Skip to main content

On the Purposes of God in Suffering

Image
By
Some years ago, while going through a difficult time of life, I bowed before the Lord and begged him to get me out of the situation. The prayer session literally lasted for about two hours. Near the end of that time, I sensed the Lord's loving reply, by his Spirit, "Charlie, I don't want to get you out of this, I want to develop you in this." I felt a deep peace wash over me at that moment because I knew that my Father was with me, and that's all I really needed to know. The circumstances remained the same, but with the Lord at my side my attitude did not. 

As I moved on with my life, I thought it might be good to conduct a fairly thorough New Testament (NT) Bible study on the subject of suffering, and my mentor at the time, Tom Brindley, agreed and encouraged me to do so. I was surprised by what I found. First, I discovered over 60 passages from the NT that touch upon the subject, some of which are one or more chapters long. The Lord has much to say about suffering! 

Second, I quickly discerned, and slowly learned, that the Lord is neither cruel nor arbitrary nor out of control when it comes to suffering of various sorts, but rather that he has particular purposes in mind which he brings about through suffering. Suffering is, in fact, one of his most powerful and effective tools. Sometimes, of course, the Lord hears our cries and delivers us from trials, persecutions, sufferings, and the like. Take, for example, the many healing stories in the gospels and the book of Acts (e.g., Matthew 4:23-25, 8:14-17, 10:7-8, 15:21-31, 17:14-21, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 14:1-6, Acts 3:1-10 and 28:7-10). But more often than not, it seems, he desires to shape us into his image through these things for the glory of his name. 

Third, I discerned four reasons why we suffer: (1) We live in a fallen world, marred by sin, and thus we must endure earthquakes, hurricanes, disease, death, and the like. (2) We sin and pay the price for our sin. (3) Others sin and we pay the price for their sin. (4) We suffer in the course of exalting the glorious name of Jesus Christ in the world. I'll say more about this in the coming months on this blog, but for now let me just say that the Lord does have particular purposes in mind for each of these "sources" of suffering. 

In my study, I didn't attempt to understand or address the more general problem of evil, that is, how can evil exist if God is perfectly holy and good? This question is above my pay grade, and besides, at the time I didn't need theoretical answers to perplexing ontological questions, rather, I needed "on the ground" wisdom for understanding, enduring, and growing through the trials in my life. And the Lord did graciously reveal much wisdom to me that helped me endure then, and helps me endure now. 

So over the next...who knows how long...I plan to share the details of my study on this blog. My notes are organized by text, so I will just post my thoughts on this or that passage of Scripture and then at the end I'll post a few concluding thoughts. I hope and pray that the Lord will use this series of posts in your lives as powerfully as he did in mine.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Secret of all Failure is our Failure in Secret Prayer

By
“We may be assured of this—the secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer” (12). So writes the anonymous author of the classic little book on prayer entitled, The Kneeling Christian (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids: 1971). He means that the reason we so often fall into sin or live in discouragement or fail to bear fruit is because we do not cling to God in Christ above all things. We do not diligently seek him or lean on him or plead with him or draw on his strength. We give ourselves to busyness over communion with God and in this way we seek to accomplish in our flesh what can only be accomplished in the power of the Spirit.  Giving first place to what our dear author calls “secret prayer” is indeed a key to the Spirit-filled life but let’s be clear: prayer is not magic, rather, it’s a relationship. It’s not as if we simply have to file requests with God, being careful to use just the right words so that we can get him to respond as we wish. God is not a vending m
Post a Comment
Read more

Deacons - How They Serve and Strengthen the Church (Part 1)

By
  One of the next important priorities for GCF is to establish deacons in the life of the church. On March 14, 2021 we were able to establish an elder team. Currently, we have a team of four elders overseeing the congregation of GCF.  However, there is more work to be done. I have come to see that establishing an elder team was the bare minimum that needed to happen for GCF to survive. I believe GCF now needs to turn our attention to raising up a team of qualified and willing deacons to serve the congregation so that it will not only survive but thrive.   I would like to begin a series of blogs on deacons to help us understand who they are and what they do in the life of the church.  In this blog let me provide three reasons why I think deacons should be near our top priority.  Number 1: It is Biblical. Paul instructs Timothy to install elders who will help him pastor the church. For whatever reason, it seems the churches in our circles treat the installment of elders as non-negotiable
Post a Comment
Read more

Does the Doctrine Divide? by Patience Griswold

By Anonymous
“Oh, I try not to talk about doctrine. It’s so divisive.” This is a sentiment that I’ve heard expressed, as well as implied, on many occasions, and one that raises the question, does doctrine divide? In answering this question, we must keep in mind a very important truth and that is that everyone holds to some sort of doctrine . “Doctrine” is defined as “a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.” Regardless of whether or not someone publicly holds to a statement of beliefs from a particular church, every Christian, by definition, holds to a particular set of beliefs. As Carl Trueman observes in his book The Creedal Imperative ,       [W]hile Christianity cannot be reduced to doctrine, to mere teaching, it cannot be meaningfully separated from it, either. Even the most basic claims, such as “Jesus is Lord,” carry clear doctrinal content that needs to be explicated in a world where, as we have noted before, every heretic has his text and n
Post a Comment
Read more