Tag: Suffering

Purpose in Trials

On By BrianIn PASSION ReflectionsLeave a comment

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
(James 1:2-4, ESV)

Notice that there is a purpose in our trials.  Our trials are a testing of our faith.  Not to see if we have faith, but to test our very real faith.  The word has the idea of refining or purifying.  You put metal in a fire to melt it down and drain off impurities.  In the same way, our times in the fire are designed by God to refine and purify our faith. 

And this testing produces steadfastness or endurance.  You are more able to endure the same trial today than before because it has developed in you this steadfastness.  It is like lifting weights – you can endure more repetitions and more weight as your muscles are developed.  And you can endure more trials and harder trials as your faith is developed and strengthened.  You are gaining the ability to faithfully endure, to remain steadfast.

And this steadfastness then must have its full effect.  It must keep developing so that you might be perfect or mature – mature in this life, and perfect in the life to come.  So that one day you will be complete, lacking in nothing.

Your trials exist to help you grow in your faith and steadfastness to make you mature in Christ.  There is a purpose in your trials.

So rejoice expectantly.  Rejoice when you have trials because you know that it brings maturity.  We rejoice not in the trial but in the purpose.  We rejoice in expectation that our suffering is for our ultimate good.  Which means that we might at same time be weeping, struggling, crying out to God, and lamenting before Him.  We are not denying the hardship and all sorrow and struggle of our trials, we are just remembering the purpose.  So even as we wrestle, we can rejoice expectantly.

Trust the Father and Grow!

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Trials are one of ways God uses to help us grow to be steadfast, perfect, complete, that is, mature in Christ.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that.  I wrestle with the idol of comfort, and trials are not comfortable.  How then can I count trials as joy?  Only as I trust the Father to use those trials for my good.  How can I love people, obey God, and do good works in the midst of trials?  Only as I trust the Father. 

Consider Jesus on the cross:

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.  (I Peter 2:23)

Jesus was able to love instead of reviling and threatening because he trusted His Father.  Jesus was able to obey His Father’s plan and do this good work of salvation because He trusted His Father there on cross.

It is only as we trust our Father, that we will be able to love those who hurt us, obey even when it’s hard and hurts, and do good works even when we don’t feel like it.

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.  (I Peter 4:19)

God is faithful.  He has a plan in our suffering.  So trust Him while doing good – loving, obeying, and doing good works. 

Trust Him and grow!

Show Me Your Love

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O Savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
– Psalm 17:7 (ESV)

Wondrously show me your steadfast love. 
In our suffering, isn’t that in many ways what we most need?
To know God’s love? 
To know that He still cares?
Like a young child running to his mom after hurting himself.
All he needs is a hug, to know he is loved and safe.
And we run to God in our suffering.
All we need is refuge in His steadfast love.
O God, wondrously show me your love!

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands for our growth:

Never Too Busy to Pray – Scott Hubbard (DG)
God wants us to run and build and work in this world, but not apart from prayer. Jesus knew as much. So, though busy, though sought out, though needed, though weighed down by a world of urgent responsibility, Jesus prayed. Will we?

10 Ways to Fracture Your Church – Conrad Mbewe (Crossway)
Although I have given ten ways to fracture a church, there are many more. This is only a sample. Often you will find that it is a combination of these causes that finally lead to the fragmentation. To arrest a possible breakup, you need to talk about the threat before the root of bitterness grows. Deal with it quickly. Like cancer, it must be handled as soon as it is discovered because any delay only allows the cancer to grow.

In the School of Contentment – Doug Eaton (Fight of Faith)
It is easy to boast when things are good, but the believer must often be trained by many hardships to make contentment a reality.

Have You Lost the Ability to Think Deeply? – Lydia Kinne (TGC)
Our society desperately needs more people who can think wisely, discern clearly, and guide the next generation in God’s truth. It sounds like a big task, but it can start with something as small as turning off the TV and picking up a good book.

Flashback: Everlasting Significance
Don’t seek lasting significance in the temporary. Only an eternal God can give you lasting significance. He gives us an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!

Our Declaration

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

In the LORD I take refuge.
– Psalm 11:1a

David knows where to turn in his trial.  He turns to the LORD. 

This isn’t a prayer; it is a declaration. 

David declares what we should declare: 
In the LORD I take refuge.

What about us? 

When faced with trials, suffering, struggles, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you have struggles with your health, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When there are struggles in your family, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When there are problems at work, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you read or watch the news and see mess our world is in, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you are afraid, anxious, or worried about something, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you are weary, exhausted, feeling overwhelmed, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

Whatever the trial, whatever the trouble that springs up in our lives, let us boldly declare with David:
In the LORD I take refuge.

His Grace Is Enough

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

My Dad made all kinds of wood art with a scroll saw. One of the first shelf sitters I remember is shown here:

He made a lot of these. The truth is found in II Cor 12 as Paul struggles with some thorn in flesh, some trial in his life. Paul begged God to take it away, but Jesus responded:

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

My Dad faced some thorns, some trials in his last years, as I suppose most people do in their final years. And yet my Dad’s testimony through this simple shelf sitter is that the grace of Jesus was sufficient. His grace was enough.

A pretty big thorn pierced our hearts with the passing of my Dad. But as we cry out to God – looking to Him, trusting in Him – we too can find that His grace will be sufficient for us, that His grace is enough.

And what thorns are you facing in your life today? Jesus bids you to look to Him, to rest in His sufficient grace, to find that His grace is enough for you.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Why You’ll Never Be Free Until You Start Obeying God – Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)
We sometimes define freedom as the ability to do whatever we want to do, but that’s not really how the Bible understands freedom. Freedom is the ability to do what we ought to do—that’s real freedom.

God’s Hidden Purposes in Your Suffering – Leah Baugh (Core Christianity)
God is often working not just for our good but for the good of others through us. Sometimes in our American context, we can get a little wrapped up in our own little world. We can think that our suffering is just all about us and God, that God is only doing something in my life. But as Dr. Ferguson also points out in his sermon, the truth is that God is always working in multiple lives and in multiple ways all at once. ​

How Evangelism Is Kind of Like Fishing – Tim Challies
The great work God is accomplishing in this world is catching people for himself. He’s saving them by his grace and for his glory. What’s amazing is that he uses people like you and me to help accomplish that. He saves people through the good news of the gospel and he tells you and me to speak out that news. He calls us to be fishers of men, to catch people alive.

Desperately Seeking Transcendence – Own Strachan
When we gather for the weekly worship service, we gather as those starved for God, and starved for transcendence. We have been swimming all week in the normal, trivial, earthly, ordinary, and natural. We need the abnormal. We need the essential. We need the heavenly. We need the extraordinary. We need what is above nature. We need the supernatural. This is what weekly worship gives us. It does not fundamentally give us a little “touch from the Lord,” as if all we need is a divine pat on the shoulder, a quick grin from a hall-crossing deity. It gives us a brush with God. We hide besides Moses in the cleft of the rock, expectantly and reverently awaiting the passing-by of the radiance of the appearing of God’s glory.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with the Lord!

Job 1-7: The Problem of Suffering

On By BrianIn OT Studies

(1-2) What do you learn about Job in 1:1-5, 1:8, and 2:3?

(1-2) One major question this book addresses is: “Why do good people suffer?” What is the partial answer in chapters 1-2?

(1-2) A second major question is: “How should we respond to suffering?” How would you describe Job’s initial responses to his suffering (1:20-21, 2:9-10)? How is this a good example for us?

(1-2) Satan raises a third major question in 1:9-11: “Will people follow God apart from his material and physical blessings?” How does Job’s initial responses to his suffering begin to answer that question?

What other Biblical characters or Christians that you have known have answered this question in the affirmative?

What about you? Are you following God for earthly blessings you might get out of it or because God is worth following simply because of who he is?

(3) How does Job’s response to his suffering change in chapter 3? Is it honest? Is it healthy?

(4-5) Eliphaz and his friends hold to the general truth in wisdom literature that God blesses the wise and righteous, but sends calamity upon the foolish and wicked (see especially 4:7-9). So if you are suffering, it must be punishment for some sin you committed. Is this always true? Is it true here in Job’s case? Can you think of New Testament examples where this was not true?

What warning is implicit here as we suffer or seek to comfort others who suffer?

(6-7) What is Job’s response in chapter 6 to Eliphaz’s accusation that Job must have sinned?

How does Job further respond to his suffering in chapter 7? Are these good responses for us to follow or not?

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Many Ways God Changes Us – David Powlison (Crossway)
We live with a God who has many, many, many ways of meeting us, and it’s good to become aware of them all.

I Am the Center of the Universe – Jared Wilson
Either I am the center of the universe and you all don’t know, or — I am not the center of the universe and I am upset that you all know.

Get Outside Yourself in Suffering – Stacy Reaoch (DG)
As Christians we’re not exempt from serving others because we’re going through a difficult season of life, but instead we’re called to lift our eyes heavenward and trust our sovereign God to give us the needed grace to keep going.

A Spiritual Barometer Check – Jason Helopoulos (TCC)
One of the easiest ways to assess ourselves is to examine our love for all the saints. Do I love God’s people more today? If so, it is assuredly true that I also love Christ more. It is a good barometer of our spiritual health. One that I must seek to employ regularly for it does not lie. If I love God, I will love His people.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your Lord and local church!