Christians are suffering today, amongst our own friends many are hurting badly. Suffering has always been, through the centuries, a mysterious thing, why would God allow such pains, especially to come upon His own Blood-bought children?
The problem of suffering is too big to remain a cold ‘doctrinal’ matter, we need to get close to God on this, especially those of us who are over the age of fifty. Bodies are wearing out, this life’s hopes and ambitions are not as exciting as they used to be, pain in all sorts of ways is difficult to avoid. One of our friends has had a cruelly painful knee-replacement operation; another has an ear complaint which causes her embarrassment, inconvenience and distress; I, myself, have just been through the pain of pneumonia and an angina attack, and I suffer chronic back pain etc. Others we know have worse pains, for theirs are of the emotional kind, family trials almost beyond bearing - these always “hurt” more than the physical ills, don’t you agree?
What do we do in such suffering? How can we align all this up with the Lord God who loves us, and is All-powerful? How much help can we get from Scripture, to operate in the real world, not just pie-in-the-sky doctrine? We all need to understand our Heavenly Father’s will on suffering, for if we are not suffering now, we have done so in the past, and we will do so hereafter - unless we are Raptured in the immediate future that is.
HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND SUFFERING?
Firstly, we should want and welcome what is God’s will, no matter what
that will may be. Today’s Faith Movement might consider saying, “if it
be Thy will”, a failure in positive confession, when applied to sickness
or healing, however it is the whole duty of mankind to do God’s will and
not their own. The Fall in the Garden of Eden ruined this joy, Christians
can live again in the Happiness of accepting God’s will. God wants us to
learn many things though suffering, if something IS God’s will, we can
never call it evil, remember Isaiah 5: “Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil...”
Being happy in the center of God’s will often depends on what kind of image we have of God! Is your conception of God Biblical, or the kind which has serious defects? Do you imagine God to be a indulgent Father who wants His children to have all the “goodies”, but cares nothing for character growth? Rather like the rich Dad who hands out vacations, expensive gifts and parties, and couldn’t care less that his children have become greedy, selfish and shallow. If your “god” is like this, then when the real God allows suffering you can get very confused and rebel against His permissive will. This kind of “god” is not the God of the Scriptures, who cares more for the Image of Christ being formed in the Christian than anything else! (II Cor.3:18; Romans 8:29).
Or is your “god” one who is rather puzzling, in that He simply allows good and bad to happen to all people on earth, without regard to who the person is and how they respond to Him, or in what way He is forming their characters. This is a bit of a fatalistic “god”, one very like the Muslims’ idea of Allah. Yes God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, and the sun to shine as well, nevertheless He causes everything to work together for good for His own redeemed child, as Romans 8:28 shows us. God works out His Plan for the redeemed through every circumstance. Someone described this as being as though the Holy Spirit envelopes us in His protection, outside His protection are wars, illnesses, persecutions, vicious tongues and trials of every sort. Now and then God parts the protective covering of the Holy Spirit to allow some trials to touch us, but ALL is of His will, for He is in control.
Our Father God of the Bible is one Who can be trusted to bring into His Blood-bought child’s life that which is GOOD. God causes us to grow through our suffering, in ways we cannot yet comprehend. Eternity will reveal all. Yes, there is a mystery in such things as a Christian dying in terrible pain with cancer. But who knows what their faithful witness accomplished, as they trusted God in their distress before nurses, doctors and fellow sufferers? It may not help us much if we are suffering the physical pain of severe arthritis, not knowing whether to scream or giggle hysterically, but God has said these mighty words:
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (II Cor. 4:17,18).
The sometimes terrible things we suffer are not the end of the matter, they are an overture to what is coming in eternity. It is vitally important that we learn to handle these mysterious matters with trust in the higher plans of God for us.
HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WILL?
In a world of case and effect, everything has a cause, we should look at the first Cause not the second cause. Maybe the suffering you are going through has been brought about by the sinful actions of someone else, they are the second cause however, God has allowed it, He is the first Cause. Look at Him, not the second cause. So much can be learned by even the sins of other people disrupting our lives. We Christians in reality come in for more suffering than the unsaved through other people’s sins! Not only do we suffer from all the natural sorrows and pains of life on earth, we also suffer from a testing ‘as if by fire’ which is the lot of those who bear with pride the Name of Christ. The world hates the Christians and makes us suffer ridicule, rejection and spite. Maybe in the future they will add to these sufferings physical attack and even death, this happens to thousands of Christians NOW in other countries.
1. We should learn before God to take all suffering of every kind without resentment. When Christ was reviled He did not revile in return. Matthew 5:11 says: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” 2. We can pray as Christ did that this “cup” of trial be taken from us, if God wills. Praying for healing of the body, for the situation with the family to be righted, for protection from our enemies - and so on. Then trust God to bring about what His wisdom alone wants to bring. Faith in the Lord’s compassion, His Might and All-knowing erudition can bring patience and great growth in spiritual discernment. We cannot demand or “claim” healing, for our problems to just disappear, or “claim” a life that is all sweetness and light. We CAN trust God, and have faith that He knows best. “Faith” cannot heal by simply offering up positive confession which refuses to acknowledge pain and symptoms! Written by an unknown author:
“There was a faith-healer of Deal, Who said, “although pain isn’t real, When I sit on a pin And it punctures my skin, I dislike what I fancy I feel.”
(James 1:2-5). “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom (in regard to WHY this is happening to ‘me’) let him ask God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him (the answers to your ‘whys’)”
3. Accept your suffering without being amazed that YOU should have to suffer! Many modern day churches have presumptuously contended that suffering is almost an alien occurrence in a Christian’s life. Not so. We are CALLED to a certain amount of suffering, did you know that?
“For even hereto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” (I Peter 2:21). Did Christ suffer sickness, it is not recorded that he did so, although it is hard to imagine him not suffering minor sicknesses like tummy upsets as a child, or a backache. It is plain He did suffer fatigue, persecution and physical suffering beyond anything any of us will ever have to go through. We are to follow His steps, in that He was entirely submissive and surrendered to the Father.
4. Trusting God means more than having no resentment and complaint against God. Trusting means a positive response, to have faith in the One who loves you so much. Faith believes that the God Who is trustworthy has it all in hand, you might not be able to see what His purposes are, yet you know Who is behind everything, GOD, who cannot make mistakes, and everything WILL turn out all right in the end - sooner or later. God knows what is best, He “judges righteously”, He can see in every situation what is right for us, and everyone involved. Look what the Bible records about Jesus Christ: “...when he suffered he threatened not; but committed himself to him that JUDGETH RIGHTEOUSLY,” (I Peter 2:23).
5. Suffering may only endure for a little while, God does not tempt us beyond what we can endure (I Cor.10:13). All things “come to pass”, problems are temporal, and who knows Christ may well take us home soon: “For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a LITTLE WHILE, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:36-38).
GRACE-FILLED WORDS.
These words from the book, “Arguing With God” were helpful to me, I
hope they will be to you:
“If you should be a Christian and the victim of some great evil, whether it be a phantom in your own mind or a pain-wracked body, then arguments will not help you. Knowledge is not the weal for every woe, as Plato thought. What you need is the Grace of God. Arguments may help you not to sin against God, but they did not help Job very much. The quotation of Scripture may help you, as it did when Jesus faced Satan in the wilderness, but sometimes the words of the Bible seem to be written for better men than us. So you need help. Direct help from the Spirit of God. There is only one condition for receiving help and that is humility. ‘God gives grace to the humble’ says Peter and all the rest. To come to the end of your resources is a happy state, for then you grow desperate. And desperate men find God.
When the pressure is removed, how quickly our human pride starts rebuilding the pitiful facades of self-sufficiency. We do not learn our lessons easily. So here is another reason why God does not immediately remove Christians from this ‘naughty world’. We thought when we first came to a point of decision (and how important that is!) that we had placed Christ at the centre. Well, we may have done in principle, but self keeps sneaking in, sidling up the corridors of power and sitting in the seat of authority once more, ‘seeing what it feels like’. And the mailed fist of evil, pain and suffering comes hammering at the door and we remember once more that we have edged out the only Master who has real power to help.” (P.P. 117,118.”Arguing With God” by Hugh Silvester, Inter-Varsity Press Pub.)
“With Christ as our example of patience in suffering how can we, who owe all to Him, do otherwise than arm ourselves with the same mind and so endure as beholding Him by faith? Many times God uses suffering to keep us from going into that which would dishonor Him. And when exposed to severe temptation it is as we suffer in the flesh that we are kept from sin.” (I Peter 4:1). (p.p.46-47. “Notes on James and Peter” by H.A.Ironside. Litt.D.).
Let me pose a few questions for you, to make you think again about your own suffering. Have you noticed that the Christians, who have suffered a lot are often kinder, more sensitive people than others? Why? Are you ready to live NOW with the problem of evil in this fallen world? Do you realise that probably three quarters of the sufferings in the world are caused by human beings? Are you a part of the solution to this, through Christ, or are you a part of the suffering problem that abounds on this planet? Do you cause suffering by your own behaviour towards others?
The writer of Psalm 23 did not debate about the problems of evil and suffering, he just declared in simplicity, trust and love, from a heart at peace: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
OUR FINAL CONCLUSION
can only be: God loves me; God is with me; God is All-powerful; God
has written the whole book of my life already, last chapter included, and
I am in the Lamb’s Book of Life forever.
From
studies on I Peter 1:3-12:
“Salvation in its complete sense includes the redemption of the body. In view of this blessed hope we are enabled to rejoice even though now for a season, if need be, we are in heaviness of spirit because of the many trials to which we are exposed. There is a ‘need be’(1:6) for every sorrow that the Christian is called upon to endure. Are we willing to trust the wisdom of God and to allow Him to plan our lives as He sees fit? Faith must be tested, otherwise it could not be verified. So we need not fear when our faith is exposed to trial that it indicates any displeasure on God’s part toward us. Rather it indicates His deep concern for us. For just as gold is tried in the fire in order to separate it from the dross, so faith, which is much more precious than gold that perisheth, must be tested in order that it may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ from heaven. ‘Precious’ is one of Peter’s special words. He writes of the precious trial of faith (I Peter 1:7) ...Are we as ready to suffer for the sake of our blessed Lord as we are to profit by His sufferings on our behalf? Even the philosophic worldling can endure suffering without complaining, but it is only the regenerated one who can glory in tribulation. Just as gold is purified by the fire that consumes dross, so God uses trial and suffering to separate the believer from those things that hinder fellowship with God and growth in the spiritual life.”
(P.17. “Notes on James and Peter” by H.A. Ironside, Litt.D.)
Return to Despatch Vol. 10:1 TOC
RETURN TO
Images DESPATCH T.O.C.
despatch@mail.cth.com.au
