Suffering Well
August 21, 2024
Pastor Gordon Cook
Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens, He does all that he pleases.”
This reminds us of why we can be so assured that God answers prayer and that God is sovereign. Think of that, all that he pleases. And it does please God to answer our prayers. He loves to answer prayer, that's something God loves to do. He loves to show his care for his children.
I was in Toronto, Canada for four years and I went to Bible College there, and I can remember one occasion when we had Dr. J.I. Packer there. He showed up and brought a lecture to about a hundred students. I think he was in his early sixties at the time, he died at the age of 93 in 2020. Back in the 1970’s and 80’s he was a very prominent individual in Canada. He had a seminary in Vancouver, and he would go across Canada from place to place, and lecture on the Puritans. He's also written a book, one of the best books on the Puritans, titled, The Quest for Godliness. It's a great book. In the early pages he mentions the Puritans in terms of how great they were, what marked out their spiritual stature and their maturity. He describes them under the California redwood trees, and it's easy to see why: those trees can grow up to be 360 feet tall. Just in terms of the circumference, the tree trunk is 60 feet round; and they can be hundreds of years old. The point of the illustration that Packer makes in his book is that those huge redwood trees represent the Puritans in terms of spiritual stature and maturity. He calls them giants and then he gives a pretty severe critique of modern day evangelicalism and he compares most of us to pygmies compared to the Puritans. That's what he says, “We're pygmies.” Then he explains why the Puritans were so great. The first major principle he articulated as to what made the Puritans so great was they loved their Bibles and they make good use of their Bibles. They were Biblicists in the pure sense of the word, they preached the Bible and they lived the Bible.
The second thing he argues in terms of what made the Puritans great, was trials and sufferings. He said they suffered on both sides of the Atlantic. They suffered persecution on the other side and they came over this side and they also suffered from weather problems and other things that brought a lot of suffering to their lives. But we could see from our Bibles that trials and sufferings do help us grow. It is often our major instrumentality in terms of maturity. Romans 5, “Why do we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope.” The Puritan, Samuel Rutherford made the point when he said, “Grace grows best in winter time.”
I've been reading a little bit of a biography on John Bunyan, who was a Puritan. He's one of the few Baptist Puritans, and he suffered a lot. Let me just give you a little history of his sufferings. At a very relatively young age he lost his mother and sister at the same time. He was married twice. His first wife died at the age of 30. He had a second wife and had four children. His first child, Mary, was born blind. And then he spent 12 years in prison, that's when he wrote Pilgrim's Progress. So, no question, he suffered. To be a mature Christian expect to suffer. Now we don't pray for suffering, but we will suffer. If we're going to grow in grace, we will experience suffering.
Here's something we could think about when we're suffering. If we're going to suffer well and suffer wisely here's what we should be praying for and these aren’t all the things you can pray for, but here's four things we can pray for.
So those are just four things we can pray for; not only for ourselves, but when we know that a brother or sister is suffering, these are four things we can pray for them that they would come out of that suffering more holy, more like Christ, more mature. And there are brethren right now who are suffering. We don't always know who are suffering or why they're suffering, but there are generally a lot more people suffering than we realize and we should pray for them.
Pastor Gordon Cook
Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens, He does all that he pleases.”
This reminds us of why we can be so assured that God answers prayer and that God is sovereign. Think of that, all that he pleases. And it does please God to answer our prayers. He loves to answer prayer, that's something God loves to do. He loves to show his care for his children.
I was in Toronto, Canada for four years and I went to Bible College there, and I can remember one occasion when we had Dr. J.I. Packer there. He showed up and brought a lecture to about a hundred students. I think he was in his early sixties at the time, he died at the age of 93 in 2020. Back in the 1970’s and 80’s he was a very prominent individual in Canada. He had a seminary in Vancouver, and he would go across Canada from place to place, and lecture on the Puritans. He's also written a book, one of the best books on the Puritans, titled, The Quest for Godliness. It's a great book. In the early pages he mentions the Puritans in terms of how great they were, what marked out their spiritual stature and their maturity. He describes them under the California redwood trees, and it's easy to see why: those trees can grow up to be 360 feet tall. Just in terms of the circumference, the tree trunk is 60 feet round; and they can be hundreds of years old. The point of the illustration that Packer makes in his book is that those huge redwood trees represent the Puritans in terms of spiritual stature and maturity. He calls them giants and then he gives a pretty severe critique of modern day evangelicalism and he compares most of us to pygmies compared to the Puritans. That's what he says, “We're pygmies.” Then he explains why the Puritans were so great. The first major principle he articulated as to what made the Puritans so great was they loved their Bibles and they make good use of their Bibles. They were Biblicists in the pure sense of the word, they preached the Bible and they lived the Bible.
The second thing he argues in terms of what made the Puritans great, was trials and sufferings. He said they suffered on both sides of the Atlantic. They suffered persecution on the other side and they came over this side and they also suffered from weather problems and other things that brought a lot of suffering to their lives. But we could see from our Bibles that trials and sufferings do help us grow. It is often our major instrumentality in terms of maturity. Romans 5, “Why do we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope.” The Puritan, Samuel Rutherford made the point when he said, “Grace grows best in winter time.”
I've been reading a little bit of a biography on John Bunyan, who was a Puritan. He's one of the few Baptist Puritans, and he suffered a lot. Let me just give you a little history of his sufferings. At a very relatively young age he lost his mother and sister at the same time. He was married twice. His first wife died at the age of 30. He had a second wife and had four children. His first child, Mary, was born blind. And then he spent 12 years in prison, that's when he wrote Pilgrim's Progress. So, no question, he suffered. To be a mature Christian expect to suffer. Now we don't pray for suffering, but we will suffer. If we're going to grow in grace, we will experience suffering.
Here's something we could think about when we're suffering. If we're going to suffer well and suffer wisely here's what we should be praying for and these aren’t all the things you can pray for, but here's four things we can pray for.
- Pray for a deeper sense of your own sinfulness. Trials expose our sins. We find out just how easily we can complain and murmur and mature Christians learn to be silent and content under the afflicting rod of God.
- Pray that we would grow to have a deeper attitude of worship or reverence and fear of God in our worship. So much of worship today is marked by entertainment rather than gravity and sobriety, and suffering takes away a lot of our silliness, foolishness and giddiness. It really does.
- Pray that we would have a greater love for Jesus Christ. When we suffer we tend to look more to Christ and His sufferings. Isn’t that what the writer of the Hebrews tells those Hebrew Christians, to look to Jesus who endured the cross. He wants them to suffer like Jesus suffered. So look to Jesus and we see how he suffered, and why he suffered. That should increase our love for Jesus.
- Pray that God will use our trials to grow our graces. We are to grow in grace and in knowledge, but faith. I think that's why the disciples are found in that boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus wants their faith to grow and we have to grow in humility, patience, love and self-control.
So those are just four things we can pray for; not only for ourselves, but when we know that a brother or sister is suffering, these are four things we can pray for them that they would come out of that suffering more holy, more like Christ, more mature. And there are brethren right now who are suffering. We don't always know who are suffering or why they're suffering, but there are generally a lot more people suffering than we realize and we should pray for them.
Posted in Pastor Devotional