goes on removing this obstacle to God’s provision and care.
The Anxiety Beneath My Theology
But then I got to thinking, what if suffering can exist within God’s will, not just outside of it? And what if all the anxiety I experience because I’m so worried that I can’t handle the problem, or that I can’t find hope or joy in it, is sending me packing, rather than abiding?
The question I am asking is: Does discomfort mean a situation is outside God’s will, or does it just mean that I am no longer in control of it?
I mean, anxiety only has leverage on me when I believe suffering signals failure, abandonment, or misalignment. Because somehow I have unconsciously built a theology in which I now equate:
God’s will with protection
God’s favor with comfort
And God’s activity with intervention
Because of this, I end up obsessing over whether my circumstances are “good” instead of focusing on whether God is good.
“But,” you might argue, “how do you see God as good in allowing suffering?” That’s the argument my anxiety has been making for decades, and it’s been winning because I’ve treated the question itself as proof. If I have to ask whether God is good here, then my mind assumes He isn’t.
Redefining Hope
But biblically, hope isn’t confidence in a comfortable result. Hope is confidence in God’s character while the result remains unknown or uncomfortable. That’s why Job could say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…” (Job 13:15).
When my hope is tied to comfort, safety, resolution, or relief, discomfort feels like a betrayal, a danger, or a mistake. But when my hope is tied to God Himself, discomfort becomes information about my limits and expectations, not proof that God is absent or unkind.
It’s as if, when I focus on my discomfort or fear, I translate loss of control into theological language and say this must be “outside God’s will,” when what I really mean is that I’m no longer in charge.
Why Discomfort Feels Like a Threat
If we really look closely, we would all see that discomfort comes whenever one of these three things is happening:
Loss of agency – wherein I can’t fix, speed up, or manage the situation
Threat to my identity – who I thought I was is being reshaped
Delay of meaning – when the “why” is unknown
But none of these contradict God’s will. They just contradict the illusion that God’s will feels immediately intelligible or emotionally stabilizing to me.
Releasing the Outcome
What if surrendering to God’s will isn’t an act of resignation, but of relocation, of relocating the responsibility of the outcome to the One who has always been in charge of said outcome? If that were the play, then I would stop asking myself, in my most anxious voice,
“How do I make this turn out okay?”
And start asking:
“What is mine to remain faithful to while God handles what is not?”
What I’m getting at is that hope survives discomfort when it is attached to faithfulness, not relief.
Hope + Endurance
Think about it, Scripture pairs hope with endurance, not with relief or comfort. For example, Paul says in Romans 8:24–25, “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.”
This is where I think anxiety gets it wrong. It associates hope with the outcome.
“I hope this turns out well.”
“I hope we make it through.”
“I hope this pain ends.”
Why Hope Is Always Possible
But the hope God wants us to have is not in the outcome, but in Him. And that is why hope is always possible, because He IS our hope, and He is always the same, always sturdy, always strong, always present, always good. In Him, our hope always has a reason. Not in the future outcome, but the always-present God.
I’m not saying that now I have to give up what I want, or pretend like suffering is a great pleasure to me, or that discomfort is “good,” but what I do have to give up is the responsibility for the outcome.
Surely success isn’t finding hope in my circumstances. It’s about:
obeying without having any clarity
trusting without a good explanation
and being faithful without a reward for your faithfulness
That’s not ‘giving’ comfort, and maybe that’s the point. Maybe the real answer to my anxiety with all its worries isn’t in making discomfort go away faster, but in learning to see it, not as the thing blocking God’s work, but as the place where He’s already working
Field-Testing: When God’s Will Feels Wrong
PASSAGES:
“So then, let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good.” — 1 Peter 4:19
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” — Psalm 23:4
WHY WE’RE TESTING THESE PASSAGES:
Because we often assume that if something is God’s will, it should feel affirming, relieving, or comfortable. But Scripture offers a more complex view.
1. Does God’s Will Include Suffering
“So then, let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good.” (1 Peter 4:19)
What is the descriptor of suffering in this verse?
Read the full chapter (especially vv. 12–16). What kinds of behavior are not included in “suffering according to God’s will”?
What does it mean to entrust your soul to a faithful Creator as you do good?
2. Does God’s Will Always Feel Relieving?
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
If God’s will always brought comfort, how should we interpret His refusal to remove Paul’s affliction?
How does Paul describe God’s grace?
What weaknesses in your life could be meant to make his power perfect in you?
3. Does God’s Will Always Feel Comfortable?
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)
In what condition is the Psalmist finding comfort?
Is God changing his circumstances?
How does this verse challenge the idea that divine guidance always feels affirming, pleasant, or secure?
4. Define “God’s will” in context
In 1 Peter 4:19, does discomfort mean you are out of God’s will?
In 2 Corinthians 12:9, is discomfort relieved?
What image of God’s will emerges across these three texts?
5. Test the Transfer
When has discomfort made you question whether something was from God?
How might these passages redefine what “favor” or “calling” feels like?
What does it look like to trust God’s will without asking it to feel comfortable?
FIELD NOTE:
The test isn’t whether the path feels comfortable, but whether the Shepherd is still beside you.
