Finding God in Our Suffering

This is the last section of the book If God Is Good by Randy Alcorn. This post covers chapters 42 and 43 which looks at finding God in our suffering.

You can find a listing of previous chapters under the heading Bible Studies in the menu above. Unless otherwise noted, the Scriptures Alcorn uses are from the NIV Bible.

We Can Find Comfort in God’s Promises

Evil is temporary; God’s goodness and our joy will be eternal. David cried out,

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?  – Psalm 13:1-2
Still, he determined not to bury himself in his sorrows:
“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” – Psalm 13:5-6

Jesus’ tears in the presence of grieving Mary and Martha and his anguish in Gethsemane give us permission and encouragement to cry out to God for deliverance.

Jesus didn’t want to suffer on the cross, but said, “Father, if you’re willing, take this cup from me; Yet not my will, but yours be done.” – Luke 22:42

Elisabeth Elliott wrote:

“When our souls lie barren in “a winter” which seems hopeless and endless, God has not abandoned us. His work goes on. He asks our acceptance of the painful process and our trust that he will indeed give resurrection life.”[i]

God’s Word brings life-giving promises to us in our suffering. Psalm 119, the longest psalm repeatedly connects God’s Word to our afflictions. Nearly all of its 176 verses mention God’s Word in one form or another. It’s remarkable how many of the verses speak of affliction.

• Psalm 119:25 – I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word.
• Psalm 119:28 – My soul is weary with sorrow;  strengthen me according to your word.
• Psalm 119:50 – My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.
• Psalm 119:67 – Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word.
• Psalm 119:71 – It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
• Psalm 119:75 – I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
• Psalm 119:92 – If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.
• Psalm 119:107 – I have suffered much; preserve my life, Lord, according to your word.
• Psalm 119:143 – Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands give me delight.

In the previous post, Alcorn mentioned Minnie Broas, who faced her terminal illness with grace and perspective. A few months before she died, Minnie posted the following online.

We want to make the most of each day God gives us…. Even though we are in the valley of the shadow of death we fear no evil. We have a very big God who is sovereign and mighty. His love is better than life. Yes, we still believe and will forever believe this truth. Our circumstances do not determine God’s character. He is unchanging. He is our great and mighty God whose love knows no bounds.

In the midst of this dark valley, he blesses so abundantly…. No matter what or where God leads us in this journey we are going to praise and thank Him for He is God. He deserves our praise, worship, and Thanksgiving.

In the midst of our pain, God showed up. He carried us and loved on us. All we can do is rest in God’s truths and promises. We have to rest in who He is. He never promised easy-what He promised is He’s never going to leave our side. We experience the warmth of His tender embrace and His most amazing love and grace. While it would be nice for things to go away, we know God is more concerned with our souls and character than our comfort and happiness…. We have a very big God.

The Website that Alcorn copied Minnie Broas’ words from no longer appears online.

Clinging to scripture sustains us through suffering.

A woman self-consciously told one of her pastors that before going to sleep each night she reads her Bible, then hugs it as she falls asleep. “Is that weird?” She asked.

While it may be unusual, it’s not weird. This woman has known suffering, and as she clings to His promises, she clings to God. Any father would be moved to hear that his daughter falls asleep with his written words held close to her. Surely God treasures such an act of childlike love.

Notice how David talks to himself about God’s faithfulness and goodness, encouraging himself to wait on God. It’s worth listening to self-talk if it involves speaking God’s word.

• Psalm 27:1 – The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?
• Psalm 27:3 – Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
• Psalm 27:10 – Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
• Psalm 27:13 – I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
• Psalm 27:14 – Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

God doesn’t only promise to replace our grief with joy but to turn it into joy.

Jesus said:

“Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.  A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” –  John 16:20-22

A woman giving birth suffers in a way directly connected to her impending joy. The child comes through suffering, and therefore the joy of having the child flows out of suffering. God transforms suffering into joy. Joy both eclipses and redeems our suffering.

God sovereignly rules over our greatest adversities and heartaches, and pledges to be with us while we endure them. The Lord says to us:

• Isaiah 43:2 – When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers,
  they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
• Psalm 16:8 – I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
• Hebrews 13:5 – Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

This unusual Greek sentence contains 5 negatives. Kenneth Wuest translated it, “I will not, I will not cease to sustain and uphold you. I will not, I will not, I will not let you down.”[ii]

The Bible models honesty with God concerning the problem of evil and suffering. God knows how you feel and what you’re thinking. You can’t hide it, so don’t bother trying. When you pretend you don’t feel hurt or angry or devastated, you’re not fooling God. Be honest!

Naomi cried, “The Almighty has made my life very bitter.” – Ruth 1:20
David asks God, “Why have you forsaken me?” – Psalm 22:1

Jesus repeated the same question on the cross.

Alcorn emphasizes that he is not encouraging us to be angry at God or to blame Him. God deserves no blame. Rather he is encouraging us to honestly confess to God our feelings of hurt, resentment, and anger.

Through Job’s story, God offers paradigm-shifting insights to face suffering. Randy Alcorn shares the valuable lessons he learned from the book of Job.

1. Life is not predictable or formulaic.
2. Most of life’s expectations and suffering explanations are simplistic and naive, waiting to be toppled.
3. When the day of crisis comes, we should pour out our hearts to God, who can handle our grief and even our anger.
4. We should not turn from God and internalize our anger, allowing it to become bitterness.
5. We should weigh and measure the words of friends, authors, teachers, and counselors, finding whatever truth they might speak without embracing their errors or getting derailed by their insensitivities.
6. We should not insist on taking control by demanding a rational explanation for the evils and suffering that befall us.
7. We should look to God and ask Him to reveal Himself to us, and contemplating His greatness we will come to see Him as the Answer above all answers.
8. We should trust that God is working behind the scenes and that our suffering has hidden purposes that one day, even if not in this life, we will see.

We Must Look Forward To God’s Rewards

Properly responding to suffering brings eternal rewards. We see that Moses:

“Chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” – Hebrews 11:25-26

Sadly, the doctrine of eternal rewards is one of the most neglected teachings in the Western church today, partly explaining our failure to face suffering with a greater perspective and to anticipate what awaits us in Heaven.[iii]

Jesus told suffering believers to “rejoice… and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.” – Luke 6:23

Greater suffering for Christ will bring us greater eternal rewards.

Trusting God to achieve something worthwhile
through our suffering can become
our greatest source of encouragement:

“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
– Matthew 5:11-12

These verses affirm an essential connection between present suffering and future glory. You can’t have the second without the first. Often, we look at suffering from our perspective and forget that God sees it from another advantage point. Moreover, God counts as precious our faithfulness and suffering for Him, and He will never forget it. David asked God:

“Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record?” – Psalm 56:8

David believed the suffering he went through mattered, and that God counted it as precious. So precious that the Lord kept account of every tear. Our tears are all recorded in Heaven’s books.

God is keeping track of the pain behind each and will deal with them one by one. This gives special meaning to the promise that God will wipe away every tear from his children’s eyes (see Revelation 21:4). When the Lord wipes away all our tears with His gentle, omnipotent hand, Alcorn believes our eyes will fall on the scars that made our suffering His so that His eternal joy could become ours.

We Can Find Help In Dark Times

Knowing that suffering will one day end gives us strength to endure this day. Alcorn shares in his book that researchers conducted a study on stress with Israeli soldiers. They assured one group that the March would end at a certain point but kept the other group in the dark. Although both groups marched an identical distance those who didn’t know how long they would march registered a much higher level of stress. Why? Because they had no hope, no tangible assurance that the forced march would end. They felt helpless, wondering when, or if, they could ever rest.

Hope points to the light at the end of life’s tunnel. It not only makes the tunnel endurable, but it also fills the heart with anticipation of a world that is alive, fresh, and beautiful, without pain, suffering, or war. A world without disease, accident, tragedy, dictators, or madmen. A world ruled by the only One worthy of ruling (see Revelation 5:12).

Though we don’t know exactly when, we do know for sure that either by our deaths or by Christ’s return for followers of Jesus our suffering will end. From before the beginning, God drew the line in eternity’s sand to say on behalf of his children, “This much and no more, then endless joy.”

Suffering is God’s invitation to look to Jesus and look forward to Heaven. The answer to the problem of evil is a person and a place. Jesus is the person. Heaven is the place. No one else and nowhere else will satisfy.

Shedding Light On Depression And Suicide

Depression

Depression isn’t always wrong. Some depression comes from simply feeling the crushing weight of pain and brokenness in one’s life and the lives of others. With that said, self-preoccupied “woe-is-me” depression quickly becomes deeply unhealthy.

But sometimes when we feel burdened, we may simply be joining the whole creation in groaning because of a world of suffering. In that case, we’re in good company,

“For the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” – Romans 8:26

It’s no sin to feel that burden, and sometimes it’s a sin not to. Some of what passes for Christian contentment is, in fact, indifference to the evil and suffering around us. It’s apathy toward the plight of God’s image bearers, demonstrated by the fact that we do so little and give so little to help them. Our lives should reflect a groaning that gives way to joy, celebrating what God has done for us in Christ, and thanking Him that He will rescue us once and for all from evil and suffering.

Sadness, grief, and times of depression are part of life under the curse. God gives us the resources, including his people, to move forward. Hurting Christians increasingly complain about the treatment they’ve received from church people.

If you’ve had a bad experience, write out a list of what you wish church people had done for you and what you wish they hadn’t done. Then use it as a guideline to reach out today and minister to others who need your wisdom and encouragement.

Don’t grumble about others. Change yourself. If you look closely inside the church, you’ll find many believers way ahead of you in their care and compassion. Perhaps you haven’t seen the church helping the suffering because you haven’t stayed with the suffering enough to see what the church is doing. Many hurting people have told me amazing stories of faithful love shown by God’s people in Christ’s body. In hard times, imperfect as it is, we need to thank God for the church body.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests
but each of you to the interests of the others.” –Philippians 2:3-4

Reaching out to others in need
is one of the greatest cures
for loneliness and depression.

Suicide

Suicide is from the devil, who is a murderer and lies to tempt us to self-murder. The idea of suicide and escaping it all seduces some suffering people. However, God commands us not to murder (see Exodus 20:13). Suicide is self-murder. God calls us to “Endure suffering… like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” – 2 Timothy 2:3

To take your life is to go
absent without leave.

Trust God’s purpose for your life even when you can’t grasp what it is. Value the life He has given you, even when it doesn’t seem worth living. Reach out to others and get help. Talk with someone trustworthy who will stand with you and help you hold on to what’s right and good, including preserving the life God has entrusted you.

Prayer Lightens Sufferings Load

Even if God doesn’t grant deliverance we can pray persistently, with humble acceptance of God’s will. We should ask God to deliver us from Satan’s attacks of unbelief and discouragement. We should learn to resist them, in the power of Christ (see James 4:7).

Trusting God for the grace to endure adversity is as much an act of faith as trusting Him for deliverance from it. However, this does not mean God will always answer our prayers as we would like Him to.

Jesus pleaded three times for God to “take this cup from me,” yet God didn’t. Three times Paul asked God to remove the thorn in his flesh, yet God didn’t. Jesus and Paul both recognized God had higher purposes and willingly submitted to them.

Pray in the light of God’s sovereign grace and unfailing love, and your anxiety will eventually give way to peace.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:4-7

Great peace comes in meditating on the attributes of our God and His care for us. God hears the desires of the afflicted and promises to listen to them and strengthen their hearts.

“You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,” – Psalm 10:17

We Must Look Forward To Brighter Days

God does not want to merely get us out of the pain to the joy; He desires to walk with us in the pain. Psalm 30:5 bears repeating. “Weeping may remain for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

God focuses not only on the morning, but He stays with us in the night when we can do nothing but weep. When we languish in the deepest pit and the darkness weighs on our souls and we wonder if God even exists, this psalm reminds us that He remains there with us.

For God’s children, weeping is often healthy and always temporary. David and his men wept when enemies took their wives and children captive (see 1 Samuel 30:3-4). Jesus wept (see John 11:35). Therefore, so should we.

Even though presently we cannot see God, we can trust God. His present remains with his children whether we recognize it or not. In periods of darkness, God called upon us to trust Him until the light returns.

God Sets Limits

God sets a limit on evil and suffering in our lives. In Job’s life, Satan could do only so much for so long. God determined the limits. If you are God’s child, then your suffering cannot outlast your lifetime. Moreover, since life continues after death, your suffering can last only the tiniest fraction of your true eternal lifetime. Rest in this knowledge. Our Creator offers us comfort before death and one day will rescue us by death or His return, whichever comes first.

Trusting God in suffering involves obeying God even if He chooses not to rescue us. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship an idol even though King Nebuchadnezzar threatened to throw them into the blazing furnace. The three young men answered,

 “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace the God we serve is able to save us from it and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” – Daniel 3:16-18

Some people hold tenaciously to faith that their child will not die, that their cancer will disappear and that their spouse will recover from a stroke. Do they have faith in God or is their faith in what they desperately want God to do?

The three young Hebrew men trusted and obeyed God, knowing He could deliver them from the fire and asking Him to do so, but realizing He might not. God sometimes chooses to heal in supernatural answers to prayer. Still, all who pray for healing should affirm, like Daniel’s friends, that they will worship, honor, and obey God “even if He does not.”

We cannot have the right perspective in facing evil and suffering without a picture of the love-driven agony of Jesus on our behalf.

Alcorn states,

“If the hands and feet of Jesus had not bled for me, I would not follow Him. Since they did, by His grace I will follow Him anywhere. Jesus faced the problem of evil by undergoing the only suffering that would ultimately kill death. The Carpenter of Nazareth, first crying in a wooden manger, then with splinters in His hands, and finally nails in His hands, has forever won my heart.”

We could never repay the penalty for our sins even by suffering eternal punishment; God’s wrath against our evil would never be quenched. Yet Christ bore God’s complete wrath for us, and He did it in a matter of hours because He loved us.

Christ rescues hell-bound people, changing both their destination and characters. Although death is the last enemy, the ghastly result of the Fall and the Curse, Christ made death a passageway into the loving presence of God,

“…so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” – Hebrews 2:14-15

Christ has liberated us
from the need to fear death.

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Sources

• [i] Elisabeth Elliott, A Path Through Suffering (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Servant Publications, 1990), 43.
• [ii] Kenneth Samuel Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1980), 235.
• [iii] See Randy Alcorn, The Law of Rewards (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale, 2003).