7 Benefits Of Going Through Hard Times

Everything God does in our lives is for our benefit, including suffering. 

 Though they never seem pleasant at the time, hard times produce wonderful benefits in our lives. On Monday I mentioned one benefit – affliction drives us to God’s word. Here are seven more benefits of suffering:

Affliction drives us to God in prayer

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. James 5:13
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. PS 107:6

When the sun’s shining and everything’s going our way, we don’t feel our need for God. But desperate times lead to desperate prayer. When we’re helpless to change our situation, we cry out to our Savior, who delivers us from our distress.

Affliction humbles us

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 2 CO 12:7    Continue at Mark Altrogge

Seven Things That Transform Suffering

I can’t carry my plate to the table.

Last month I could do it easily. But with post-polio, things deteriorate rapidly. Every week, I face new challenges, discover things I can no longer do, give up more things I love.

The doctors told me this would happen. But as a young mother, there were other things to worry about. I assumed the real struggle would be decades away. Back then I could easily talk about it, write about it, and even philosophize about it. But now, as it’s happening, I’m angry.

I sit at the counter, tears streaming down my face, flooded with emotion. I scream into my empty house, “God, how could you do this to me? Don’t you love me? I’ve been faithful. Doesn’t that count for something? Why don’t you fix this?” Then I finish my tantrum with God, and sink into self-pity. I decide that God answers other people’s prayers but not mine. That he is unconcerned about my pain. And that my suffering is meaningless.   Continue at Vaneetha Rendall Demski

The Wintry Soul: Four Lessons from Suffering

Seasons of suffering in life are as sure as March snow flurries in Minnesota. 

And such climate shifts test trust, materialize maturity, and make us long for spring.

In the not so distant past, God let a blizzard of pain hit my home that drained our fuel and tried our faith. While the season of deep sorrow covered months, not years, the grief was real and the scars permanent. The suffering was part of our journey of adoption –– with one child lost, declared unadoptable, and another secured, but only after an arduous battle among the visible and invisible realms. Beautiful creations can be shaped from ice. Below are four lessons learned in the cold.

1. I am excessively sinful and weak, and the gospel is amazingly beautiful.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8–9)    Continue at Jason DeRouchie

Hearing God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts

Once I became a Christian, I thought I had victory in Jesus, my Savior. Yet within a few months I found myself fighting the demons again. Why did I continue to struggle with this? Why does depression continue to crouch at my door even today?

No one ever suspected. I worked hard to have a polished smile and on-cue laugh. But several times during my teen years I contemplated taking my own life.

Had someone asked me why I was thinking about suicide, I would never be able to rationally explain my reasoning. It's hard to admit that I thought life was so hard that I wanted to end it—especially considering how easy my life has been in comparison with people suffering all over the world. It's also hard to describe the experience of depression. It's like trying to describe living in a room that is pitch black.

It can be dangerous to speak generally about depression and suicide, and I don't want to give anyone the impression that such thoughts of self-harm are acceptable. While they are more common than we care to admit, we should not give in to the debilitating lie that death is better than life. This is true especially in light of our overly psychologized culture that too readily qualifies us as victim—and not also a perpetrator in our own mess.   Continue at Matthew S. Wireman

Why Doesn’t God Do More to Restrain Evil and Suffering? Part 2

In order to understand this blog, it would be helpful for you to have read the previous one. 

 

Severe suffering seems unacceptable to us precisely because we are unaccustomed to it.

Susanna Wesley had nineteen children; nine of them died before they reached the age of two. Puritan Cotton Mather had fifteen children and outlived all but two. Ironically, the problem of evil and suffering seems worse to us who live in affluent cultures precisely because we face less of it than many people have throughout history.

I heard an exasperated woman at a restaurant table loudly proclaim that her Porsche had to be taken in for repairs and now she had to drive her Audi. In contrast I have met devout Christians in Africa and Southeast Asia who have endured famine, genocide, and persecution, yet smile genuinely as they affirm God’s goodness and grace.

C. S. Lewis wrote,

Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it is a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic. [1]

People who ask why God allowed their house to burn down likely never thanked God for not letting their house burn down the previous ten thousand days of their lives. Why does God get blame when it burns, but no credit when it doesn’t? Many pastors and church members have experienced church splits, feeling the agony of betrayal and disillusionment. But where were the prayers of gratitude back when the church was unified? Our suffering seems extreme in the present only because God has graciously minimized many of our past sufferings.   Continue at Randy Alcorn

Pastoral Ministry: A Sure Way to Be Dishonored

This does not excuse the disrespectful things that congregants say. Such disrespect is a pernicious evil that we can leave for another day. At this point, please be encouraged that you are experiencing some of the natural overflow of the sufferings of Jesus, which means you are honored. Those who dishonor you are the ones who will be called to account.

Here is one reason you must be called to pastoral ministry: the people you love will not love you back—at least some of them will not love you back. They will say utterly horrible things about you, so you better be sure you want to do this. It is one thing to be dissed by the world around you; it is something else again to be demeaned by your own church family while you are pouring your heart out for them.

Personal Attacks

This is the worst feature of pastoral ministry. Every pastor, unless he is surrounded by others who shield him from criticism, has dozens of heart-breaking stories. Take the example of the pastor who receives anonymous weekly letters from a congregant who claims to be speaking for many others when she writes, “I pray every day that you would leave the church.” The letters are all cut out from magazines so they have that creepy look of a murder threat.   Continue at Ed Welch

Learning to Suffer Well: Acknowledging Sin’s Role in Suffering

Earlier this week, I met with a prospective seminary student for lunch. As is common for first-time meetings at Grace Community Church, our discussion began with testimonies of how the Lord saved us. This particular brother had a Christian friend whose very welcoming family often shared the Gospel with him and invited him to church. As friendly and as clear as they were, though, the seed of the Gospel fell on fallow ground—until the father of the family had contracted a life-threatening illness. When this young man saw how the family responded to suffering with such confidence, joy, and peace, his heart began to pay attention to the Source of that steadfastness. He began to read his Bible with greater earnestness and listen to the sermons he heard in church with greater interest. Eventually, the Lord saved him.

I tell that story because it only further legitimizes the need for Christians to learn how to suffer well—how to suffer righteously. I mentioned in last week’s post how necessary it is to be equipped with a theology of suffering while not yet in the midst of a particular trial. The fact of the matter is, the heat of an intensely trying time often clouds our vision and our judgment, so that we fail to act the way we know we should. We respond to suffering sinfully because we have not prepared to suffer righteously beforehand, when our vision is clear.   Continue at Mike Riccardi

What Does It Mean for the Father to Forsake the Son? (Part 1)

Someone has described the four Gospels as “passion narratives with extended introductions.”  Indeed.  All the action and teaching prior to the passion of Christ serves as harbinger to the suffering to come.  The scenes grow more affecting from Gethsemane.  The intensity swells until the heart nearly bursts. 

Consider Matthew 27:

³² As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. ³³ They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). ³⁴ There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. ³⁵ When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. ³⁶ And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. ³⁷ Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ³⁸ Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

 ⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ⁴² ”He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴ In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
⁴⁵ From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”   Continue at Thabiti Anyabwile

A Suffering Servant and Type of Christ

“And the LORD was with Joseph…” —Genesis 39:2

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” —Isaiah 53:3

One of the more well-known titles for the Lord Jesus Christ is “Messiah, Son of David.” Certainly, Jesus is the King of Israel in fulfillment of that prophecy. Yet, the Jews also had another name for God’s Christ: “Messiah, Son of Joseph,” a reference to the suffering servant of Genesis 37 and Isaiah 53. Joseph, the son of Jacob was, indeed, a suffering servant of God Almighty; however, his life was a prophetic foreshadow of the Christ to come.

JOSEPH’S LIFE: One Fraught with Sorrow

a. Joseph lost his mother during the birth of his younger brother (Gen 35:18-19).

b. Jacob’s special favor upon Joseph (Gen 37:3) only made Joseph’s brothers hate him all the more (Gen 37:4).

c. Joseph’s brothers conspired to kill him (Gen 37:18).

d. Joseph was sold into bondage by his brothers (Gen 37:28).

e. In the house of Potiphar, Joseph was constantly tempted by a seductress (Gen 39:7).

f. Joseph was imprisoned through lies (Gen 39:12-20).

g. Joseph received only empty promises from those he helped (Gen 40:14, 

23).  Continue at Jon J. Cardwell

See Also: Nine Good Purposes in Our Suffering

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But God Has Deserted Me…

What would you say to a friend who thought that God had deserted them?  Would you tell them that they are wrong and that God would never withdraw himself?  Would you tell them that it is their own fault (albeit in nicer and more pious terms)?  One of the advantages of immersing myself in the writing of a guy who has been dead for 300+ years is that he thinks differently than me.  The advantage is that he reveals my blindspots; that is, the things I have not thought through correctly due how I have been taught and what I have chosen to learn.  The Puritans have a reputation for being masters of soul care.  I do not know exactly how I would have answered before, but I know that I will answer differently now because of Thomas Brooks.

The eighth objection he faces in calling suffering Christians to refrain from complaints is for the person who says “but God has deserted me! He hath forsaken me! and ‘he that should comfort my soul stands afar off!’ how can I be silent?  The Lord hath hid his face from me; clouds are gathered about me; God hath turned his back upon me; how can I hold my peace?” (I-372; all quotations in this post are taken from I-372-379).   Keep Reading >>>

A Great God and Our Worst Moments

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with author and speaker Nancy Guthrie and discuss the subject matter of suffering. Nancy and her husband, David, lost two children to Zellweger Syndrome – a genetic disorder where the body does not produce peroxizones which aid in metabolism on the cellular level. Infants diagnosed with Zellweger usually live only six to eight months. Both Hope and Gabriel were born with the rare genetic disorder. The family’s journey through the experience is captured in Nancy’s book Holding On to Hope. God has used the Guthrie’s experience to minister to countless numbers of individuals and couples who’ve lost children. You can read more about their ministry here. I asked Nancy to help us understand what those suffering are going through and what we should expect to see as we minister to them. Her answer, which will be posted soon on the ReNew Conference website, echoed the perspective of the Psalmist in Psalm Seventy Three. Basically, our initial responses in the midst of pain are our worst. The Psalmist takes us through a play-by-play of his worst moments. It unfolds like a you’re not crazy session for the suffering.   Keep Reading...

The Life of an Ordinary Pastor

Probably 95% of solid Christian pastors labor almost in an unnoticed way – visiting the sick, weeping in prayer at night, preparing sermons (with which they are never happy!), struggling with illness and personal shortcomings, preaching to 50 or 75 people on Sunday, baptizing, leading wedding services, and crying at the gravesite with other Christians.  So Don Carson’s book about his father’s life is exactly realistic: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: the Life and Reflections of Tom Carson.

This book is not exciting.  Rev. Tom Carson’s life was pretty normal – though perhaps a little more difficult than average because he labored in such hard soil (the Quebec area in the ’40s and beyond).  He is not very quotable, and his journals aren’t full of moving and inspiring writing.  Rev. Carson even suffered through periods of melancholy because he didn’t have a high view of himself; he sometimes questioned his abilities and calling.  So if you want a book about self-motivation, conquering the world for Christ, starting a thriving ministry, or building a multi-campus church, don’t get this book.  You’ll be sorely disappointed.     Keep Reading...

A Place for Weakness

One of the things I appreciate about Michael Horton is that he writes both for the academy and also the congregation. It’s a mark of a good theologian to do both well. Horton is a professor of apologetics and theology at Westminster Seminary California. Some of his outstanding titles include Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, People and Place, We Believe, and A Better Way. He is also the publisher of the indispensible monthly journal Modern Reformation and host of the White Horse Inn radio program.

This relatively slim volume was originally published with the title Too Good to Be True: Finding Hope in a World of Hype, which I rather liked. Zondervan has released it with a new title and a new cover, and I am glad that new attention is being given to this outstanding book.

A Place for Weakness is driven along by an unrelenting but refreshing realism. There are no false promises here. There are no clichés or newly discovered secrets for “living in victory.” Horton helps us understand suffering as unromantic but deeply purposeful. In other words, we do not have to pretend that suffering does not hurt and cause dismay. At the same time, we are confidently pointed to the mysterious comfort that everything that comes our way passes through the hands of our good and sovereign God. “The unity of God’s sovereignty and goodness that will be finally disclosed on the last day has already dawned decisively in the work of Christ” (45).    Keep Reading...

Horton defines “the bottom line of this book” in this way:

The gospel is good news for losers, that in fact we are all losers if we measure ourselves by God’s interpretation of reality rather than our own. The demand for glory, power, comfort, autonomy, health, and wealth creates a vicious cycle of craving and disillusionment. It even creates its own industry of therapists and exercise, style, and self-esteem gurus—and churches—to massage the egos wounded by this hedonism. When crisis hits, the soul is too effete to respond appropriately. We become prisoners of our own felt needs, which were inculcated in us in the first place by the very marketplace that promises a “fix.” We become victims of our own shallow hopes. We are too easily disappointed because we are too easily persuaded that the marketplace always has something that can make us happy (26).

So You Want to Be a Senior Pastor

Looking back on seminary I often wonder why I was not better prepared for certain experiences that have been pivotal in pastoral ministry. There was never a class on how to deal with ministry jealousy. No one ever warned me that it would be tempting to wish I had another man’s gifts, ministry opportunities, and recognition. Furthermore, there were no classes on spiritual warfare. In fact, I don’t remember anyone telling me to expect spiritual warfare. There were no lectures that addressed the fact that as I grew clearer about the gospel, I would become a bigger target for the evil one. And there were no syllabi regarding what it would mean for an associate pastor to transition into ministry as a senior pastor.

A recent edition of the 9Marks e-journal focused on the life and perspectives of a senior pastor versus an associate pastor. The articles were very helpful, but one set of questions were not addressed: What should you expect of the transition from associate pastor to senior or lead pastor? How are the roles different? How can associate pastors prepare as they think and pray about being a senior pastor one day?   Keep Reading...

Groan, Do Not Grumble

How many excursions into sin could have been avoided if in our suffering we groaned but did not grumble? When discontent over our lot in life gets the best of us, any form of relief (be it of the destructive kind) suddenly takes on the appearance of the best of graces, and grumbling makes way to giving in.

"Diseases, aches, sicknesses, pains—they are all the daughters of sin, and he who is not sensible of them as the births and products of sin, does but add to his sin and provoke the Lord to add to his sufferings (Isaiah 26:9-11). No man shall ever be charged by God for feeling his burden, if he neither frets nor faints under it. Grace does not destroy nature, but rather perfects it. Grace is of a noble offspring; it neither turns men into stocks nor to stoics. The more grace, the more sensible [one is] of the tokens, frowns, blows, and lashes of a displeased Father.

Though Calvin, under his greatest pains, was never heard to mutter nor murmur, yet he was heard often to say 'How long, Lord, how long?'

A pious commander being shot in battle, when the wound was searched, and the bullet cut out, some standing by, pitying his pain, he replied, 'Though I groan, yet I bless God I do not grumble.' God allows his people to groan, though not to grumble. It is a God-provoking sin to lie stupid and senseless under the afflicting hand of God. God will heat that man's furnace of affliction sevenfold hotter who is in the furnace but feels it not." (Thomas Brooks (1608-1680), The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod [Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2007], 26, italics original).

Let us feel the weight of our sin and of being alive in a fallen world. Savor it to the core, mindful of the truth that all this is from the hand of God, exclaiming along with the Psalmist, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation" (Ps. 68:19). HT: Underdog

Suffering Does Not Rob You Of Joy—Idolatry Does

Two Ways to Die: in Sin, or in Faith. Which One Are You Taking?

The Purpose of Paul’s Suffering: To Mediate Christ’s Resurrection Life

Paul again and again hits on the theme that the weakness of his frame is designed to magnify the power of God’s name. Perhaps the most powerful section of the letter is in chapter 4 (vv. 8-12) where he talks about the purpose of his suffering:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Do you see what Paul’s saying? His being beaten and beleagured is a picture of Jesus’ dying; his endurance and perseverance is a picture of the resurrection reality of Jesus’ life. Paul’s suffering and sanctification are designed to be walking advertisements for Good Friday and Easter Sunday: Read it HERE

Suffering and Sovereignty: Winter Conference at Ligonier Academy (Part II)

Suffering & Adversity - Articles