Viewing entries tagged
suffering
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?
Painful trials have a way of testing our coping strategies. The Book of Job introduces a man whose suffering included unimaginable financial devastation, unrelenting physical pain, and the tragic loss of his children. His story helps us to see the limitations of some of our usual responses and gives us more effective means of relief.
As I looked for God’s hand in our often difficult circumstances, I saw more cause for thanksgiving than I would otherwise have noticed. Until I took the time to write, I focused on the negatives and overlooked the positives. And slowing down to write about what I was asking God to do made my needs more clear and my circumstances less overwhelming.
Reading the Bible often challenges our assumptions about Jesus. Take, for example, what He does to Saul. Usually, Jesus heals blind people. But why does He blind someone who can see? And what does that tell us about Him? Am I next? Is this the kind of thing that Jesus does to people? Why wasn’t I warned about this in Sunday School?
[Please note: Due to technical difficulties, a video could not be recorded again this week.]
