Viewing entries tagged
suffering
Through an earth-bound happy ending, Job’s final chapter teaches important lessons about eternal life. They’re the very lessons we’re to cling to when trials come. What made Job’s suffering so hard was that he didn’t know how his story would end. Thanks to him, we can know how ours will.
More and more about our world feels senseless and unjust. And then when a crisis hits in our own personal circumstances, it only strengthens the doubts: Does God know what He’s doing? An encounter with God pictured in the Book of Job gives us some truths to hang onto when the pain is deep and life doesn’t make sense.
What does Elihu teach us about suffering? While Job's three friends offer flawed counsel, Elihu leaves us with three questions that can reshape how we understand suffering, lament, and spiritual growth.
When you’re being bullied, it can feel like your world is shutting down. Abusers have a way of making you feel as if there’s no escape. They make you doubt yourself, your view of reality, and your hope. Faith may not remove bullying, but it can give you solid reasons for hope when everything around you tells you to despair.
Sometimes, our struggles with grief and depression are made worse by feelings of guilt. We feel badly that we’re not more optimistic about what we’re going through. Often the problems is that we’ve underestimated the depth of human pain and missed the balance of the Bible’s teaching regarding suffering.
When suffering enters our lives, we naturally ask difficult questions. But the Book of Job reveals a deeper question being asked of us: Do we love God only for His gifts, or because He is worthy of worship?
German footballer Felix Nmecha’s public prayer with members of Curaçao’s team drew people’s attention, but there’s a deeper backstory that teaches us important lessons about setbacks, identity, and lasting joy.
Anyone who has watched someone close to them experience loss has felt the struggle of not knowing what to say. And listen to grieving people, and you realize that people’s well-intentioned words can cause real damage in times of loss. We need to tread lightly on the sacred ground of grief, and the Bible gives principles that can help guide our steps. Let me share four.
Serving overseas brought both joy and crushing discouragement. Projects failed, people walked away, and loneliness weighed heavy. Yet one simple practice gave me perspective, lifted my hope, and kept me sane in the darkest stretches of ministry.
It’s hard to understand sometimes what God is thinking when we face painful circumstances. Knowing God could have prevented the trial we’re going through makes us question His heart toward us. Is He cold, stern, and uncaring? Does He just stand aloof and watch us suffer?
