Tag: suffering

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Nine Key Things God Wants the Afflicted to Know

There is high purpose, great comfort, and strong hope that deliverance is coming for the afflicted.

Afflicted

“The pollution played havoc with my respiratory system,” said Mark. “It was as though I lived with a sinus infection for years.”

Mark was telling me his story yesterday over lunch at a suburban Chicago restaurant, and across the table from us sat another missionary who had served in the same Indonesian city for ten years. “The pollution was harsh,” she concurred.

You might wonder, why would anyone voluntarily stay for years in a place like that when as Americans they easily could live in relative comfort elsewhere? The answer, of course, is they did it for the Lord, his kingdom, and the lost. They had signed up to do the work of the Lord, and they knew that God’s work entails enduring afflictions and hardships.

Afflicted even in the comfortable West

Depending on where you live, these hardships can be extreme, as above, or more commonplace. For example, our church meets in a school in Chicago, and so we set up chairs, tables, and technology for Sunday meetings every week. That requires getting up earlier on Sunday morning and often enduring bad weather to get there. It is so much easier and pleasant to stay in bed and then linger over a hot cup of coffee.

Last week one of our committed setup workers called early on Sunday to say she was coming to set up, despite having been sick for several days and still feeling ill, despite the temperature outside being bitterly cold, and despite having to take her usual commute on trains and buses that usually took an hour or more. She would come, set up, and then immediately go back home to recover, she said apologetically. (We told her thank you for being willing to do that, but to stay home.)

Leaders are afflicted

Those who work with and for God learn especially well what is true for all believers. Although he could prevent it, God sometimes allows affliction and hardship into the lives of his people, and he does so for important, worthwhile reasons.

The apostle Paul writes at length about this in 2 Corinthians. In chapter 11 he gives a hair-raising summary of his afflictions. Compared to other false apostles, he had experienced “far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27)

9 key principles for the afflicted

Compared to that list, getting up early to work at church on Sunday does not sound tough. That level of affliction is what Paul is talking about when he teaches an important lesson about God and his ways in the opening of his second letter to the Corinthians. But Paul applies these principles to all believers. He writes:

“[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, [4] who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. [5] For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Corinthians 1:3–5 ESV)

I will highlight nine important principles in this passage.

1. The God who allows us to be afflicted is our Father (verse 3).

He is not a distant, aloof deity who does not care about us, but rather he is the one who loves us and gave us life.

2. When he allows us to be afflicted, he also brings mercy and comfort in “all” our afflictions (verse 4).

We can count on it; we should watch for it and receive it like a marathon runner doffing a sun cap with a broad rim as he runs under a blistering sun, meanwhile drinking every drop of a bottle of water. God will give that comfort “abundantly.” His comfort will be adequate to uphold us.

3. In some way, our hardships are ultimately the hardships of Jesus himself (verse 5).

We grow closer to him as we suffer for him.

Comfort for all

Paul continues:

“[6] If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. [7] Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:6–7 ESV)

4. One of God’s purposes in allowing affliction is it equips us to comfort others (verse 6).

It gives us sympathy and compassion.

5. These afflictions are not suffered just by apostles and Christian leaders, but by all Christians (verses 6–7).

Paul says of all the Christians in the Corinthian church that they “endure the same sufferings that we suffer.” Christians cannot avoid all hardship and pain by avoiding the work of the Lord.

Relying on God

Paul continues: “[8] For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. [9] Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8–9 ESV)

6. Our affliction and hardship is sometimes extreme (verses 8–9).

We can feel “burdened beyond our strength.” We can feel as though death, real or figurative, is at our doorstep. We can be tempted to “despair.”

7. Another purpose for such affliction is “to make us rely not on ourselves but on God” (verse 9).

This is important to God. He wants every believer to rely on him for everything. If we learn this lesson and rely on him, then affliction has served a fundamental purpose.

How do we rely on him? By praying about all things. By believing that he will answer. By trusting his promises and waiting for their fulfillment. By following Scriptural wisdom and wise counsel from others.

The rescue of the afflicted

Finally, Paul writes: “[10] He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. [11] You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:10–11 ESV)

8. God delivers us from even hopeless situations (verse 10).

Paul had seen God deliver him in extraordinary ways before, and he believed God would do it again. We do not believe in a God who just lets us suffer. We believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, who saved Paul from the mouth of the lion and from thousands of men who wanted him dead. God delivers his people. God will deliver you as you trust in him and patiently persevere. These are God’s ways. He is a great deliverer.

9. God wants many people to thank him for his rescues (verse 11).

Thanksgiving is important to the Lord. One primary reason he works for our good is so we will say thank you. That may not seem important to us, but it is of ultimate importance to God.

One way he multiplies the thanksgiving that resounds to his great name is when we ask others to pray for our deliverance. “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf.”

So as you endure afflictions, make sure to fulfill their purpose. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV) And ask others to pray for you so that they too will give thanks when God answers. When your deliverance is complete, be sure to testify to others of what God has done. Giving glory to God is the ultimate completion of his purpose in our afflictions.

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Why Do Bad Things Happen?

If, as Psalm 91:8 says, calamities are the recompense of the wicked, how can we be confident God will protect us, since we all sin?

Psalm 91:8


Psalm 91:7–8 (ESV)
“[7] A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. [8] You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.”

Verse 8 is puzzling. It suggests the death or disease that befalls the thousand at your side and the ten thousand at your right hand (v. 7) happens because they are wicked. And it does not strike you because you stay near God.

This is the same, neat and clean, binary, black-and-white reasoning that Job’s friends used to explain his suffering. Good things happen to good people; bad things happen to bad people. If you walk with God, nothing bad will ever happen to you. If you are wicked, sooner or later calamity will catch up to you. You get what you deserve.

How do we interpret this verse?

Psalm 91:8 and calamity

As always, the most important rule of interpretation is to consider the context. What does the rest of Psalm 91 tell us? What does the remainder of the Bible tell us? In other words, we should not interpret this verse in a way that contradicts the meaning of Psalm 91 or the remainder of the Bible. Rather, all of Psalm 91 and the Bible tell us how to interpret verse 8 (because God wrote the entire Bible, and he does not contradict himself).

With that in mind, what meaning should we rule out for verse 8?

What Psalm 91:8 cannot mean

First, verse 8 cannot mean that everyone to whom something bad happens is wicked. The book of Job explicitly forbids that interpretation. The Bible tells the stories of other righteous people who suffered violence or disease: King Josiah (2 Kings 23), John the Baptist (Matthew 14:1–12), Stephen (Acts 7:54–60), the apostle James (Acts 12:1–2), the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7–10; Galatians 4:13–15), and of course Jesus.

James 5:14–16 says, “[14] Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. [15] And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [16] Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

Notice that verses 15 and 16 imply that there can be a connection between sickness and sin, but sin is not necessarily the cause of someone’s sickness. Verse 15 says, “if he has committed sins.” “If” means sin might or might not be the cause of the sickness.

Each of us sins daily. We need to confess our sins daily. If we fall sick, we need to search our hearts prayerfully with special attention if there is some sin on which the Lord is putting his finger.

But the “if” of verse 15 implies we are not to conclude that one’s sickness is necessarily the result of sin.

What Psalm 91 certainly does mean

On the other hand, the undeniable overall message of Psalm 91 is that there is indeed a connection between experiencing God’s protection and walking in close communion with him. If you dwell in God’s shelter, if you abide in his shadow, if you trust him to be your refuge (verses 1–2), if you hold fast to him in love, if you know his name, if you call on him (verses 14–15), he will protect you.

The message of Psalm 91 is we should trust God for that. That is our default expectation. Protection is the normal experience of those who walk with the Lord. We should quote the promises of Psalm 91 and trust that they will be fulfilled in us. We have a physical, natural immune system and a spiritual immune system. A close relationship with God strengthens both systems.

We must not fear that the exception to the rule will happen to us. We should not live dreading the anomaly, but rather believing the promise. Scripture confirms the message of protection in Psalm 91 in innumerable other stories and promises throughout the Bible (Psalm 23; Psalm 121; 2 Corinthians 1:8–10; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; and 2 Timothy 4:18, for starters).

If the anomaly comes, we trust him and be sure our heart is clean through daily repentance and prayerful self-examination. But when we have done that, we should not live with the crushing assumption that a calamity that has befallen us signals an ongoing failure in our relationship with God, that he is punishing us for something we cannot identify. The comforting promise of 1 John 1:7–9 removes that possibility:

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Summary

Calamity is not necessarily a recompense for wickedness. Although wickedness always brings the recompense of calamity, calamity is not always the recompense of wickedness. (In the language of formal logic, if all A is B, that does not imply that all B is A.)

Although calamity may befall even a person walking close to God, we should believe we will experience his perfect protection.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)