The Seminary of Suffering

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less reliance on self and the world. I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort.”

But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him has come through suffering.”

The pearl of greatest price is the glory of Christ.

Thus, Paul stresses that in our sufferings the glory of Christ’s all-sufficient grace is magnified. If we rely on him in our calamity, and he sustains our “rejoicing in hope,” then he is shown to be the all-satisfying God of grace and strength that he is.

If we hold fast to him, “when all around our soul gives way,” then we show that he is more to be desired than all we have lost.

Christ said to the suffering apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul responded to this: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

So suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine. That is precisely what faith does: it magnifies Christ’s future grace.

The deep things of life in God are discovered and magnified in suffering.

John Piper 

 

There's a Savior Who Cares About Your Burden

“Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”

JEREMIAH 24:7

 

PONDER THIS

I read about a man who had a very fine dog. He’d trained the dog quite well, and the dog loved to play in the water. The dog was out in the lake, and the man wanted to go, so he called the dog, but the dog wouldn’t come. He called him several times. He still wouldn’t come. So, the man said, “I know what I’ll do,” and he got a stick, and threw it out in the water. When the dog saw it, he swam over, got the stick, came back, and laid it at his master’s feet.

It may be that God has given you a burden because He can’t get your attention. It may be that God has given you a burden so that you might come and lay it at your Master’s feet, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). If you are a broken brother, there’s hope for you; a fallen sister, there’s hope. And if you are a spiritual person, there’s a responsibility for you. If your heart is aching and breaking, there’s a Savior who loves you. Cast your burden upon the Lord. He’ll sustain you when you need it most.

When has a burden brought you back to remembering your need for God?

Who do you need to share this hope with?

PRACTICE THIS

Write down some of the difficulties you have struggled with and describe how God has worked in those situations.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Isaiah 43:2

    [2] When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

        and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

    when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

        and the flame shall not consume you.

Isaiah 40:29-31

    [29] He gives power to the faint,

        and to him who has no might he increases strength. 

    [30] Even youths shall faint and be weary,

        and young men shall fall exhausted; 

    [31] but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

        they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

    they shall run and not be weary;

        they shall walk and not faint.

Philippians 4:13

[13] I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

1 Corinthians 2:5

[5] so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The Danger of Drifting

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

We all know people that this has happened to. There is no urgency. No vigilance. No focused listening or considering or fixing of their eyes on Jesus. And the result has not been a standing still, but a drifting away.

That is the point here: there is no standing still. The life of this world is not a lake. It is a river. And it is flowing downward to destruction. If you do not listen earnestly to Jesus and consider him daily and fix your eyes on him hourly, then you will not stand still; you will go backward. You will float away from Christ.

Drifting is a deadly thing in the Christian life. And the remedy for it, according to Hebrews 2:1, is: Pay close attention to what you have heard. That is, consider what God is saying in his Son Jesus. Fix your eyes on what God is saying and doing in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

This is not a hard swimming stroke to learn. The only thing that keeps us from swimming against sinful culture is not the difficulty of the stroke, but our sinful desire to go with the flow.

Let’s not complain that God has given us a hard job. Listen, consider, fix the eyes — this is not what you would call a hard job description. In fact, it is not a job description. It is a solemn invitation to be satisfied in Jesus so that we do not get lured downstream by deceitful desires.

If you are drifting today, one of the signs of hope that you are born again is that you feel pricked for this, and you feel a rising desire to turn your eyes on Jesus and consider him and listen to him in the days and months and years to come.

John Piper 

Tear Down the Grudge You're Carrying

“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” 

JAMES 5:16

 

PONDER THIS

Ms. Bertha Smith, a Christian missionary, and Dr. Charlie Culpepper, a seminary professor, were both a part of the Great Shantung Revival in China. Both said that, for a time, the missionaries on the field had been in conflict with one another over petty things. But it was not until they began to confess their faults one to another, pray one for another, ask for forgiveness, and reconcile, that a great and mighty revival was set loose. I believe a revival can take place like that today. In businesses, schools, churches, and communities. When people begin to believe in the Bible—the Word of God—and practice it, they are set free.

So, here is your question: Is there anybody that you’re harboring hate toward or carrying a grudge over? Is there bitterness in your heart? In the name of Jesus, deal with it. If you don’t, you have destroyed the bridge over which you yourself must travel.

How has forgiveness brought healing in your life?

Who are some people in your faith community you need to reconcile with?

PRACTICE THIS

Confess your sin, and pray with another brother or sister in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Hebrews 2:2-4

[2] For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, [3] how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, [4] while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Acts 7:52-53

[52] Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, [53] you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Hebrews 2:6-15

[6] It has been testified somewhere, 

    “What is man, that you are mindful of him,

        or the son of man, that you care for him? 

    [7] You made him for a little while lower than the angels;

        you have crowned him with glory and honor, 

    [8]     putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

    Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.  [9] But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

[10] For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. [11] For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, [12] saying, 

    “I will tell of your name to my brothers;

        in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

    [13] And again, 

    “I will put my trust in him.”

    And again, 

    “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

    [14] Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, [15] and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Romans 11:36

[36] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Sin, Satan, Sickness, or Sabotage

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:8–9)

Is the suffering that comes to the Christian because of persecution the same as the suffering that comes from cancer? Do the promises given to one apply to the other? My answer is yes. All of life, if it is lived earnestly by faith in the pursuit of God’s glory and the salvation of others, will meet with some kind of obstacle and suffering. The suffering that comes to the obedient Christian is part of the price of living where you are in obedience to the call of God.

In choosing to follow Christ in the way he directs, we choose all that this path includes under his sovereign providence. Thus, all suffering that comes in the path of obedience is suffering with Christ and for Christ — whether it is cancer at home or persecution far away.

And it is “chosen” — that is, we willingly take the path of obedience where the suffering befalls us, and we do not murmur against God. We may pray — as Paul did — that the suffering be removed (2 Corinthians 12:8); but if God wills, we embrace it as part of the cost of discipleship in the path of obedience on the way to heaven.

All experiences of suffering in the path of Christian obedience, whether from persecution or sickness or accident, have this in common: They all threaten our faith in the goodness of God, and tempt us to leave the path of obedience.

Therefore, every triumph of faith, and all perseverance in obedience, are testimonies to the goodness of God and the preciousness of Christ — whether the enemy is sickness, Satan, sin, or sabotage. Therefore, all suffering, of every kind, that we endure in the path of our Christian calling is a suffering “with Christ” and “for Christ.”

With him in the sense that the suffering comes to us as we are walking with him by faith, and in the sense that it is endured in the strength he supplies through his sympathizing high-priestly ministry to us (Hebrews 4:15).

And for him in the sense that the suffering tests and proves our allegiance to his goodness and power, and in the sense that it reveals his worth as an all-sufficient compensation and prize.

John Piper