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Transcript 319C — Comments on Affliction and Suffering
HC: Affliction and suffering are our constant companions in this world. In light of the fact that I meet so many people who have experiences regarding these problems, I thought it would be good to take some time to discuss this whole question of affliction and suffering.
The Bible indicates that in the world we will have affliction. We will experience suffering. Now suffering can come to us in many different ways. Suffering can be in our lives because of our own personal sins. That can bring suffering to us. Suffering can be in our lives because of the sinful attitudes of others. That also is suffering.
Suffering can be in our lives because God is chastising us. And believe me, God does chastise those whom He loves. We read in Hebrews 12 that He chastises every son that He receives.
But through it all, as a child of God, we have a marvelous promise, that is that when we go through the deep water, God will go with us. We read this in Isaiah 43:2 & 3. We have the assurance that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, "Thou art with me" (Psalm 23). Jesus assures us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. As a child of God, even though we are being grievously sinned against, we can know that we are safe in the arms of Jesus.
The reaction, however, that we frequently experience when we are troubled in this way—when we are sinned against, when we experience suffering or tribulation at the hand of others—is that we can become very sorry for ourselves. We can look at ourselves and really begin to get weighed down by depression and sorrow and self-pity. And these are natural things. These are not uncommon. These are the norma1 reactions to tribulation and suffering.
But God tells us to keep our eyes on Him. God tells us that we are not to become anxious. And if we will only keep our eyes on Him, if we will realize that after all, I am not losing my salvation; after all I'm not losing eternal life. True, my situation will be different than I had hoped. The antidote to the terrible oppression and depression that we feel in a situation like this is to turn our eyes on Christ. Remember how that song goes? "Turn your eyes on Jesus. Look full into His wonderful face. And the things of this world grow strangely dim, in the light of His beauty and grace."
It's in the light of His grace, in the light of what He has done for us in saving us from our sins, that all of the things of this earth become unimportant. Oh yes, they're terribly big today. They're huge at this moment. But in the light of eternity, they don't really amount to anything.
Now look, lots of times we think that our life is what is right now. We want today and tomorrow to be the big and important days, when all is well, and we are enjoying life to the maximum. When we take this kind of attitude toward life (and we all desire this, to a very high degree), we then are going to be terribly upset when tribulation comes and when difficulties arise. And down, down, down, into the depths of despair we will go.
But let's gain a perspective for just a moment. How long is our life really? The Bible teaches that we live eternally. If we're a child of God, it means that we live eternally. We don't exist eternally, like the unsaved who are under the wrath of God, eternally in hell. But if we're a child of God, we live eternally in the glorious presence of Christ, in the New Heaven and the New Earth. And bear in mind that the seventy more or less years that we live on this side of the grave is but a drop in the bucket, but a breath, compared with eternity in the New Heaven and the New Earth. The Bible teaches that the best is in front of us.
In the New Heaven and the New Earth there is no suffering or sorrow or pain or disappointment or frustration. Everything there is perfect. We are in the glorious presence of His Glorious Majesty, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in a brand new world, where there is no curse of sin. There is no wickedness around us. That is what is in front of us.
So, supposing we have to spend ten or twenty or thirty or forty years on this side of the grave living a little different existence than we had hoped to. I think of those who are rotting away in a concentration camp somewhere in another part of the world. They had not really hoped that this would be the way they would spend out their earthly existence. But in God's provision, this is the way they are to spend it. For the cause of Christ they are in a concentration camp, working at hard labor.
But what is that, as compared with the future that awaits them? And if our persecutors finally are able to take our life away, death will simply be the marvelous moment when we actually go to be with Christ in Heaven. So we can't miss.
The only way we can begin to face the turmoils and trials of life, the difficulties of life, is to keep our eyes on Jesus, to keep the larger perspective. One of the problems of suffering is that we don't like it. Not one of us likes suffering. Now let's be honest. We don't like to suffer. We like to have things quite well. We like to have everything on an even keel. We don't like to suffer.
But God allows and even sends suffering in our life, and sometimes the most intense suffering comes from those who are dearest to us. But He brings this into our life in order to strengthen our faith. For those for whom everything goes well, there's no need to wonder, "How well do I trust in Christ?" After all, He is taking care of all of my needs. But wait until things go wrong. And we wonder, "How can I face life today, and tomorrow?" My situation is going to change very dramatically because of an impending divorce or because of a death in the family, or because of whatever. How am I going to live now? Everyone has failed me. I thought I could put my trust in this individual, or in that dear one, or in this thing or that thing. And all of these people and things have failed me.
And so maybe for the first time in my life I'm beginning to realize that the only one who will never fail me is God Himself. God will never fail us. He is always there, to strengthen us, to be our friend, to be our father, to be our husband. Yes, yes, to be our husband, to be our wife, to be our child, whatever we think we have to have in our life. God will be there to sustain us. And He will never let us down.
Now it's true that He may allow us to walk in very deep waters. He may have a program for us where we are going to be in a situation that appears exceedingly unhappy for the moment. But through this God is going to strengthen us, if we're truly exercised by it. We're going to learn, as we've never learned before, how we ought to place our confidence and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a tremendously refreshing experience, even though it is brought about by serious trial, to come to the point in your life when you realize that every hope that you have placed your trust in is gone, and all you can do is abandon yourself altogether on the almighty arms of God, where you just have to relax in Him, trusting in Him that all is going to be well, because there's no other place to turn. Any place you go, you know that you're going to be let down, you know you're going to be betrayed. But you can trust in God.
That's a marvelous moment in your life, when you finally come to that, where we just abandon ourselves to Christ: "Oh Father, have mercy. I have no strength. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. I know from your promises that you'll never leave me nor forsake me. I know from your promises that You're with me through this deep and grievous water that I am walking in. I know that you've promised that each morning your mercies are renewed. And therefore there is going to be better days in the future. But all I know is that these things are true and trustworthy, even though I don't see how it can be. But because you've said so, that's enough. That's enough. And I'm just going to rest in you. And in the meanwhile, as I rest in you, strengthen me that I might be obedient to you all the way, that in my panic, in my frustration, I will not take your rules into my own hands, but that I will do only what is pleasing to you. Therefore, Father, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom, wisdom that I'll depart as far as possible from evil, that I'll want to do only thy will and thy Word."
And when we can really abandon ourselves to our Christ in this way, then the pain, then the anguish, then the tribulation, the affliction, the terrible wrong that has been done to us, is all worth it all, because it has brought us to the point where we are beginning to sense, more than we've ever sensed before, the marvel of having a Savior, a Savior who loved us so much that He left Heaven and took on our sinful nature. He became sin for us and allowed Himself to be maligned and spit upon and reviled. And then He allowed God to pour out His wrath on Him in order that I might be saved. Oh, what a wonderfu1 Savior! And just think, I can walk moment by moment in Him.
"And oh, Father, even right now, when I become anxious, when this anxiety hits me again, oh, how can I face tomorrow? Forgive me, Forgive me, forgive me. Tomorrow is a new day. You've told me in your Word, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' And oh, Father, make that the rule of my life. I know that thou hast cared for me today. Today thou hast been with me. And I praise thee and thank thee that today I still have my children. I still can know that I am saved. I still can know that I can call upon thee. How marvelous a Savior thou really art! And I thank thee for today. I thank thee for the past ten minutes, for the past hour. And oh, Father, give me the grace that an hour from now I'll thank thee for the hour that just past. And Father, help me to live this way."
Can you begin to see the posture of the believer in the world? It is really under the stress of tribulation and affliction that the grace of God can really begin to shine in our lives. Yes, yes, yes, that is so! When all is going well, that isn't when the Christian shines, showing the fragrance of the Holy Spirit. That isn't where the fruit of the Spirit is really going to show. Even the unsaved man can be a very fine person when all is going well.
But it's when tribulation comes, when the stress begins to grow, when things look so black, and our friends say, "Why don't you do this?" and "Why don't you do that?" And the natural impulse of our heart is to lash out in anger and frustration. That is the point where the victory of the cross can shine with a splendor that can be found nowhere in the world, except in the life of the believer as we patiently endure, as we are drawn in a stronger and stronger faith, to the foot of the cross, as we abandon ourselves more and more definitely into the almighty, everlasting arms of our Heavenly Father.