Suffering Archives
The book of Psalms is filled with sad songs that express struggles, sufferings, and disappointments to God. No matter how bad the situation, they always ends with a little comfort or hope. Only one psalm breaks from this pattern - Psalm 88. It ends with misery, despair, terror, and loneliness. No light breaks through at the conclusion of the psalm. It simply fades into darkness!
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If God's power is known in our weaknesses, then we must reconsider the sanctifying work of God in our lives. Perhaps God is doing something in us that we never would choose on our own: making us weak! It makes sense that if we are going to follow our Lord by daily carrying our cross, then we are bound to get splinters.
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Sickness, suffering, trials, and difficulties
are not a result of weak faith.
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How can God be good when the godless prosper and the godly suffer? Is faith in God vain? Unable to harmonize his belief in God's absolute goodness with his experience, Asaph expresses his feelings of envy and bitterness. In the end, he affirms deep devotion to God. What made the difference?
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When there is no hope for a future, the past is all one possesses. And when even the past is erased, what then is there to hold onto? DeBaggio's first-hand account of his slide into the cold, impersonal silence of Alzheimer's disease is the saddest book I have ever read.
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This is a profound book about the physical deterioration of a body and its accompanying hopelessness and helplessness. To make matters worse, the hero of the story - Everyman - has desperately botched up his life with numerous affairs.
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Knowing that God is able to cause "all things to work together for good" (Rom. 8:28) does not remove the immediate sting of evil, but it does place human sin and suffering, national evil, and untimely events within a divinely purposeful context.
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Jesus’ final words reflected the course of his entire life. These eight words were directed to God as a final witness of Jesus’ life and ministry: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” What will your last words be? What will they reveal about your life – your values, your beliefs? How would you summarize your life in the space afforded by dying gasps?
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To deny our fears is dishonest and dangerous -- giving us no real ability to face our fears and courageously conquer them.
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To live is to face loss. This is an inevitable part of human experience. No one is exempt from this reality. If we live long enough we will inevitably lose friends, family, loved ones, our job, our health, our independence. In order to thrive in an imperfect world where loss is to be expected, we must learn how to do healthy “grief work.”
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We "live" in Holy Saturday - between Cross and final Resurrection. We experience times when we feel forsaken, when we cry out “Why?” We know the heartbreak of hopelessness, the empty void that seems to stretch forever. And yet, we look forward with hope to the “impossible possibility” – the absolute surprise of grace that is resurrection.
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It is the Spirit that prompts our groanings. Far from being a result of sin, our groanings are evidence that Gods Spirit is at work in our lives.
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Gratitude looks underneath the surface of things and recognizes that there is a goodness outside ourselves that truly exists even when we fail to experience it. No matter how dark or difficult life gets, it would certainly be darker if we felt there were no ultimate meaning, purpose, or significance to life - that no external goodness accompanied us all along the way.
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A guitarist with no arms? You heard right! And his music is great--but even more, the music of his life is a sweet sound to the faithful...
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The curse that comes about through human sin is in direct opposition to God's original intent of blessing. Thankfully, God's blessing continues in spite of the curse. Marriage, reproduction, and harvest will continue. But because of the curse, pain and turmoil will accompany human efforts to sustain life, bear children, and produce food.
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God is not aloof or uncaring in allowing sin to
enter human history, but has actually taken an active
role in participating in, suffering under, and, ultimately,
conquering sin.
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Are you tired, weak, troubled? Overloaded with the cares and concerns of life? Have you spent yourself to the point of exhaustion? Are you tired of carrying your burden alone? Jesus promises rest! What is it and how can we share it?
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In order to heal we must often wound. In order to remove cancer, a surgeon must slice open the body and cut out the malignant cells. This is painful, yet necessary, in order to deal with such a deeply invasive evil. The infliction of pain is not the ultimate goal, but a tragic consequence, of the procedure. It reflects the depth of the problem.
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Since suffering is such a vital part of Christian growth,
should we purposefully pursue it? Should we actually pray
for it?
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One natural reaction to the rising waters and crashing waves of affliction is fear. When storms suddenly arise in our lives, we all too quickly assume, like the disciples, that God must not care for us. If God did, we assume, there wouldn't be a storm in the first place. We cry out to God, "Don't you care?" We forget who is in the boat with us.
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When considering the problem of evil and suffering, we must not simply speak of human suffering. We must also speak of divine suffering... God lives with more pain from than we could ever imagine.
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There is no escape from the truth: we live in a suffering world. How does all this suffering reflect upon God? Where is God during times of tragedy? How is God related to the endless flood of misery, heartache, and despair? Does God have any interest in human suffering? Why does God allow these things to occur?
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Jesus' will and determination to reach out and touch us in all our uncleanness is clear: "I do so will!" Jesus does this at great cost to himself - a cost that climaxes in the cross. We never have to second guess the breadth and width of God's compassion. It is greater than we can fathom and reaches out beyond the boundaries we often set.
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The lament psalms acknowledge a valid dimension of Christian experience - the "dark side" of faith. Walking with God is not always soothing and consoling, upbeat and positive.
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