Sharing In Suffering and Comfort

Sharing in Suffering & Sharing in Comfort

2 Corinthians 1:1-11

By Marianne Castillo

The Apostle Paul was intimately acquainted with suffering. He experienced trials and persecution

all throughout his ministry. In Corinth, false teachers were accusing him of being arrogant and assaulting his character. Paul had the suffering of confronting sinful men and churches. In addition, Paul was imprisoned and whipped. He was chased out of towns and suffered journeys and while at sea. Yet, as Paul knew great suffering, he also knew great comfort because he knew the ultimate Comforter. He shared the comfort he received from God with others. We are called to do the same!

Now in 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 the church in Corinth was suffering due to persecution, they were suffering for righteousness. Paul, knowing exactly what that feels like went back to the Corinth Church to share in suffering and share in comfort and encourage the church to suffer well.

Discussion Questions:

Have you suffered for righteousness? Are you suffering in ministry?

Can you relate to Paul?

Even if you are suffering for other reasons you can learn from Paul and take biblical truths that are encouraging, comforting, and apply to your lives as you suffer. Now let’s dive in and unpack each verse!

VS. 1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These verses are a greeting to the recipients. Paul is writing to the Church of Corinth. He explains he is a messenger sent by Christ. The words he is about to share are not for his own personal gain, but for Christ and the people. He also explains that Timothy is with him, his life partner in ministry. In every letter Paul begins with his greeting of “grace to you and peace from our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. He is giving praise to God and acknowledging that God the Father and Son are to be lifted up. We see here that Paul understands who his Lord is and who he submits too.

VS.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort

In verse 3 we see a characteristic of God. He is merciful! He holds back what we deserve. He is a God of loving kindness, and he is tenderhearted. He is also a God of comfort! There is an emphasis here that God is a God of “all” comfort. This means in everything and anything God will always comfort! John MacArthur says, “it is God who is the ultimate source of every true act of comfort”. “Comfort” in the Greek means to come alongside and help. God was coming alongside Paul comforting him by providing him with strength and courage in his suffering.

Therefore, people who fear the Lord have God to strengthen them in the midst of suffering. The one true God who is all powerful and gives us strength to endure suffering.

Take a couple minutes to sit in silence and chew on that!

Before we move on to verse 4, let us define “affliction”. According to the Blue Letter Bible, some other words to define affliction would be, anguish, pressure, burdened, tribulation, and troubled. One definition even says, crushing pressure.

Discussion questions:

Do you feel crushed right now?

Are you in anguish or troubled?

What burden are you carrying around right now? Do you have a close friend in tribulation?

VS. 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

The God of ALL comfort, WILL comfort, strengthen, encourage, and exhort, us in our anguish. When it feels like the walls are caving in, HE promises to comfort his children! We have a compassionate, gracious, good God!

This might be surprising to hear, but there is a purpose to our suffering! Not only is there comfort from God for ourselves, but there is comfort for those around us. As believers we are called to comfort others who are in tribulation with the same comfort we have received by God. We are not made to suffer alone! Suffering is an opportunity to serve one another and be in sweet fellowship with one another. After Paul received divine strength from God in his suffering, God then used him to comfort and strengthen the Church in Corinth.

Discussion Questions:

As you are suffering, who are you comforting?

Who are you ministering to in the midst of suffering? Who are you sharing burdens with?

Who are you allowing to comfort you?

Or are you isolating yourself? Are you suffering alone?

VS. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

We suffer because Christ suffered. We are not promised a life without suffering. But we are promised comfort and reward as we suffer righteously.

Discussion questions?

Are you suffering righteously?

Are you suffering in a way that pleases God and brings his glory, honor and praise?

1 Peter 4:12-14 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

When we are suffering due to persecution and do what is pleasing to God, we share in Christ suffering. This is the most intimate suffering we as believers will experience. We are able to rejoice in our suffering, because of Christ.

Romans 8:18

“and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him”.

VS. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

The body of Christ will be afflicted as a whole, but Paul is encouraging us to comfort and encourage one another, together growing in patience and endurance.

We need to be careful not to have a pity party and isolate ourselves in the midst of suffering. Bring it out in the open and allow others to encourage you and you encourage others. This could be a reason why Paul is emphasizing so much that we are to share our suffering with others.

Discussion questions: 

Have you had a pity party? 

Are you in one right now?

Let us humbly lay our burdens at his feet and let God and others comfort us with God's Word, as well as comfort others in the midst of your suffering.

VS. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Some people in the Corinth Church were also suffering from righteousness, like Paul, and he took the opportunity to encourage them, even though this Church caused him much pain in the past.

Through verse 7 we see the compassion and care Paul has for the people suffering and we see Paul’s humility through his willingness to help the people who were easily convinced to believe false accusations against him.

Discussion questions:

Would you be willing to do the same?

Would you be willing to comfort and encourage others who at one point caused you hurt? It would take much humility and it would be difficult, BUT with Christ you are able to!

VS. 8-9 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Paul is explaining the suffering he and Timothy went through in Asia. He is beginning to share his suffering. In this he is setting an example of being open in his suffering, being humble, and expressing his weaknesses. Paul and Timothy were having much trouble in Asia to a point where they thought they were going to die. We are not given details, but it was so discouraging and immense that they thought their ministry and life was going to come to a close. There is something significant to point out in verse 9. There is another purpose to suffering! “So that” they would depend on God. So that we turn and trust in God, who raises the dead, the God who delivers us. God does not ever promise a life without suffering. And there will be times in our life when God brings us to the end ourselves. However, that does not mean that he has forgotten about us or cares for us any less. It is because he loves us and cares for us that he allows suffering in our lives. It is for our good and his glory and to make us more like his son, to sanctify us, and make us holy. That is loving!!

Paul chose to remind himself that God is ALL powerful by saying he is the God who raises the dead.

Discussion questions:

In the midst of your suffering are you meditating on the character of God?

What attributes are you clinging to?

How are you praising God in your suffering?

Are you waiting for it to be over? Or are you enduring the anguish through worship?

VS. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Paul renews his mind and encourages the Church that God has delivered us from eternal damnation. And he will deliver us again from a world of suffering in Christ's second coming. We can rest that our hope is in Christ!

VS.11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

In the last verse of this section Paul ends asking the Corinthians for prayer. Paul understood the power of prayer and the importance of the body of Christ praying for one another. Paul trusted in the sovereignty and power of God. He understood that God's will would be accomplished, however believers are called to lift one another in prayer, expressing their dependence on the Lord.

Discussion questions:

Have you asked people to pray for you as you endure suffering? Are you praying for others as they suffer?

Are you praying with one another in person?

I am so thankful to our Great God for using Paul as an example of what it looks like to suffer well. God was the ultimate comforter back then and he STILL is the ultimate comforter now! God yearns for his children to draw near to his throne in suffering. He wants you to lay your burdens as his Holy feet and trust in him completely. God wants you to share your suffering that he has allowed in your life with the Body of Christ. As well as share the comfort that he provides with the body of Christ. You are not made to suffer alone! Endure the tribulation and suffer well in Christ!

Faith is Forged in Crisis

By Jon Bloom

The Bible is a blood-earnest book. It’s a book about reality. And reality, as we know all too well, is often brutal and bloody. The Bible doesn’t sugarcoat this fact at all, but describes reality with disturbing forthrightness. Much of Scripture was written during brutal, bloody times by embattled, distressed, weary, even depressed authors. And at the pinnacle of the Bible’s story, at the core of the Bible’s message, is the Son of God dying a bloody death on a brutal Roman cross.

So, when we open our Bibles, rarely are we going to find a little light reading.

Even in the book of Psalms, this collection of inspired spiritual poetry that has brought immeasurable comfort to an incalculable number of saints across the centuries, we are frequently faced with distressing themes. In numerous psalms, we read writers’ wrestlings over what it means to trust the God they treasure as they witness some brutal and bloody reality, a reality that challenges their understanding or expectations of God’s promises and purposes.

These psalms fit into a category we call psalms of lament. In certain lament psalms, like Psalm 10, we’re reading an inspired author’s faith crisis captured in verse.

Can We Say That to God?

We see this immediately in the opening verse:

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
     Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)

That’s a remarkable thing to say to God. Could a Christian Hedonist actually pray this way?

Why would I ask that question that way? We at Desiring God believe that the Bible teaches an approach to life we call Christian Hedonism. We see in Scripture that a Christian is not someone who assents merely intellectually to core Christian propositional truth claims. A Christian loves God with all his heart (Matthew 22:37), values God as his greatest treasure (Matthew 13:44–46; Philippians 3:7–8; Hebrews 11:24–26), and seeks God as the source of his greatest and longest-lasting pleasure (Psalm 16:11). The triune God of the Bible is to be a Christian’s “exceeding joy” (Psalm 43:4). Summarized in a sentence, Christian Hedonists believe Scripture teaches that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

We can certainly find lots of Christian Hedonistic prayers in the Psalms, like Psalm 73:25–26,

Whom have I in heaven but you?
     And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
     but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

But what about Psalm 10, where the writer laments his agonizing bewilderment over unjust, greedy, violent acts against innocent, helpless people? He’s not only disturbed by the wicked acts he’s witnessed; he’s disturbed that the wicked are prospering from their wickedness. And God, the righteous Judge, appears to be letting it happen. So, in typical biblical candor, he asks God, “Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” If a person truly loves, trusts, and treasures God above all else, can he pray like that? Can someone who rejoices in God ever lament God’s apparent distance and disregard?

“A faith crisis should not be confused with faith abandonment.”

In short, yes. In fact, Christian Hedonists pray to God this way at certain times because he is our “exceeding joy,” because we treasure him, because we love him. And because sometimes God’s ways and timing are agonizingly difficult to grasp. We see this sorrowful-yet-rejoicing dynamic in the brutal realities of Psalm 10.

Why Did God Feel Far?

First, we need to understand what was troubling this psalmist. He pours out his distress:

• “In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor [because he is] greedy for gain” (Psalm 10:2–3).

• He “curses and renounces the Lord” (even denies God’s existence) (Psalm 10:3–4).

• “His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression” (Psalm 10:7).

• “In hiding places he murders the innocent” (Psalm 10:8).

• “He seizes the poor when he draws him into his net” (Psalm 10:9).

The poor are being exploited and even slaughtered by someone in a position of power (perhaps more than one) for the sake of financial benefit. The victims are in a “helpless” or defenseless position and so “are crushed, sink down, and fall by [the wicked person’s] might” (Psalm 10:10). These would be unspeakable deeds, except that silence would only compound the injustice of it all. Therefore, like Jeremiah, the psalmist “cannot keep silent” (Jeremiah 4:19).

What Faith Sounds Like in Crisis

The psalmist strives to put the wickedness he sees into words. We can sense his righteous anger. Such horrible oppression and injustice should make him (and us) angry.

“Sooner or later, every Christian experiences a faith crisis — some of us numerous ones.”

But though the psalmist is addressing God with urgent earnestness, I don’t believe his anger is directed toward God. It’s directed toward the wicked who are wreaking such destruction. The psalmist is turning to God with his burning indignation toward evil perpetrators, and his tearful compassion toward victims because his hope is in God to bring justice and deliverance to bear. That’s why he prays.

We too witness, and sometimes are victims of, such wicked injustices. In our day, innocent, defenseless unborn babies are legally murdered, and children as well as vulnerable or entrapped adults are trafficked for sex, all financially profiting those perpetrating the injustices. In the face of such things, we cannot keep silent. First and foremost, before God. Out of compassion for afflicted ones and righteous anger toward perpetrators, we pour out our lamenting hearts to the God in whom we hope (Psalm 43:5) and from whom we receive hope (Psalm 62:5).

Learning to Cry Out in Crisis

But still, those opening lines of the psalm sound like God is the recipient of at least some of the psalmist’s anger:

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
     Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)

If that’s not anger or disillusionment or disappointment, what is it? It’s putting into words the painful perplexity of a crisis of faith.

Now, a faith crisis should not be confused with faith abandonment. Nearly every saint experiences faith crises of different kinds, and typically we must endure faith crises in order for faith to grow and strengthen — more on that in a moment. But the clearest evidence that this psalmist is not forsaking God is the presence of this psalm — the psalmist is praying! And in his prayer, he’s doing with God what all of us do with those we love and cherish deeply who act (or seem not to act) in ways we don’t understand: he’s honestly expressing his confusion and pain.

The psalmist’s soul is troubled that his biblically informed knowledge of God’s character does not seem to match the reality he’s observing. He believes “God is a righteous judge” (Psalm 7:11) who “executes justice” for the helpless and vulnerable (Deuteronomy 10:18). But he’s not seeing justice executed for the helpless and vulnerable. He’s seeing the wicked oppressor of the helpless “prosper at all times” (Psalm 10:5). Why God isn’t immediately stopping this injustice is beyond him. It’s a moment of crisis for him, and he’s telling God so.

I think it wrong, however, to assume that, because the psalmist asks God why he seems distant or hidden, he’s blaming God or scolding God for neglecting his responsibilities. What he’s doing is describing his experience of reality — the way the situation appears to him through his finite senses. And the reason he’s praying this way is precisely because he cares so deeply for God, because he loves and trusts God.

This is a faithful Christian response to a faith crisis. When we are painfully perplexed by the apparent discontinuity between what we know of God from the Scripture and what we observe in the world, when the mystery of God’s providential purposes meets the finiteness of our understanding, and it doesn’t make sense to us, God wants us to cry out to him. He wants us to cry out to him precisely because we love and trust him, even when our experience challenges what we believe.

Forging Christian Hedonists

The fact that the Bible speaks so honestly about reality is part of its self-authenticating quality; unvarnished honesty is one sign of sincerity and truth. And the fact that the Bible features a psalmist’s faith crisis over the problem of evil is part of why the Psalms have comforted so many for so long; we experience such crises too.

Sooner or later, every Christian experiences a faith crisis — some of us numerous ones. But a crisis of faith does not mean a loss of faith. In fact, it is often through faith crises that we learn what faith really is.

“The forging of a Christian Hedonist often occurs in the fires of a faith crisis.”

Scripture is full of accounts of saints enduring many kinds of faith crises, where the God who governs reality, in all its bloody brutality, does not meet the saints’ understanding and expectations, leading those saints to wrestle deeply. The Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith” is lined with such saints, who through crises learned what it really means to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

I mentioned earlier that Christian Hedonists love to pray Psalm 73:25–26:

Whom have I in heaven but you?
     And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
     but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

What I didn’t mention is that Psalm 73 is another account of a faith crisis, and this prayer is part of the fruit of that crisis. So, when your own crises come, don’t assume your faith, love, and joy are gone, but that God wants to grow them in the furnace of affliction. Because the forging of a Christian Hedonist often occurs in the fires of a faith crisis.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/faith-is-forged-in-crisis

8 Ways Trials Help Us

KATIE FARIS

Catch us off guard? Yes. Expose fear, anxiety, anger, and self-pity? For sure. Bring sorrow and pain? Absolutely. Trials do a lot of things, but what good do they do?  

In his letter to dispersed Jewish Christians, James gives this imperative: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3).

These are great memory verses for a Sunday school class—but what about when we lose a job and can’t pay the mortgage? What good do chemotherapy, a NICU stay, a car accident, or persecution for our faith actually accomplish?

What good do chemotherapy, a NICU stay, a car accident, or persecution for our faith actually accomplish?

There’s a reason James unashamedly tells us to count it all joy when we encounter trials like these. He knows that when true faith survives their refining heat, the fruit is sweeter than the cost is painful. Here are eight ways trials help produce steadfastness.

1. Trials deepen our prayer lives.

When overwhelmed, we can pray like Jehoshaphat: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chron. 20:12). In response to devastating news, we weep, fast, and pray as Nehemiah did (Neh. 1:3–4). In the throes of worry, we “let our requests be made known to God” and cast all our “anxieties on him, because he cares for us” (Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7). When we lack words to pray, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness,” interceding for us “with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26). Humble prayer cultivates dependence on God, attacks our pride, and positions us to delight in the Lord who hears and answers in accordance with his wisdom.

2. Trials grow our knowledge of God’s Word and character.

A wilderness season invites us to internalize God’s promises, to learn as the wandering Israelites did that we don’t “live by bread alone” but by “every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3). The psalmist says, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Ps. 119:71), and Job confesses, “I had heard of [God] by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5). God often uses suffering to grow our knowledge of his Word and his true character.

3. Trials increase gratitude for our Savior.

When we taste sorrow, it reminds us that Jesus drank the full cup of God’s wrath on our behalf. He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42), and then he was “wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5).

Humble prayer cultivates dependence on God, attacks our pride, and positions us to delight in God who hears and answers in accordance with his wisdom.

Our pain makes us more aware of Jesus’s pain, increasing our gratitude for the agony he suffered on the cross. We also rejoice because through his sacrifice, our sin is forgiven and our salvation secured. We remember and cry, “Thank you, Jesus, for suffering in our place!”

4. Trials make us more like Jesus.

When Joseph’s brothers intended evil toward him, “God meant it for good,” to keep many people alive in famine (Gen. 50:20). Our redeeming God—who worked out our salvation through Jesus’s painful sacrifice on the cross—continues to work all things, including our trials, for the “good of those who love him” (Rom. 8:28–29). One good thing God does through hardship is make us more like Jesus, who “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:8).

5. Trials equip us to comfort others.

In our trials, God means to comfort us so abundantly that we overflow with compassionate care for others. Paul writes that God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in affliction” (2 Cor. 1:4). It’s God’s intention that we be conduits of his comfort to suffering family, friends, and neighbors. Our experience of trials helps us understand what others might feel and need, and our experience of God’s comfort equips us to come alongside them to pray and serve in a gentle manner.

6. Trials prepare an eternal weight of glory.

Maybe we can’t see what our trials are doing, but they’re working. Each “light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” when we look to what is unseen (2 Cor. 4:17–18). Each car ride to the treatment center. Each pile of paperwork and signed check. Each sleepless night spent caring for sick children. Given to him, it’s all significant in the kingdom of heaven.

7. Trials remind us that earth isn’t our true home.

In loneliness, we yearn for God’s presence. Tears stir our hearts for a place with no “mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Rev. 21:4). Sick bodies wait eagerly for new ones. Death makes us long for resurrection. These trials remind us that earth isn’t our true home. They increase our hunger for heaven.

8. Trials test and strengthen our faith.

Trials prove the genuineness of our faith, which fills our hearts with joyful assurance of salvation and results “in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:7). This strengthening of faith motivates us to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and . . . run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, . . . who for the joy set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:1–2). 

God Is Doing Something Through Your Trials

Even knowing the good that comes through trials, I doubt we would intentionally choose suffering for ourselves or our loved ones. But God is wiser than we are. His ways are higher than our ways (Isa. 55:9), and he uses trials for both his seen and unseen purposes in our lives.

You may not know what God is doing in a particular trial, but given the many options presented in Scripture, you can know he’s doing something. Given how much he loves you, you can know it’s for your eternal good. That is a reason for great rejoicing.

Katie Faris is married to Scott, and her greatest works in progress are their five children ages 2 to 13. She is the author of Loving My Children: Embracing Biblical Motherhood. She worships at Sovereign Grace Church in Marlton, New Jersey. You can read more of Katie’s words on her website, blog, Instagram, or Facebook.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/8-ways-trials-help-us/

Called to Suffer

Paul Tautges

“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

1 Peter 2:21

Suffering is no stranger to followers of Christ. It’s part of our calling, part of our identity. We are sufferers. We were born into a fallen world cursed by God when mankind first sinned in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:17). As a result, we groan. We groan because life hurts badly—there are unspeakable sorrows. We groan as we await the final day of redemption when “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). We groan as our hearts ache for the day when Jesus will make all things new (Rev. 21:5). Until then, suffering is guaranteed.

Don’t misunderstand me. The primary identity of each and every Christian is an exalted and victorious one. It is connected to who we are in Christ; that is, our position or standing before God. We are set apart by God (Eph. 1:1); adopted into his family (Eph. 1:5); objects of God’s grace (Eph. 1:6); chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed by the Spirit (Eph. 1:4, 7, 13-14); we are part of God’s eternal plan (Eph. 3:11); and much more. This world is not our home, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). Positionally, we are already seated in the heavens and possess every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:2). Make no mistake. The believer’s eternal inheritance is more glorious than we could ever imagine. Still we live in a world filled with pain, anguish, and loss. Suffering is common to all human beings; no one is exempt. However, its expectation is even more sure for Christians, due to our identification with the suffering Savior. Though he now sits at God’s right hand, our victorious, risen and ascended Savior still has his scars. We must never forget that!

More than seven hundred years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the prophet Isaiah wrote about the pain and anguish of Messiah, the Suffering Servant, as if it had already taken place. He was “despised and rejected.” He was not “esteemed” as he deserved, but instead was “stricken,” struck down by his own fallen creatures (Isa. 53:3-4). Ultimately, he was “wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” at Calvary (Isa. 53:6). He was “oppressed” and “afflicted” by those whom he came to save (Isa. 53:7). Jesus is the Savior who suffered in the past, but remains understanding and compassionate toward us in our suffering—even now—as every believer’s High Priest (Heb. 4:15). With these realities in mind, let’s think about suffering in three ways.

Suffering is predicted by Jesus.

Jesus himself warns all who follow him: “In the world you will have tribulation,” but he also urges us to “take heart” since he already has “overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). To believers who were scattered, due to persecution, the apostle Peter wrote, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Pet. 2:21). The specific context of this admonition is suffering for righteousness’ sake; that is, persecution for doing right in the face of evil treatment. However, the same truth also serves as an umbrella principle over all forms of suffering we endure. It’s part of our calling. Yet the suffering we experience is unlike that of Jesus in one very significant way: his suffering atoned for sin; ours could never. Jesus alone is the Lamb of God who can take away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29). Jesus—and only Jesus—could be the “once for all” sacrifice which was foreshadowed by Old Testament law (Heb. 7:27; 9:12; 1 Pet. 3:18). He alone is the sinless God-man, the one, qualified mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). He alone is Savior (Acts 4:12). Our suffering can never save us (we could never atone for our own sin), but it can deepen our existing relationship with the One who already suffered in our place.

Suffering draws us closer to Jesus.

In our suffering, we are offered an opportunity to experience a kind of fellowship with Jesus that can be sweeter and deeper than at any other time in our lives. The apostle Paul spoke about this growth principle when he expressed the longing of his heart to know Jesus experientially: “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). Paul knew Christ, and was known by Christ, due to receiving his righteousness by faith at the moment of his conversion. He was confident he had been saved from the wrath to come, but he was not content with his relationship with Jesus. Paul wanted to be walk closer and closer to his Savior, in the fellowship of his sufferings. Fanny Crosby echoed this same longing in 1874, in her hymn Close to Thee.

Close to Thee, close to Thee,
Gladly will I toil and suffer,
Only let me walk with Thee.[1]

Times of suffering typically send us looking for a compassionate, caring friend. Jesus is the Friend of all friends. Pain can bond us to our Savior if we will allow it to do its internal work.

Suffering shifts our heart’s affections.

Suffering always involves some form of loss and, therefore, it naturally loosens our grip on the temporal by forcing our focus onto the eternal. The apostle Paul testifies of this helpful comparison: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). Without suffering we undoubtedly would think less about the eternal glories of heaven. In addition, physical, mental, and relational pain have the unique power to dethrone idols, and redirect the affections of our heart toward Christ. The anguish we feel exposes the insufficiency of what we hold to most dearly in this life, offering to us the opportunity to repent of disordered worship and renew our vows to Christ. Indeed this is one of the most important redemptive purposes of God in our suffering.

If by faith you have been united to Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection, you can expect suffering to be a regular part of your life. Painful trials are not punitive for the Christian, since Jesus was already punished in our place. However, because our loving heavenly Father is eager to bless us more and more, he employs suffering to draw us closer and closer through more childlike faith and obedience. For the believer, the fiery blaze of suffering does not destroy. Instead it is a refining fire that carries with it the potential to purify our hearts, increase our love, and sanctify our lives in order to more clearly reflect the humility and love of Christ.

Take a moment to pray. Thank God for the good purposes he has for your suffering. Ask him to give you a teachable heart as you draw near to him.

[1] Fanny J. Crosby, “Close to Thee,” 1874.

Posted at: https://counselingoneanother.com/2020/11/07/called-to-suffer/

Encouragement for Hard Times from Saints of Old

Tim Chester

Let me tell you a story about a pandemic, lockdown and social distancing. Sound familiar? Yet this is a story not from 2020, but from 1665.

That year, the so-called “great plague” broke out in southern England – part of a global pandemic of bubonic plague. At some point a bundle of flea-infested cloth arrived in the village of Eyam in the Derbyshire Dales. The package was opened by a tailor’s assistant called George Viccars. Within days he was dead. Other members of the household fell ill, and the people of Eyam realised they had an outbreak on their hands.

What happened next is an amazing story of courage and self-sacrifice. Three years before, the Rector of Eyam, Thomas Stanley, had lost his ministry during the Great Ejection when around 2,000 Puritan leaders were forced out of the Church of England. The new rector, William Mompesson, remained within the established Church but shared Stanley’s living faith in Christ. Under their combined leadership, the village made the decision to self-isolate. It made sense for people to escape the plague by leaving the village. But that risked spreading the disease to other parts of the north of England. So instead they chose a self-imposed lockdown. No one came into the village and no one left.

To this day there’s a stone on a footpath out of the village with natural indents which, during the plague, were filled with vinegar so villagers could safely leave coins in exchange for supplies. No funerals were held; instead families had to bury their own dead. Church services were held outside so people could practice a seventeenth-century version of social distancing. The plague ran its course over fourteen months. How many people died is disputed, but it’s thought to have been over half the village. The dead included the rector’s own wife, whose grave is still in the churchyard.

Sustained by the truth

COVID-19 has certainly led to strange and challenging times. But, as the story of Eyam reminds us, they are not without precedent. In 1665, the great plague left around 100,000 people dead—a quarter of London’s population. Just as someone can think they’re the centre of the world, so we can think we’re the centre of the ages—as if our challenges are special. But the people of God have faced crises again and again across the centuries. This is one of the great values of church history: the gospel truths that sustained the saints of old are the same truths that will sustain us today.

The writer of Hebrews says,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Heb. 12: 1-2).

The Christian life is a long race, he says, and if we want to make it to the finish line we need to do two things. First, we’re to turn away from distractions, especially the distraction of sin, and “throw off everything that hinders” (v 1). Second, we’re to turn instead to look at and “[fix] our eyes on Jesus” (v 2).

To help fix our gaze on Jesus, we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses” (v 1). For the first readers of Hebrews, these witnesses were the saints of the Old Testament, whose faith in God’s promises had sustained them through troubling times and had enabled them to achieve great things in God’s name. But as readers today, we can add names from across the pages of church history to that crowd of cheering spectators. Two thousand years on, the cloud of witnesses is larger than ever.

The key thing is that such people are “witnesses.” Like the witness in a law court, they have evidence to present and, in this case, their testimony concerns Jesus Christ. Their purpose is not to draw attention to themselves but to him. Their lives may inspire and their words may inform, but their true value is that they point us to Jesus.

The best of Christian writers from across the centuries keep on directing our gaze to Christ and his work. The seventeenth-century Puritans wrote book after book about Christ, perhaps because it was the glory of Christ that sustained them through their hardships. Here, for example, are the Christ-centred words of Puritan William Bridge in his book, Lifting Up for the Downcast:

Be sure that you think of Christ in a right way and manner as he suits your condition and as he is held forth in the gospel … The Scriptures hold forth the person of Christ in ways that make him very amiable to poor sinners. Are you accused by Satan, the world or your own conscience? He is called your Advocate. Are you ignorant? He is called the Prophet. Are you guilty of sin? He is called a Priest and High Priest. Are you afflicted with many enemies, inward and outward? He is called a King, and King of kings. Are you in dire straits? He is called your Way [1].

Our Puritan brothers and sisters in Christ wrestled with God through hard times, and the fruit of their labour can help us through the hard times we face. Sometimes the language and emphases of the past seem strange to us. But this very strangeness is actually a key reason to read old authors. They present familiar truths in a different way—a way that can capture our imaginations anew. Moreover, the strangeness of their world becomes a vantage point from which to view ourselves with a fresh perspective, potentially exposing the strangeness of our own preoccupations and prejudices.

When we listen to heart-warming wisdom from the saintly witnesses of old, we are encouraged to fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

_____

Tim Chester’s new book is An Ocean of Grace: A Journey to Easter with Great Voices from the Past, a collection of devotions and prayers for Lent from writers across church history.

 Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/11/encouragement-from-saints-old/

When Suffering is Long and Hard

By: Sue Nicewander Delaney

My husband’s stroke in 2013 initiated a three-year period of suffering and loss for us. After he died in 2016 and I embarked on an unsettling role as a widow, the following years brought more major hardships that led to despair. How can you help someone whose suffering intensifies, with no endpoint in sight?

General Principles for Counseling

Love well. She has come to you for help because her world is crumbling, but she won’t open up unless she believes you are compassionate and competent—that you won’t judge her for suffering, and that you will steadily point her to hope in Christ.

Listen before speaking. Hear her losses and how they are affecting her life. Recognize that long-term suffering has stages or segments, each of which bears a range of theological questions:

1. Crisis

2. Experiencing the extent and permanence of losses

3. Major adjustments (perhaps including worldview changes)

4. New or additional suffering and grief

      For each stage, evaluate:

• What physical and spiritual challenges does she face? What should you address, and what should you delegate?

• How is she handling the adjustments she must face? What is most difficult for her, and why? Is her major struggle as sinner or as sufferer?

• What does her honesty (or reluctance) to share her heart tell you about her faith? How might you guide her to build faith and endurance in God? This is your most important role.

• Observe negative emotional patterns of anger, fear, or despair. What do her emotions reveal about what she believes she needs most?

• How does she perceive God views her? Is she a believer? Where does she find her identity? How have her changing roles challenged her self-image?

• How does she relate to God in her suffering? To His people?

• What questions is she asking, especially about God?

  • God seldom provides explanations, but answers “Why?” with reasons to trust His character (e.g., Job 38-42). Does she accept this, or does she demand answers? Is she willing to submit to God’s plan if it differs from hers? If not, where does she seek meaning and peace?

  • Listen for foundational questions: Does God love me? and Is God able to help me? (A discussion of the depths and significance of this struggle must be left for another time.) Briefly, the gospel answers both questions:

    1. Christ’s death on the cross proves God’s love, which cannot be earned, but is His free gift (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8, 12; 8:37-39).

    2. The resurrection proves that God is powerful enough to help her (Eph. 1:18-21).

    3. How is she responding to these truths? What hinders her? Resist arguing with her answer; be grateful for her honesty.

    4. Measure your response simply, saturated with prayer, grace, and kindness.

Speak Carefully, Using Scripture

Hear her. Even if you have a similar experience, assume you don’t understand her suffering or her heart. Let her ask hard questions without scolding her. Listen and learn.

Express Christ-like sorrow, acknowledging her painful trial without condemning her human frailty (2 Cor. 12:8-10). Be gentle with her tears, avoid attempts to cheer her up (Prov. 25:20); respect her grief without indulging self-pity.

Avoid platitudes like, “It’s going to be okay.” Accept your inability to fix what is broken. You have a more eternal purpose. Instead, help her learn to walk with God in a fallen world where life is not okay. Point to God as a hearing, caring God, using examples from her story.

Let Scripture move her toward God. Look together at a short passage or biblical example that reveals God’s heart and perspective toward one of her pressing questions. Ask her how the Word lands on her today. Gradually compile those passages into a list of helpful statements tailored to her questions and struggles. Ask her to read the list every morning and every evening. For example, “God is with you. You are not alone.” Hebrews 13:5b: I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Exemplify gentle compassion and kindness. Recognize the overwhelming nature of intense suffering; respect her mental and emotional overload. Avoid declarations or much instruction. Talk about God’s faithfulness, and let Scripture speak to her. Ask questions that build hope, keep suggestions simple and practical, and find out what she thinks and does with the counsel you offer. When does she act, and what motivates her actions? Do you perceive faith or doubt? Discouragement or weariness? Memory difficulties or despair? Adjust accordingly.

Build hope and network help.

• Urge her to keep going, not to give up (2 Cor. 4:16).

• Provide or suggest places of quiet refuge when needed.

• Teach her to pray. Pray for her.

• Enlist her church for practical and spiritual help.

• Show her that she is not irrelevant, used up, or ruined, but that God loves her and has a purpose for her (Phil. 1:6).

• Point out that the sufferings of Christ, Peter, John, Job (and others) were evidence of God’s favor, not His disapproval. She is being deepened rather than damaged.

• Help her reach out to others as she grows, to avoid self-absorption and isolation (2 Cor. 1:3-6).

Questions for Reflection

1. How might you understand the evolving challenges in each segment of a lengthy trial?

2. How might your counsel better reflect God’s compassions with those in prolonged suffering?

3. When your counselee is overwhelmed, how might you simplify your use of Scripture and biblical examples to address her major questions?

Resources

Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop (Crossway, 2019)
God’s Healing for Life’s Losses by Bob Kellemen (BMH Books, 2010)
God’s Grace in Your Suffering by David Powlison (Crossway, 2018)
Craving Grace by Ruthie Delk (Moody Publishing, 2013)
New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp (New Growth Press, 2014)
Did I Say the Right Thing? By Mitch Schultz (Exalt Publications, 2011)

The Refiner’s Fire

By Paul Tautges

God ordains trials to test the reality of our faith in a way that’s similar to the process of purifying precious metals. Gold, for example, is purified through a process of high temperature heating or chemical exposure. According to Sciencing, an online magazine, “If the gold is a low grade ore, then it is broken up into chunks that are then put in carefully lined pads and treated with a dilute cyanide solution, which dissolves the gold. For high grade ore, the metal is sent to a grinding mill and made into a powder. Refractory ore contains carbon and is heated to over 1000 degrees.”

But God says that our faith is even more precious than gold, which is perishable. For this reason, He sometimes turns up the thermostat. He heats up the furnace of affliction, in order to reveal impurity in our hearts, so that it can be skimmed off. As the apostle Peter writes, our faith is “tested by fire” when we are “grieved by various trials.” Greek scholar, Kenneth Wuest, provides a beautiful illustration of God’s refining fire.

“The picture here is of an ancient goldsmith who puts his crude gold ore in a crucible, subjects it to intense heat, and thus liquefies the mass. The impurities rise to the surface and are skimmed off. When the metalworker is able to see the reflection of his face clearly mirrored in the surface of the liquid, he takes it off the fire, for he knows that the contents are pure gold. So it is with God and His child. He puts us in the crucible of Christian suffering, in which process sin is gradually put out of our lives, our faith is purified from the slag of unbelief that somehow mingles with it so often, and the result is the reflection of the face of Jesus Christ in the character of the Christian. This, above all, God the Father desires to see. Christlikeness is God’s ideal for His child. Christian suffering is one of the most potent means to that end.”

Job, the Old Testament hero of the faith, understood this picture. It was after his horrendous trial, which is beyond anything we have yet to experience, he testified of God, “When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). It is my prayer that the Lord would so work in our hearts during our times of testing, so that we may one day say the same. Oh, may He purify His church!

The teaching of Scripture is clear: In order to produce a godly, mature Christian, God increases the temperature of life, in order to bring to the surface the sin that is already in our hearts, which we may be blinded from seeing, or just too stubborn to address. To use a similar metaphor, like the boiling hot water that steeps the tea out of the bag, trials draw out the issues of life that reside in our heart. The trial is not the problem, nor does it create the issues of the heart. They are already “in the tea bag,” so to speak.

The purpose of the trial is to draw out our hidden sins (Psalm 139:23), so that they may be repented of, and the process of sanctification may be stimulated. As we make sometimes-slow, gradual progress, we become like Christ, in whose image we are being re-made (Colossians 3:10). This is the refiner’s fire, of which Scripture speaks.

Proverbs 17:3 says, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.”

Zechariah 13:9, referring to the end-time remnant of Israel, says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested, they will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is My God.’”

Malachi 3:4, which is prophetic of Christ, says, “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.”

Just as the refining process is used to remove impurities, in order to bring out the beauty of gold, so trials reveal our inner self. This gives us the opportunity to repent of sin, and be made more like Christ. For this reason, we know at least some of the good that God is up to in our trials.

In 1 Peter 1:6-9, we get a glimpse of God’s will for our trials.

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

God wants you to understand His good will in all that He is doing—right now—in your life. So when you find yourself under a trial God wants you to respond in three ways:

1. Rejoice in the superior promise of your inheritance (v. 6).
2. Recognize the sanctifying purpose of your trials (v. 7).
3. Remain steadfast in the perseverance of faith (vv. 8-9).

The point is clear: God uses suffering to heat up our lives in order to bring the scum of our hearts into full view in order that we may repent and be refined—to reflect more accurately the beauty of Jesus.

This blog was originally posted at Counseling One Another, read the original post here.

What is God Accomplishing in my Suffering?

John Piper

What is God accomplishing in my suffering and in your suffering? It’s a question Pastor John set out to answer from 1 Peter 4:12–19, a very important text we all need to understand and return to in times of personal suffering. I’ll read that text now, 1 Peter 4:12–19, and then we will hear from Pastor John. The apostle Peter writes,

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

To explain, here’s Pastor John.

I’m going to talk about why Christians suffer and how they can rise above it. But the same truth applies whether or not the suffering is coming from inside, from a disease, from a broken clutch — you name it. Whatever is tending to tempt you to be angry at people and God, that is (under God’s sovereignty) an opportunity of testing to prove and refine your faith, just as much as if you’ve been hit in the face by a person who hated you because you were a Christian. So the point is, while the text deals explicitly (most of it) with persecution, the principle — under God’s loving sovereignty over our lives and how we handle that — is the same as when the suffering comes from another source.

Keep on Rejoicing

The command is there: keep on rejoicing “to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 4:13 NASB). I think any suffering in obedience to and in union with Christ is sharing in the sufferings of Christ — even if it’s a hangnail, alright? If you are walking in the path of obedience with Jesus, and you get a stubbed toe, he cares — and it is suffering with him. And it tends to make you murmur and be angry, and therefore, it’s a big deal — not as big as if you were going to die, but it’s the same principle.

“God loves us so much that he will spare us nothing to get out of us what he really hates.”TweetShare on Facebook

This text doesn’t just say rejoice in spite of but because of suffering. That’s jolting. This is not a little piece of advice this morning from the power of positive thinking. “Let’s make the best of it.” “Let’s rise above it.” “Let’s be heroic.” “Let’s have some mind over matter here.” That’s not the point. The point is, you’re being called to do something that is so abnormal and so countercultural and so against human nature, it is supernatural and you can’t do it. And it isn’t for your honor. When it happens, it’s because “the Spirit of glory and of God” has come upon you and enabled you (1 Peter 4:14). And that’s true in those little tough things day by day, and that’s true in the big dangerous things. You can’t do it, but God can. And he gets the glory.

Aliens and exiles are what we’re reading about here, and how they respond to suffering. “Count it all joy,” James said, “when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). I mean, maybe he should have said, “Count it a little joy,” or maybe, “Someway, down the line, joy will come from it.” But why this massive “Count it all joy”? How do you handle that?

There’s only one way that I know of that can be not stupid or not foolish. One reason: God — there’s a God. We’ve been reading Jeremiah these weeks, and it’s just one chapter after another about how God reigns over Moab and Edom and Syria and Babylon. He reigns. That’s Jeremiah’s command and his belief and his message to us. And if there’s a God, and if he’s sovereign, and if he rules Satan and suffering and me, and causes kingdoms to go up and go down, and if he reigns over all the nations, and over all circumstances, and over my cars, and my children, and my wife, and my marriage, and my job, and my sickness, and this church, and he’s good, then it’s not stupid to say count it all joy; he loves you. Well, it’s not easy; but it’s there: keep on rejoicing because the suffering is not a surprise, but a plan.

Trust Your Maker

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you [or among you] to test you [it’s purposeful], as though something strange were happening to you. (1 Peter 4:12)

It isn’t strange. It isn’t absurd. It isn’t meaningless. You don’t tear your hair out and say, “There’s no point” — if you believe in God. You’ll see how it has a point: “Let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19).

It is according to the will of God when we suffer; God wills it — even when Satan may be the immediate cause of it. We know that from the book of Job; we know it from 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, where the thorn in the flesh was what? A minister of Satan. Doing what? Humbling Paul and making him holy, so that he would love the glory of Jesus Christ because Christ was overruling Satan’s minister, and turning Satan into a means of Paul’s holiness. That’s the kind of God we have.

“Everybody’s imperfect. But there’ll be no imperfect people in heaven.”

God reigns over Satan, over suffering. And therefore, it’s okay to resist your suffering in prayer and pray against it and ask God to remove it, like Paul did. And sometimes he does, miraculously and wonderfully. And sometimes he doesn’t for holy and wise purposes because he loves us. But his sovereignty is not called into question by the immediate causality of sin and Satan. So many passages of Scripture show that God is overruling these things constantly for our great good.

When I Fall, I Shall Rise

Look at 1 Peter 4:17: “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God . . .” Do you see the purposefulness in suffering now? This is God’s judgment upon the church:

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us [Christians whom God loves with all of his heart and gave his Son to die for], what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

So, the judgment of God is moving through the earth. And it begins with churches; the judgment of God comes upon churches. Why? Because he hates us? Not at all. But because he loves us so much, he will not spare us anything to get out of us what he hates. It’s not because he hates us. When a church or a Christian goes through times of darkness and trial, it’s because he loves us so much that he will spare us nothing to get out of us what he really hates — namely, sin.

And we are to count it — under the ashes, under the shadow, under the frown — joy. Not the kind of joy that heel-clicks and leaps in that moment, but that says, as Micah 7:8 says,

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
    when I fall, I shall rise.

He who has brought me into this darkness will plead my cause and vindicate me in time. So much has to be burned up within us. We’re all imperfect; everybody’s imperfect. But there’ll be no imperfect people in heaven. And a lot of God’s process of getting us ready for heaven is to burn the hell out of us.

Solzhenitsyn, the novelist, was in prison years ago in Siberia. He wasn’t a Christian yet. He was suffering, and Boris Kornfeld, a Jewish doctor, was sitting with him one night. He was also in prison, and Boris had become a Christian. And he talked late into one night with Solzhenitsyn, and gave his testimony about how he, as a Jewish doctor, had become a Christian. And then he was beaten to death in his bed that same night. And Solzhenitsyn wrote,

His last words lay upon me as an inheritance. . . . It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. . . . Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!

Isn’t that amazing?

Refiner’s Fire

The judgment of God moves through the world. It’ll come to a crescendo one of these days, but it’s moving through the world. It’s moving on churches — hundreds, thousands of churches coming under the judgment of God. When it moves in a church, it’s meant for purity because he loves us.

And when it moves on the world, it has one of two effects: either it awakens — like it did for Solzhenitsyn — or it condemns and destroys, if it is resisted and does not bring people to repentance.

But for the people of God, “the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10; Zechariah 2:8), it refines; it purifies.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-is-god-accomplishing-in-my-suffering?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=6c263ccc-5b7a-4e71-97a0-c28b2986197a&utm_content=apj&utm_campaign=new%20teaching&fbclid=IwAR0T4DXN7hCsL-5T7tdJe2MqAaXLUSA7Bor31ovW53oZDEVVQQdrk4HlASw

God Hears Tears as Well as Prayers

Colin Smith

Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her” (Gen. 16:2).

The outline of Hagar’s story is simple: Sarah wanted to have a child, and so she gives her servant, Hagar, to Abraham. Abraham agrees with the plan. Hagar conceives, and this already fractured family is plunged into a web of conflicting loyalties and hidden resentments.

Hagar’s story comes right out of the Scriptures and speaks straight into the life of the person who has never felt deeply loved. Hagar was never first in anyone’s life. No one was close enough to Hagar to know who she really was and what she really felt. There was no one she could count on—not even the father of the child she was carrying.

Emotionally Abandoned

Abraham was the father of this child, and he had responsibility for Hagar. But Abraham did not stand up for her. He gave her up, just as Pharaoh and Sarah had done before. Hagar ended up alone, pregnant, and in the desert, which is like being alone, pregnant, and in the city today.

Who cared about this woman? Her whole life seemed to be a story of what other people wanted. She was pushed from pillar to post, according to what was most convenient for others.

This is a story for the person who feels that she has been like a pawn, moved around on the board of other people’s lives.

Spiritually Wounded

In the kindness of God, Hagar found herself in the family God had chosen to bless. Hagar would have learned about God from Abraham and Sarah. But they turned out to be desperately flawed believers. Try to imagine the impact on Hagar when the only believers she knew used her in the way that they did! How could this woman ever come to believe?

It’s not surprising that she ran from the family of faith. She ran from Sarah and from Abraham, and she ran from the God that they had failed so badly.

This is a story for the person who has learned about God, but now struggles with faith because of what he or she has seen in the lives of some believers.

Deeply Loved

The last part of Hagar’s story is full of hope for every person who feels emotionally abandoned or spiritually wounded. Hagar discovered that she was deeply loved by God.

Here are three glimpses of His love.

1. God finds lost people.

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur (Gen. 16:7).

God appeared to Hagar in visible form, as he had to Abraham and Sarah. We know this because Sarah “called the name of the LORD who spoke to her…” (Gen. 16:13). It was Yahweh who spoke to her directly and personally. Hagar would never have found her way to God, but God in his mercy, found His way to her.

If God waited for us to find Him, none of us would get there. Lost sheep don’t have the capacity to find the Good Shepherd. It is the Good Shepherd who has the capacity to find lost sheep.

Hagar was running away from believers, and she was running away from God. She was angry and resentful; she felt a sense of injustice. This hardly seemed like a time when she could hear the voice of God. And yet it proved to be the great turning point of Hagar’s life!

2. God hears suffering people.

The angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction” (Gen. 16:11).

This verse does not say “the Lord has listened to your prayer.” Up to this point, there is no suggestion that Hagar prayed. Why would you pray to God when running from Him? But God listens to your affliction. God hears tears as well as prayers (Ps. 56:8).

God told Hagar to give her son the name “Ishmael.” Ishmael means, “God has heard.” Since he turned out to be a difficult boy, this must have been a blessing to his mother. Every time she called out his name, she would be reminded that God hears.

There must have been times when Hagar said to herself: “Pharaoh didn’t look after me. Abraham didn’t look after me. Sarah didn’t look after me. Now I have found the One who looks after me!”

3. God sees all people.

She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me” (Gen. 16:13).

It is fascinating that Hagar said this immediately after the prophecy made about Ishmael: “He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him” (Gen. 16:12).

Parents know what it is to see a reflection of themselves in the struggles of their children. I suspect Hagar saw a reflection of herself in the description of Ishmael. And Hagar said, “Truly you are the God who sees me!” You know me as no one ever has!

God sees not with the eyes of condemnation but with the eyes of love—this for a woman who was running from Him, in order to lay hold of her and bring her back.

Happy Ending?

Hagar did what the Lord commanded. She went back to Abraham and Sarah, back to the fractured household of faith. Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael (Gen. 16:15).

But Hagar’s obedience to God meant living with continued difficulty. This is not a story that ends with “And they all lived happily ever after.” They didn’t! The “happily ever after” stuff belongs to fairy tales and Hollywood movies from the 1930s! Even Hollywood doesn’t make movies like that today, because the world doesn’t work like that.

The Bible speaks to the real world—to the ongoing difficulties faced by single mothers, perplexed wives, flawed fathers, and troubled sons. The message is not “Come to Jesus and you will live happily ever after.” The Bible’s message is “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9).

If you come to the Lord Jesus Christ today, you will find that His grace is sufficient for you, too.

As you live in the tension of a home where there is little peace, the grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient for you. As you live with the emotional abandonment and the spiritual wounding you have experienced, the grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient for you. Living with and mastering the wild impulses that sometimes rage in your heart and your soul won’t be easy. But you will find that His grace is sufficient for you.

Learn from the Scriptures that you are deeply loved by God, just as Hagar was. He sees you, knows you, and hears your tears. He sent his Son to seek and to save you.

By God’s grace and through his Word, He draws near to you today with the command to repent, and also with a promise of blessing. And His grace is sufficient for you.

This article is an adaptation of Pastor Colin’s sermon, “The Single Mother”, from his series Faith for Fractured Families.

 Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/08/god-hears-tears-prayers/

God's Sovereignty in 2020

By Steve Hill

Dr. Kenneth Meyer tells about flying into Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on a certain occasion. As the big plane passed over the expressway, Meyer noticed a colossal traffic jam. He also saw that many people were getting out of their cars. Some were standing on their bumpers, straining to see what was going on. As Dr. Meyer glanced northward, he saw what they could not possibly see—the telltale flash of red lights. Meyer knew the problem would be taken care of quickly, so after the plane landed at O’Hare and he proceeded towards his car, he had a completely different perspective from the average traveler on the expressway. He knew he would soon be home. Perspective makes all the difference. We are earthbound creatures, but if we could somehow look down upon the traffic jams in our lives, we would react much differently.

That is precisely the case in the story of the young shepherd David and the armies of Israel as they stood before Goliath. They had fled from Goliath in great fear, but David calmly stood there and said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26). Before the day was over, with his sling whirling overhead, David was running full blast at that great giant. You know the rest of the story. David let go, and the stone hit Goliath right between the running lights. Israel prevailed that day. The difference was one of perspective. The Israelites saw everything from ground level. David had the divine perspective.

This era of COVID-19 induced hysteria and uncertainty is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my 68 years of life on this earth. I’d like to encourage you with some words of hope to navigate these turbulent times. 

1. Cling to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God.  God is always, eternally on His throne.  Our Lord has not been napping during this era.  He has allowed it to give us opportunity to be tested and to be built up into the fullness of the image of Christ.  Take a moment to read Psalm 139:1-6.  God intimately is familiar with each of us and our individual peculiarities.  God cannot be fooled by us.  He knows us inside out.  After all, He made us in His image.  The psalmist says that his knowledge is “too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”  Heath Lambert tells us that we must “…get to know a Person whose goodness, trustworthiness, love, mercy, grace, and patience are inexhaustible.”  He is “infinite in perfection.” 

2. Commit yourself to daily renewal and dedication to His loving authority over your life.  If God is all-knowing and all-wise, he is worthy of our complete trust.  It is important that we believe this in the deepest part of our being before a crisis hits.  And a crisis will eventually come.  I have observed so many individuals, couples, and families who were much too casual with God.  When crisis entered their lives they were unprepared for it because they were unfamiliar with the Lord on a personal level.  This is why the gospel is so important and why we should take Milton Vincent’s charge to preach the gospel to ourselves every day!

3. Consider how to encourage the weak among us in this era of the coronavirus.   Paul wrote this helpful verse in Romans 15:4:  “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”  Continue your faithful reading in God’s Word for that is where you will find comfort and solace.  Limit the amount of time you watch television, especially the news.  It can be a real downer.  Find ways to help your neighbors, especially the elderly, single moms and widows.  You will find great reward in helping others.

Like the old hymn said:  Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey!

Author: Steve Hill is the pastor of Senior Saints at Canyon Hills Community Church.