God's Grace and Your Sufferings

From http://solofemininity.blogs.com

Last night in discipleship group, we spent a lot of time praying. The women in this group and those they know and love are suffering various trials. In God's loving providence, the topic that night was about how to wisely evaluate and process our emotions. With trials, emotions are amplified. When our situations and our emotions threaten to engulf us, we need to draw on a reservoir of God's truth that we've deposited in less difficult seasons. As I've often heard from the pulpit, the time to prepare for loss or suffering is before, not during, difficulties.

For that reason, I am recommending Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. This was originally a national conference hosted by Desiring God. Those messages were then turned into a book by the same name. In my recent devotions, I've been reading David Powlison's chapter, titled "God's Grace and Your Suffering." In this chapter, Dr. Powlison unpacks what this process looks like. Here's how he introduces a biblical panorama on suffering:

How does God meeting you in trouble, loss, disability, and pain? You probably already know the "right answer." He does not immediately intervene to make everything all better. Yet he continually intervenes, according to his gracious purposes, working both in you and in what afflicts you. If you've read Psalms, if you've heard a sermon on the second half of Romans 8, if you've worked through 1 Peter in a Bible study, if you've read the earlier chapters of this book, then you've got the gist already.

How does God's grace engage your sufferings? We may know the right answer. And yet we don't know it. It is a hard answer. But we make it sound like a pat answer. God sets about a long slow answering. But we try to make it a quick fix. His answer insists on being lived out over time and into the particulars. We act as if just saying the right words makes it so. God's answer insists on changing you into a different kind of person. But we act as if some truth, principle, strategy, or perspective might simply be incorporated into who we already are. God personalizes his answer on hearts with uncanny flexibility. But we turn it into a formula: "If you just believe _____. If you just do _____. If you just remember ____." No important truth ever contains the word "just" in the punch line.

How does God's grace meet you in your sufferings? We can make the right answer sound old hat, but I can guarantee this: God will surprise you. He will make you stop. You will struggle. He will bring you up short. You will hurt. He will take his time. You will grow in faith and in love. He will deeply delight you. You will find the process harder than you ever imagined--and better. Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life (Ps. 23:6). No matter how many times you've heard it, no matter how long you've known it, no matter how well you can say it, God's answer will come to mean something better than you could ever imagine.

I highlighted two sentences in there that I think are priceless for processing our trials: "God's answer insists on changing you into a different kind of person. But we act as if some truth, principle, strategy, or perspective might simply be incorporated into who we already are." That concept can really rock our world. God is changing us, but we typically just want relief.

That also gives us a perspective for helping others in their dark circumstances. I often think how the only thing Job's friends got right was when they sat in silence with him. David Powlison also addresses how "Job's friends" and even well-meaning friends can make our suffering even more pronounced:

Suffering often brings a doubled pain. in the first place, there is "the problem" itself--sickness, poverty, betrayal, bereavement. That is hard enough . . . But it is often compounded by a second problem. Other people, even well-meaning, often don't respond very well to sufferers. Sufferers are often misunderstood, or meddled with, or ignored. These reactions add relational and psychological isolation to "the problem" . . .

Here is another way this happens. People who love you often focus exclusively on "the problem." They ask about "the problem." They pray that God would solve "the problem." They offer advice for solving "the problem." They care for you! These are well-meaning attempts to be helpful. But the effect can become unkind. For example, many significant sufferings have no remedy until the day when all tears are wiped away. Your disease or disability is incurable. The injustice will not be remedied in your lifetime. Your loved one is dead. The marriage is over. The money is gone. There may be partial helps along the way. There may be partial redemptions. There will be no fix. Often the biggest problem for any sufferer is not "the problem." It is the spiritual challenge the problem presents: "How are you doing in the midst of what you are going through? What are you learning? Where are you failing? Where do you need encouragement? Will you learn to live well and wisely within pain, limitation, weakness, and loss? Will suffering define you? Will faith and love grow, or will you shrivel up?" These are life-and-death issues--more important than "the problem" in the final analysis. They take asking, thinking, listening, responding. They take time. Other people are often clumsy and uncomprehending about the most important things, while pouring energy and love into solving what is often insoluble.

This week, we will look at suffering from many different angles. Whether your circumstances today are dark or bright, now is the time to develop a solid understanding of God's redemptive purposes in suffering. I highly recommend Suffering and the Sovereignty of God to you. You can listen to or freely download the messages from Desiring God (thanks to their extraordinary generosity) or you can purchase the book. Or both. This resource will equip you to process your own circumstances and to minister to others who suffer.