Jesus redeemed us from the cureses of sickness, and poverty, but we have not been redeemed from persecution. 

Many people say that God uses suffering to teach us, or to further the kingdom, but let's look at the passages that talk about suffering.   

 I want to start with what Jesus told the disciples in John 15:18-21

 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. (19) The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world, so it hates you. (20) So you remember what I told you?  ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’  Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.  (21) They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.”

 Drop down a few verses to John 16:1-4 “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith.  (2) For you will be expelled from synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God…(4) Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning…”

 So Jesus warned us that people would hate us and that we would have to suffer persecution for His sake. 

 Romans 8:17 “And since we are his children, we are his heirs.  In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.  But if we share his glory, we must also share his suffering.  (18) Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.” 

 We have to suffer the same persecution that Jesus suffered.  Later in the chapter it talks about how we will suffer with Christ:

 Romans 8:35 “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean that he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  (36) For the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day: we are being slaughtered like sheep.’ (37) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

 So it clearly says here that the persecution is all for Jesus’ sake. 

 Colossians 1:24 (This is Paul talking now) “I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.” 

 How was Paul suffering in his body for the sake of the church?   This was in chapter 1, but later in chapter 4 Paul tells us:

 Colossians 4:3 “Pray for us to, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ.  That is why I am here in chains.”

 Colossians 4:10 “Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you his greetings…

He says again in verse 18, “…remember my chains..”

 So Paul was suffering in his body by being chained in a prison.  He was suffering because he was speaking about Christ to the church, that’s how he was suffering for them. 

 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 talks about more suffering, I’m going to just quote the parts about suffering and being comforted, and not the whole verses, for 3-7, so you may want to read those verses for yourself out of your own Bible, because I am going to be skipping words, this is mostly a paraphrase:

In verse 1:3 it says, “God is our source of comfort… (4) He comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort others.  (5)  The more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort.  (6) Even though we are weighed down with troubles for your sake and salvation. (7) We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you shall also share in the comfort God gives us.”

 But HOW were these people suffering for the sake of their salvation? The next verses (2 Corinthians 1:8-11 tells us (these verses are direct quotes from NLT):

 (8) We think you ought to know dear brothers and sisters, about the troubles we went through in the province of Asia.  We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.  (9) In fact, we expected to die.  But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely on God, who raises the dead. (10) And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again.  We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue. (11) And you are helping us by praying for us.  Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for safety.”

 So they had many troubles in the province of Asia that crushed them, almost to the point of death.  It doesn’t say what specifically those troubles were, but in verse 6 Paul says the troubles were for the sake of their salvation, so I think that makes it clear that the suffering was due to spreading the Gospel message. But when they relied on God, He rescued them from mortal danger.  He didn’t rescue them from the suffering of persecution, but He did protect them death. 

 So these are passages that talk about suffering with Christ or for Christ, and they are all talking about suffering persecution. 

These are only three passages, but I can't find  ANY New Testament passage that talks about a believer suffering, anything except for persecution.   

 The point being that God doesn’t want us to suffer in any other way, Jesus redeemed us from other forms of suffering in His atonement on the cross.