Suffering Wisely
Philippians 4:4-6,
Psalm 92:1-4,
I think we would all agree that one of the easiest things to prove from your Bible, but also from human experience is that we all suffer. It is a universal experience, it is inescapable and inevitable. And you can even say the Bible story to a large degree is shaped by suffering; our suffering that we brought upon ourselves, but also the suffering of Christ.
Generally the two responses to suffering can be a very negative response which would be one of anger, bitterness, even pointing fingers at God. And that can happen to the best of us. The best of believers have struggled in the midst of their sufferings. We see Job for example, he has a mega dose of suffering. He got hit with what you could call hurricanes or tornadoes of suffering one after the other, and more towards the back end. The first response at the front end would get a five-star review; but toward the back end, you begin to see him cracking and he begins to start to have some trust issues with God. And he says even this in Job 33:10, "Behold, God finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy."
There's another believer in our Bibles who also suffers and begins to have some spiritual problems. Potentially he is going to suffer a backslide and that's Psalm 73 with Asaph. Listen to what he says, "As for me, my feet nearly almost slipped. I was envious as I saw the prosperity of the wicked." So he begins to suffer from this sin of envy and jealousy and he's about to have a stumble or a fall, “I almost stumbled.” Then he also mentions his own suffering, that's probably what aggravated it. Psalm 73:14, "For all the day long I have been stricken." So Asaph was suffering. We don't know exactly what it was, but he was suffering.
But thankfully with both Job and Asaph, they come back to God you could say. They both come back to a worship posture or a humble posture of worship. You see that with Job, for example. If you turn to the very back end of Job, Job 42:5-6, we see Job’s worship response. He says, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." So he comes back by way of repentance, but obviously he's looking at God in a more positive way and he believes that now he understands God better, he's worshiping God with a greater understanding.
In terms of Asaph you also see a response with him. At the back end of that particular psalm, he tells us he goes into the sanctuary and that's where he comes to a better understanding. This is what he says in verse 25 of Psalm 73, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there's nothing on earth that I desire besides you." So both men you could say had a spiritual declension, a potential fall away from grace, backslide, whatever you want to call it, but both come back to God and both are worshiping God.
Going back to this whole matter of complaining or murmuring or becoming angry and resentful in the midst of our suffering, how do we stop that? How do we suffer wisely and humbly? What can we do that can help us?
Well, I think this is a big key, and that's giving thanks to God. Philippians 4, "In everything give thanks." Psalm 97, again, "It is good to give thanks to God." We can choose gratitude or we can choose to become bitter or angry and resentful. Sin drives us into ourselves. Thanksgiving forces us to look outside of ourselves, to look to a good God. Thanksgiving focuses upon God. Someone has actually said this, "The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness." How thankful are you? There's always, always, always reason to give thanks no matter what your situation in life, no matter how bad things get even in the trials of life. We know we can be thankful because the trials are used by God to bring us to deeper levels of holiness, to greater understandings of who God is and how he operates. That was the experience of Job.
Samuel Rutherford, a Puritan, said this about suffering times, he talked about winter times, "Grace grows best in winter time." And then Spurgeon said this about his own suffering, Spurgeon suffered a lot. He said,
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Psalm 92:1-4,
"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy."
I think we would all agree that one of the easiest things to prove from your Bible, but also from human experience is that we all suffer. It is a universal experience, it is inescapable and inevitable. And you can even say the Bible story to a large degree is shaped by suffering; our suffering that we brought upon ourselves, but also the suffering of Christ.
Generally the two responses to suffering can be a very negative response which would be one of anger, bitterness, even pointing fingers at God. And that can happen to the best of us. The best of believers have struggled in the midst of their sufferings. We see Job for example, he has a mega dose of suffering. He got hit with what you could call hurricanes or tornadoes of suffering one after the other, and more towards the back end. The first response at the front end would get a five-star review; but toward the back end, you begin to see him cracking and he begins to start to have some trust issues with God. And he says even this in Job 33:10, "Behold, God finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy."
There's another believer in our Bibles who also suffers and begins to have some spiritual problems. Potentially he is going to suffer a backslide and that's Psalm 73 with Asaph. Listen to what he says, "As for me, my feet nearly almost slipped. I was envious as I saw the prosperity of the wicked." So he begins to suffer from this sin of envy and jealousy and he's about to have a stumble or a fall, “I almost stumbled.” Then he also mentions his own suffering, that's probably what aggravated it. Psalm 73:14, "For all the day long I have been stricken." So Asaph was suffering. We don't know exactly what it was, but he was suffering.
But thankfully with both Job and Asaph, they come back to God you could say. They both come back to a worship posture or a humble posture of worship. You see that with Job, for example. If you turn to the very back end of Job, Job 42:5-6, we see Job’s worship response. He says, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." So he comes back by way of repentance, but obviously he's looking at God in a more positive way and he believes that now he understands God better, he's worshiping God with a greater understanding.
In terms of Asaph you also see a response with him. At the back end of that particular psalm, he tells us he goes into the sanctuary and that's where he comes to a better understanding. This is what he says in verse 25 of Psalm 73, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there's nothing on earth that I desire besides you." So both men you could say had a spiritual declension, a potential fall away from grace, backslide, whatever you want to call it, but both come back to God and both are worshiping God.
Going back to this whole matter of complaining or murmuring or becoming angry and resentful in the midst of our suffering, how do we stop that? How do we suffer wisely and humbly? What can we do that can help us?
Well, I think this is a big key, and that's giving thanks to God. Philippians 4, "In everything give thanks." Psalm 97, again, "It is good to give thanks to God." We can choose gratitude or we can choose to become bitter or angry and resentful. Sin drives us into ourselves. Thanksgiving forces us to look outside of ourselves, to look to a good God. Thanksgiving focuses upon God. Someone has actually said this, "The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness." How thankful are you? There's always, always, always reason to give thanks no matter what your situation in life, no matter how bad things get even in the trials of life. We know we can be thankful because the trials are used by God to bring us to deeper levels of holiness, to greater understandings of who God is and how he operates. That was the experience of Job.
Samuel Rutherford, a Puritan, said this about suffering times, he talked about winter times, "Grace grows best in winter time." And then Spurgeon said this about his own suffering, Spurgeon suffered a lot. He said,
"I'm afraid that all the grace that I have got out of my comfortable and easy times, in my happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I've received from my sorrows, pains and griefs is altogether incalculable."
That’s Spurgeon.
So we need to pray brethren, even that we learn how to suffer wisely and well. It's always going to be a challenge, but we certainly need to seek to suffer well, to put Christ on display in the practice of thanksgiving.
So we need to pray brethren, even that we learn how to suffer wisely and well. It's always going to be a challenge, but we certainly need to seek to suffer well, to put Christ on display in the practice of thanksgiving.
Posted in Pastor Devotional