Suffering

‘Why does God leave me in this world? Why is he leaving me here for another five, ten, or twenty years?’

Rather say this: I have another five, ten, twenty years to manifest his praises, to tell this sinful world about him and I am going to take every opportunity I can to do that. Time is passing, it is short, there is so much to be done and so little time in which to do it. So I will live my life to the full and to the maximum, thanking him that he has counted me worthy to fulfil my station in life as his servant, thanking him that Christ has ever sent me, as God the Father sent him, to do these things in the world. I see myself, therefore, as an imitator of Christ, as a re-enactor of the life of Christ.
Yes, let me rise to the height to which the apostle Paul rose in Colossians 1. He said that the afflictions of Christ were being brought up to the full in his body. Paul was making up that which remained of the sufferings of Christ and he regarded that as the greatest privilege that he was allowed in this life and world. He meant by that, that Christ had left him here as his representative, to be a kind of Christ-man, to be living the Christ-like life to the glory of God the Father.
‘I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.’ Can you say ‘Amen’ to that? Let us seek to do that and let us thank him that he has sufficient confidence in us and in the power of his Father to leave us even in a world like this, knowing that he can keep us. And in the meantime let us ask him to enable us to serve him and to tell forth his praise and his glory in the world.

Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (2000). The assurance of our salvation : Exploring the depth of Jesus' prayer for His own : Studies in John 17. Originally published separately in four vols., 1988-89. (348). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.