Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 93 | Biblical Suffering

Episode Date: April 1, 2019

What does the Bible say about how Christians should handle suffering, affliction, and hardship? Copyright Blaze Media All Rights Reserved.

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

I know last week was an absolutely crazy news week. A lot happened. Today, we are not going to talk about the news. We're going to talk about something strictly theological. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality

itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this T-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.

Today we're not going to talk about the news. Monday is supposed to be Theology Monday. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know last week was a crazy news week with Jesse Smalllet, the Green New Deal being voted down in the Senate. Of course, all the stuff still going on with Mueller and aftermath of all of that. Today we're not going to talk about the news. Monday is supposed to be theology Monday. Sometimes it is mixed in with news and culture, but today is going to be strictly a biblical topic, a pretty evergreen topic. And the reason we're going to focus on this is because I actually got an email. Someone asked me to talk about affliction and talk about suffering. And at first, I didn't think that was something that I really wanted to cover today. I'd try to make it kind of as timely as possible, but I thought, you know, this could reach people or maybe even just one person that needs to hear a particular message from the Word of God.

And so that's what we're going to focus on today. We are going to focus on what the Bible says about suffering and what the Bible says about affliction because how Jesus and how the gospel of Christ tells us to handle suffering is one of the many things that sets Christianity apart from every other faith. I know this doesn't seem like a happy way to start your Monday or to start your week, but I hope that it does encourage you. I hope that it does edify what you already know about God and maybe you'll learn something new from His Word.

So all of us have been through something, varying degrees of suffering. Maybe you have gone through a miscarriage in the past year. Maybe you have struggled with infertility. Maybe there are, maybe you. you are suffering from deaths in the family. Maybe you are suffering from a chronic illness. Maybe you are struggling with a child who has walked away from their faith and you don't know what to do.

Maybe you're in the midst of joblessness and you are trying to find employment and you haven't been able to do that and you're just trying to provide for your family and for yourself. Maybe you are going through an affair. Maybe it was you who was unfaithful to your spouse or maybe it was your spouse who was unfaithful to you. That's not necessarily just suffering. that's sin, but the aftermath and the consequence of all of that has been a hardship on you.

The list goes on for all of the things that we could be struggling with, all of the darkness that we could be in the midst of right now. Maybe you were struggling with anxiety, with depression, with paranoia, whatever it is, all of us have dealt with some kind of suffering, with some kind of feeling that we are lacking something. From a secular perspective, people look at this. and they say, okay, well, bad things happen just because they happen. There's no real reason to find the why behind it.

I mean, people are selfish. We know this. There are promises that are broken. People betray you. Cancer moustasticizes. Babies die in the womb. Adoptions fall through. The car doesn't stop in time.

These are just things that happen. I mean, maybe you have gotten that phone call that has changed your life forever. Maybe you have been met with that overwork. feeling that you just cannot take whatever burden was just handed to you. And in that moment, you probably ask yourself, why? Why is this happening? How did this happen to me? That feeling of panic that you have, it eventually kind of gives way to devastation, and then it goes back to panic and then to sorrow and to despair, into emptiness, into confusion, and all of these different emotions that are associated with loss. It feels just too much for us to care. And then, it feels just too much for us to

And there is something in that moment and in the moments after in all of us that says it shouldn't be like this, that children shouldn't die of leukemia. Marriages shouldn't end. They shouldn't be broken. Abuse shouldn't happen. People shouldn't be taken advantage of. They shouldn't be treated unfairly. Promises should be kept. We all have this profound sense of what should and what should it be.

We all have this longing for wholeness. We all have a longing for peace, for reconciliation. We have this pull towards justice. And we are completely and totally and sometimes painfully aware of the brokenness of life and the feeling of unfairness that follows tragedy and wrongdoing. And what I would suggest to you is that that feeling that you have, that it shouldn't be this way. I would suggest that the reason that you feel,

the shoulds and the shouldn't's inside of you, that it should be this way or should not be this way. The reason that you feel that, the reason that you feel lost, the reason that you feel a heartache and anger when the unthinkable happens, when tragedy strikes is because your soul rightly longs for things to be made right. And you just have to ask yourself, if you are someone coming from a secular perspective, if that perspective is true, that things just have to ask, happen, period. Why? Why would every single human soul that's ever existed long for this intangible fullness and completeness and healing and reconciliation if it's not there somewhere? I mean, are these just chemicals in our brains making us feel this way? Is this really just a product

of evolution that somewhere down the line it helped our ancestors to feel sad or angry and tragedy? I just don't see how and quite frankly it takes more faith than I have to believe in that. I'm just not sure logically and from the secular perspective, sheer material logic is all we have. I'm just not sure from a logical perspective, natural selection, if that's all that there is, if survival of the fittest determines alone who subsists and who dies out, I'm just not sure why this longing for ultimate. restoration and the abolishing of sorrow and pain would be there in all of us. Where would we get that idea? Wouldn't you think after millennia of experiencing death, of knowing that it's inevitable,

that all lives are going to come to an end at some point that we would have gotten used to that? Like, wouldn't we have evolved to the point of being able to accept death? Even an early death is just kind of like a fact of life? And don't you think we would have evolved at some. point into knowing that love is just this chemical hormonal reaction passed down to us to encourage us to reproduce. And so we would be able to rationalize ourselves out of anger when we're betrayed by our significant other. Why haven't we been able to evolve out of emotional pain if this world

is all there is? If natural selection and evolution is really all there is, if the material world is really all there is. Why haven't we evolved out of searching for meaning and purpose? Why haven't we evolved out of seeking to be whole, seeking for things to be made right? And what I would suggest is that the reason our pain, our feeling of incompleteness, our sorrow over loss and our anger and injustice, I think that the reason that we feel those things is because there is a spiritual reality that is beyond this world. that all of this is not a consequence of evolution. It is a longing for a place that exists beyond the physical universe.

It is a longing for heaven. It is a longing for our creator, the only one that can really make us whole. So when you say to yourself in the midst of hardship, it shouldn't be this way, you're right. You're right. In one day for the Christian, it won't be. Revelation 1 3 through 5 says, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. And the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.

This is what your soul is longing for. This is what you, in the deepest parts of your being, what your soul wants. This is what it will mean to never have any lack, to never know loss, to never know jealousy, to never know sickness or anger or sorrow. So as Christians, that is the ultimate comfort that we have in our pain. And there are two things that we deduced from this for those who are in Christ. Number one, our pain, our suffering, our affliction, whatever that is, it will not last. And number two, these things are doing something.

Number one, they will not last. And number two, they are doing something. The pain that we feel, the afflictions that we have, the sins that we struggle with, and I'm talking really struggle with. We are fighting against them. We are trying to lay them down with the help of the Holy Spirit, with actually just the full power of the Holy Spirit. We are struggling.

All of these things might last a lifetime. There may not be a day on this physical earth of reprieve for you or for me. But they will not. The promise for the Christian is that they will not last beyond that. And this life is a blip on the span of eternity. God is suspended in the eternal now, meaning that he is just as present at the beginning of the universe as he is right now. And we are tiny, tiny specks in history. So everything that has ever happened, not just to you, but to anyone, will one day be long gone. They will one day

be long in the distance. And those who are in Christ will enjoy never ending fulfillment in hand, there will be one day a new heaven and a new earth and believers will know fullness of joy forever and ever. So your pain, no matter how big, no matter how deep it is, no matter how raw it is, no matter how long lasting in this life will not last forever. We also know, though, that it's not just that our pain won't last. That is a supreme comfort that we can all cling to. but we're not just subsisting in our pain right now. Our pain is doing something. That's the second point.

Our pain is productive. It is actively working towards something. That's exactly what the Bible tells us. 2 Corinthians 416 through 18. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us

an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparisons. as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Think about how amazing heaven has to be for the suffering of today to be called light and momentary. I mean, think about some of the suffering that's either happened to you or is happening around the world. Think about calling sex trafficking, light and momentary. Think about calling abuse. light and momentary. Think about calling starvation, imprisonment, injustice, martyrdom, cancer, light and momentary. And yet the Bible does, not because God didn't really understand suffering.

Jesus understood suffering better than any of us. He understood rejection better than any of us. That's why the Bible says we have a high priest who can empathize with their weaknesses. That's the beautiful part about God becoming flesh. The Bible still calls all of these sufferings, all of these injustices, both systemic and individual, both on a personal level and on a big picture level. He calls them all light and momentary in comparison to what we will one day experience. So think about how awesome eternity with God has to be for all of these things to seem like nothing, for all of these things to one day be so insignificant that we consider them. them nothing. Think about how great it has to be to be with God that the horrible, atrocious things

that are happening today are considered light and momentary. And that's exactly what the Bible says that they are. And not only that, but what we suffer now, it's not just light and momentary in comparison to eternity, but the verses that we just read says that it is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. Our suffering is momentary, but our glory in Christ, is eternal. It is doing something, is working towards something. It is building something up. There is an end result for our suffering. And that end result is glory. It is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. In 2013, John Piper did a sermon on these particular verses that we just read. And there are excerpts from it in a music video actually of the song,

though you slay me by Shane and Shane. And because I like all of the excerpts from this, from this sermon put together in this way, I'm going to play that part of the music video. Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there, but all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond. of your pain from the fallen nature or fallen man,

every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that. I don't care if it was cancer or criticism. I don't care if it was slander or sickness. It wasn't meaningless. It's doing something. It's not me. meaningless. Of course you can't see what it's doing. Don't look to what is seen. When your mom dies,

when your kid dies, when you gut cancer at 40, when a car creams into the sidewalk takes her out, don't see, it's meaningless. It's not, it's working for you an eternal weight of glory. Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart. But take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for. It is not wasted.

It is not meaningless. There is hope in that. There is comfort in that. Whatever suffering you are going through or will go through is preparing right now in this very moment, even in your tears, in your sorrow, in your brokenness, whatever it is, a glory that we can't even see right now, that your finite mind cannot even imagine. It is laying the bricks down for eternal glory. I personally, I don't know how that works. I don't even really know what that is. I don't even really know what that all means. I mean, my mind really is too small to understand a glory that outweighs this world. I can't even comprehend it. But God is so good. He's so kind and so gracious that he didn't just say that one day there won't be suffering. He said that right now, our suffering is working towards

something that we have hope for the future and for today because God is using it. So that means that nothing in the believer's life goes in the garbage. Nothing is wasted. The God of the universe makes beauty out of the ashes. He finds what is lost. He makes whole what is broken. How unbelievably gracious of a heavenly father to use our pain for something great for his glory and for ours, the Bible says. He did not have to do that. He didn't have to tell us that our suffering is doing something now. He could have just said, hey, one day it's all going to be okay. you're going to forget about this, but he says, I'm giving you hope for today, too. That is because he is a God of compassion.

He is a God of infinite goodness and mercy, so he makes our suffering actually mean something to us right now. And not only, not only is it building up something for the next life, it actually has an impact here. Romans 5-3 through 5 says, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. And endurance produces character. and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame,

because God's love has been poured into your hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So it's producing something even now. It's not just laying up glory in heaven, which is a wonderful, beautiful thing that's happening as we speak. But it's also, as we speak, producing endurance inside of us. And endurance, the Bible says,

produces character and character produces hope. How amazing that God is, is taking care of us in this way that he doesn't let anything just go. It makes something. James 1, 2, through 4 says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So what this tells us is that suffering is something that not only, not only is good for our souls, but is good for our characters. It is good for our lives today.

A lot of times we hear this kind of health and wealth message, both from a lot of female feel-good teachers and from, you know, the Joel Osteins of the world that if you're going through something right now, it's either A, because you're not praying hard enough or you're not doing the right things. We kind of hear that from the more prosperity gospel craft. and from the me-centered crowd, we hear that don't worry. This means that there is something better for you tomorrow. God closes one door.

He's going to open up another for you. And that if you're suffering, you just need to kind of love yourself more and you need to feel better about yourself and you need to give yourself a pep talk and wash your face. Well, that's not what the Bible says. The Bible does not give us a guarantee that things will be better on this earth tomorrow. God doesn't say God is closing one door so he can open up another unless you mean that the that the other door is glory in eternity. That's the one thing that he promises and that's more than

we could ever think of a reserve. And so this worldly message coming from pseudo-Christian teachers telling you that you don't deserve what's happening to you right now and that if you just take your prayer life more seriously, then maybe you wouldn't be suffering or on the other side that if you just wash your face and tell yourself how awesome you are, you'll be able to get over all of this stuff and God's going to come through and he's going to restore everything for you. That's a lie because God doesn't promise that for us. But he does promise that whatever you're going through right now will not last. And he also promises that it is going to do something. It's going to build character and hope in you now and it's going to lay up glory for you later. It's also going to glorify himself and

what we know throughout the Bible, this is probably the most uncomfortable truth I think about God is that he is so relentlessly committed to his own glory that he is willing to do anything to get it. I mean, you look throughout the Old Testament and some of the suffering that happened. God used all of it to glorify himself and to bring his people to himself. And you wonder, why did God let that happen? Why do people have to go through suffering through slavery, through oppression, and have to survive pain and go through their loved ones dying if you look at the history of Israel? God always uses these things to bring people to himself, and he will do anything to do that.

It's a very uncomfortable reality about God, and it's not something I don't think our finite minds can fully understand. But this suffering, this affliction that we endure, it's not just doing something in heaven, as we have already established. It's not just doing something in your life today. It's not just doing something in your soul. It is also doing something for other people. Your testimony has great power. Your account of God's faithfulness in your life, his commitment to you, even in your despair, has great power. Your choice through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Spirit to trust in his promises, even when everything was falling down around you, gives you hope or gives hope to those who are faint of heart.

Your testimony means something. It is doing something. It is showing the power of Christ to others. Now, does this mean that suffering is going to feel good? Does this mean that we look forward? We're excited about loss. We're excited about pain and sickness and being unfairly treated of being unjustly criticized. No, of course not. We like joy. We enjoy happiness. We want good times. Of course, we want good things.

And it's wonderful to be happy and it's wonderful to enjoy the times of abundance. And when we suffer, when we lose, there will be sorrow. We will be sad. We will wonder what this is all for. And yet, for the Christian, we have this amazing choice, this amazing hope that we can choose to remember what is true that this is temporary and that this is doing something and both of those things are for the glory of God. Many people, I've heard it said in the midst of suffering and this is really just a product of the me-centered Christianity that we talk about so much that really the most important and the most virtuous thing for you is to just be yourself and to let yourself hang out and to let your emotions run wild. We hear that a lot, especially from female Bible teachers at the most important thing is that you're just you and God is here to affirm you. We also hear from this crowd

that it's okay to shake your fist at God in the midst of suffering. It's okay to curse at God. It's okay to yell at God and to say, why would you do this to me? He can handle our anger, we hear. He's big enough to handle our anger. He's big enough to handle all of that. And while that's true, of course, God is big enough to handle all those things. What's not true is that that is okay. that is a sin. Who are we to question God? Romans 9 says, who is the clay to say to the potter, why have you made me this way? No, we are not supposed to talk back to God. We are not supposed to shake our fist at God. We are not supposed to curse God. That is not what we are called to do in the midst of suffering. I'm not saying that that's not a visceral reaction. Of course it is. I've done it myself.

And I will do it. I'm sure throughout my life. But it is also a sin that we have to repent from. If you look at the book of Job, if you consider Job, who was a servant of God, who kept God's law, everything was taken from him. He was something who, from a worldly perspective, he was someone who didn't deserve all of this stuff to be taken away from him, from our human perspective. But his house, his livestock, his entire family came to ruins. He was utterly and totally afflicted. In Job 31, he one last time seeks to justify.

by himself. He insists upon his innocence that he in no way brought all of this upon himself. He suggests that his suffering is unjust. He says, I've kept God's law. I have been holy. I have been generous. I have provided for the people that work for me. I've provided for people who are in need. I have done everything. God has asked me to do. And all of this has come upon me. God's response to him was not, yes, Job. And I'm sorry. You're right. Let me just give you a little side hug. Let me give you a comforting pat. Or my bad, Job, I'm sorry.

You're right. I shouldn't have treated you like that. You know what God's response is in Job 38, 1 through 7 in the following chapters? Here's what God says, first to Job. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man. I will question you. This is God to Job.

And you make it known to me. Where were you? When I laid the foundation of the earth, tell me if you have understanding, who determined its measurements? Surely you know? Or stretch the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together in all the sons of God shouted

for joy? So he's saying, Job, were you there when I created the universe? Do you have the power that I do? Do you have the knowledge and wisdom and the authority that I do? I don't think so. Who are you to talk to me? me, God says, using sarcastic, sarcastic rhetorical questions. And then Job 41 through two says, and the Lord said to Job, shall a fault finder

contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. And then verses 8 through 9, will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God? and can you thunder with a voice like his? I really encourage you to read Job 38 through Job. I think it's 40, maybe it's even past that I don't have the references right in front of me.

It might have been actually through 42 when God lists all of the times that Job wasn't there, all of the things that Job can't do because God is so supreme and so sovereign over every corner of the universe that Job, a little speck on the span of eternity like the rest of us, has nothing to say to God. So God is saying for you to question your suffering, for you to even wonder or hint that maybe I'm not righteous in my precepts, that maybe I didn't do the right thing for allowing your suffering or for being sovereign over your suffering, let me tell you something, Job. You're not in charge. I am.

I made the universe. and who are you, Job, to talk back to me. Surely, sure, you might have kept my laws. You might have been what even I consider, God is saying, a good person. But you have no authority to talk to me about what is righteous and what is not. And you know what Job's response is to God asking him these rhetorical questions? He says, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can. can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what

I did not understand, things too wonderful me, wonderful for me, which I did not know. Here and I will speak, I will question you and you will make it known to me. He's quoting God there. I had heard of you by the hearing of the year, but now my eye see you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes and God, of course, forgives him. That should be our response when we realize that we have blasphemously questioned God and questioned his goodness and questioned his rightness. I have done that. I have asked God why. I have wondered, why would you do this to this person? Why would you allow this to happen? Why would you, if you were so in control and you are so sovereign, why would this happen? How can you possibly say you're good?

How can you possibly say that you are powerful? How can you possibly say that you're all knowing and all present? And all of these horrible things happen? How can you do that? God's response to us is his response to Job. Were you there when I created the earth? Do you know the things that I know? Are you privy to the secrets of the universe that I am?

Are you above and in and through all of creation like I am? Are you on an immovable throne like I am? And our answer is no, I'm sorry. I repent. I should have never questioned your holiness. So this idea that in the midst of our suffering, it is righteous and it is good to shake our fist at God is wrong. Not only is it blasphemous, but it also is going to hurt you.

It's not going to help you because remember, suffering is not permanent. for the Christian anyway. And it is doing something. And so the Bible tells us, amazingly, amazingly, this is what makes Christianity so just counter to what the world says. We are supposed to rejoice in our suffering. And that rejoicing is a choice. I am quite sure that it is not always a feeling. And God has sympathy for us. He has compassion for us. He heals the brokenhearted, Psalm says, and he binds their wounds. He cares about our suffering. Remember, Jesus wept when Lazarus died. He has emotion for us, probably not in the sense that we think of emotion, but he feels for us. He has moved for us. So he cares about your personal pain,

but your personal pain does not justify shaking your fist at God. That's what the story of Job tells us. And like I said, I really encourage you to read the last few chapters because the majesty and the power and the authority of God is so on display. And that's something that is people who have, who really don't care anymore, it seems like, about the holiness of God. That's something that we need to be reminded of. So our response to suffering and affliction as Christians should be one of trust, to be one of obedience, to be one of gratitude.

Remember, Job says that no plan of yours can be thwarted. None can be thwarted. So no matter what happens to you, God is still in control. And this is not to say, again, that our suffering is easy. I am young. There's still a lot that I am going to go through in my life. And so I'm not speaking from someone who's been there and been through it all. But I've seen the stories of people who have.

I have heard the testimonies of the saints who have been through far more than I have and have remained faithful to the power of Christ because they chose to believe that suffering means something and that it's laying up for us in eternal glory that far outweighs all of this. So I do hope that this was a message of encouragement to you today. I hope that it didn't like get you down for your Monday. It's just something for you to think on for the rest of the week and maybe to come back and listen to at some point. These are truths that come from the Bible. They're not just my opinion that we can all rest our souls on and just how good and how gracious and how wonderful and how kind God is, that he gives us these promises, that it's not just a Bible

that tells us what to do, although, of course, his precepts are perfect and they're extremely important for us to live lives that are set apart in holiness as Christians, but also that he gives us comfort, that he gives us this kindness, that he is such a sympathetic and such a compassionate God that he would give us this comfort for our suffering. He didn't have to do that, and he did. So thank the Lord for that. Thank him for Jesus that he sent Jesus to die a brutal death on the cross and then rise again, taking care of our sins and making it so that we could live eternity with God and that our suffering would actually mean something and that it wouldn't have to go to waste and that

one day we wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. So thank the Lord for that. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope that you have a great Monday and Tuesday. and I will be back here on Wednesday morning with some news. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country

aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives

and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.