We tend to approach suffering as something to be avoided at all costs. At the first sign of pain, we either flee or pray desperately for relief, hoping for deliverance. Sometimes, the healing comes—but often, it doesn’t. Even when the answers to our pleas seem distant, God is at work, using our suffering to draw us to a deeper place where power is found in surrender and peace blooms in the soil of brokenness.
In the moments when pain traps us and every exit is sealed, we can encounter God in ways we never imagined. Stripped of the illusion of control, we learn the hard truth: our hope lies not in our strength but in the One who holds all things.
It’s the deeper meaning of “my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). It is in the crucible of suffering that “the peace of God, which surpasses understanding” (Philippians 4:7) begins to become real.
As the president of a persecution ministry (International Christian Concern), I constantly think of these truths. Still, they surfaced afresh in my conversation with Hilda Muluh, the author of “The Girl with Special Shoes: Miracles Don’t Always Look Like You’d Expect,” who was a guest on my podcast, Faith Under Fire.
Hilda’s Story: A Life Transformed by Surrender
Hilda has been a prisoner in her body since her teenage years, bound by Muscular Dystrophy (MD). For Hilda, the agony was not just in her physical suffering but in the memory of what once was—of a body that once moved freely. The disease slowly took her ability to walk, to care for herself, to live as she once did. It seemed as though every bit of life and hope was slipping away.
In her desperation, she cried out to God, year after year, pleading for the miracle of healing. But as time passed, no healing came. What did come, though, was an unexpected gift: complete surrender to God’s will. Her suffering, once her deepest curse, became the very means through which she found a closeness with God that she could never have reached on her own.
Hilda learned that the most profound healing is not always of the body but of the spirit—a realization that would reshape her understanding of God’s love. It was a love that refused to be limited by human expectations. She found that “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18), and through her brokenness, she encountered His nearness in a way that was as tender as it was transformative.
Wrestling with God’s Love in the Midst of Pain
Hilda’s story is one of wrestling with the tension between human desire and divine purpose. She was born in Cameroon and grew up full of life and potential, only to have it all stripped away. She remembers the anguish in her heart as she cried out, “If you don’t heal my body, it means you don’t love me.”
Her words echo the struggle so many of us face. We hold God’s love hostage to our circumstances: “If He heals me, then He loves me. If He answers my prayer, then He is good.” But God’s love doesn’t operate on our terms.
In His wisdom, He often asks you to release the very things you cling to, inviting you to trust Him even when there is no seeming rhyme or reason for our pain.
In her darkest moments, as she contemplated ending her life, Hilda came across the story of Joni Eareckson Tada, a woman paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident. Joni’s unwavering joy, despite her suffering, stirred something within Hilda. She realized that even without physical healing, God could fill her life with something far greater—peace, joy, and a deep relationship with Him that defied her suffering. Hilda’s prayer changed: “If you can do in my life what you’ve done in Joni’s, I will trust you.”
The Beauty of Surrender: from Brokenness to Wholeness
Hilda’s body remains broken, but her spirit has been made whole. What she found in surrender was not the healing she had sought but a peace that could only come from God’s presence. Her disability, once the source of despair, became the vessel that carried her to the feet of Jesus. And in her surrender, she discovered a treasure hidden in the darkness, a treasure that she would never trade for anything else.
The Apostle Paul, writing from his own place of suffering, said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11). Hilda learned this too, through tears and pain, and came to a place where she could say, “Even if I never receive the healing I long for, I will trust You, Lord. Even if my circumstances never change, I will believe that You are good.”
Suffering Is a Common Human Experience
Suffering has a way of forcing us to confront the deepest questions of our faith. It breaks down our defenses, burns away our illusions, and brings us to a place where we realize that the truest healing is that of the heart. It’s a journey we don’t willingly choose, but it is a path that transforms us if we allow it to.
And in that transformation, we discover that God’s purpose in our suffering is not to crush us but to meet us in our need, to reveal Himself as the only One who can fill the void within. We come to understand that His power is perfected in our weakness, and in that place of surrender, we find a strength we never knew we could possess.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
He has testified before the U.S. Congress on persecution and has been interviewed or quoted by most of the world’s top media outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.
He is a three-time author, and his podcast is Faith Under Fire, where he helps Christians deepen and defend their faith.
Jeff is available as a guest speaker.
To learn more, go to the Jeff King Blog.
