A Christian's Pocket Guide to Suffering

How God Shapes Us through Pain and Tragedy

Brian H. Cosby

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781781916964

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FINDING HOPE
IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING

As we have explored various aspects of suffering—from where suffering comes from to God’s design for it in our lives, we also need to get very practical and put these pieces together. In this chapter, I want to present some very applicable counsel directly from Scripture for finding hope in the midst of suffering; a ‘go-to guide’ from the Bible to anchor your soul and hope to the eternal bedrock of God’s abiding Word.

You may have the correct theology and you might have been preparing yourself for suffering, but now that it has come, you need handles of hope to grab onto. Let me simply share various portions of God’s infinite wisdom and grace—that you may find and rest in a hopeful confidence in the God who cares.

TWENTY RELEVANT PASSAGES ON SUFFERING

Here are twenty of some of the most relevant and poignant Scripture passages that speak directly to a variety of afflictions—meant to give both a right perspective on your suffering as well as a God-dependent hope to endure.

Genesis 3:16-18

To the woman [God] said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’ And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

This is where suffering began. This is important to remember when you face trials of various kinds. Suffering should point us to our sin, and our sin should point us to the Savior who suffered on our behalf so that we would live without suffering with him forever. Knowing that suffering started with Adam’s fall into sin helps put our present sufferings in their proper perspective.

Genesis 50:20

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

Here, Joseph tells his brothers—who have sold him into slavery out of jealousy—that God overruled their evil intentions for his greater purpose. Maybe you feel abandoned and rejected by your own family or you are asking the question, ‘Why me?’ We do not know how our story will play out, but God does. In fact, ‘We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose’ (Rom. 8:28).

Remember from chapter 2, God permits evil, restraints evil, and overrules evil for his good and sovereign purposes. This is illustrated here with the story of Joseph and his brothers.

Job 1:20-22

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

By God’s permission, Satan destroyed Job’s property and killed his children. These verses are his response. It is hard to imagine the grief and pain caused by the death of one’s children. Maybe you have been there yourself. But instead of lashing out in anger, run to God as the only true Source of comfort and hope. It is similar to the words found in Psalm 73:26, ‘My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’ God is enough for us, and we oftentimes do not realize that truth until we have lost someone we love.

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Few other passages in Scripture present such a comforting message of hope and security than Psalm 23. It carries us from the reality that our Shepherd-God provides for my every need. And when I am faced with danger and suffering, he is with me. The wonderful truth is that he will always be with us, on into his heavenly house forever. The Shepherd knows you and your needs. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, lays down his life for his sheep and he assures us: ‘And no one will snatch them out of my hand’ (John 10:28).

Psalm 46:1, 7, 10

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

This Psalm inspired Martin Luther to pen the Reform-ation hymn, ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God.’ When Luther faced the constant pressures of persecution by Rome, he clung to God as a Source of strength and security. Other Psalms communicate a similar theme. King David wrote, ‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold’ (Ps. 18:2; cf. Ps. 62:6-7). Note the terms used: refuge, fortress, rock, deliverer, stronghold. They communicate strength and security. When you feel battered by the storms of affliction, you need to know that God remains unchanging, sure, and strong—like a mighty fortress! God is not shaken or troubled, but unwavering and rock-solid. Run to your Refuge and Strength!

Martin Luther (1483–1546) went to the city of Worms in 1521 to debate with leading Roman Catholics about his writings, which they deemed heretical. But instead of a debate, to his disappointment, they simply requested that he ‘recant.’ But Luther could not renounce his faith in the gospel or in the Scriptures. He said, ‘Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason-for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves-I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen.’ Upon leaving Worms, Luther was captured by friends and taken to the Wartburg Castle, where he undertook the work of translating the Bible into German. Here, he battled the assaults of Satan and clung to God as his Mighty Fortress.

Psalm 34:17-19

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

It is important to know that when you cry out to God, he hears your prayer. He is never so far away that he does not know your pain and hear your voice. In fact (as this Psalm records) God is especially ‘near to the brokenhearted.’ When Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane before his arrest and subsequent crucifixion, he cried out that the cup of suffering might be removed from him. But—being obedient to death—Jesus submitted his human will to the divine will, ‘Yet not what I will, but what you will’ (Mark 14:36). We can have a similar trust in the God who knows us and hears our prayers in the midst of suffering and pain.

Psalm 42:3-6

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

We see here an honest and raw pain. But notice that the Psalmist is talking to himself—‘Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God.’ He is reminding himself of God’s faithfulness and salvation. He is preaching, as it were, the gospel to himself! When you are dealing with illness, death, or pain, remind yourself of God’s Word and God’s character. Instead of listening to your heart, tell your heart the truth found in the Scriptures. If you run out of words to express, let God’s Word be your mouthpiece. Simply read the Bible aloud and let his Word permeate and heal the wounds of your heart.

Psalm 119:49-50, 71

Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

As you can see, the Psalms are replete with passages on the theme of suffering and pain, and how we can find hope in God. Here, affliction is seen as a sort of school where we ‘learn’ the Scriptures. In the academy of affliction, we learn God’s design and purpose in suffering—that we might experientially believe the timeless truth of his Word.

After his affair with Bathsheba, King David cried out for God’s forgiveness (recorded in Psalm 51). But he also petitions, ‘Let the bones that you have broken rejoice’ (v. 8) God brought him to a place of repentance through his internal grief and pain over what he had done. But, upon his repentance and forgiveness, he could look ahead to days of rejoicing. As the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting’ (2 Cor. 7:9). Sometimes God breaks us so that he might heal us—molding us more and more into the image and likeness of Christ.

Lamentations 3:21-25

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BC and deported most of the Jews east to Babylon. Exiled to this foreign land—due to their sin—God’s people suffered continual starvation and death. Lamentations describes this scene with vivid eyewitness descriptions. However, hope is the final word in this book and, here in chapter 3, we see this boldly pronounced.

What’s remarkable about these verses is God’s unchangeable and faithful mercy—‘new every morning.’ So we patiently endure and wait for him to teach us, mold us, and shape us more and more into the image of his Son, Jesus. God’s mercies never come to an end; they will never run out. Why? Because ‘the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases.’ In the midst of suffering, despair, and pain, take time to intentionally seek the Lord and lay hold of him as your portion.

Habakkuk 3:17-18

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk wondered why the wicked seemed to get away with injustice while God’s people seemed to continually lack basic needs. He pleaded with God over these things. But, like Lamentations, it ends with a chorus...

Table of contents

• Testimonials
• Title
• Indicia
• Contents
• Preface
• Where Does Suffering Come From?
• Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
• Why Does God Ordain Suffering?
• How to Rightly Respond During Suffering
• Finding Hope in the Midst of Suffering
• Ministering to Sufferers
• Suggestions for Further Reading
• Endnotes
• Other books…
• Christian Focus Publications