TRUSTING IN THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT
Last week, we learned that God is love, and all he
does is motivated by His love. This assertion of truth raises questions about
life with all its frustrations and troubles. One author has captured this
flavor in a devotional for high schoolers titled, "If God Loves Me, Why
Can't I Get My Locker Open"? [1] We may chuckle at that,
but it can be a crisis for a high schooler.
What would you say to first-time parents who had a
stillborn child? How would you comfort a missionary couple discovering their
beautiful 16-year-old daughter diagnosed with cancer on the mission field and
dying a few years after returning to their home in the USA? Or a couple who
lost their child in a school shooting? These are not hypotheticals but real
ones.
When facing these troubles, we are tempted to wonder,
can I trust God? The question arises, "Where is God in all of this? Can we
really trust God when adversity strikes and fills our lives with pain? Will He
deliver us when we call on Him as promised in Psalm 50:15? Will His unfailing
love surround the person who trusts Him, as Psalm 32:10 affirms? As we try to
understand pain and suffering, we will learn to Trust in the God of all
Comfort. II Cor 1:1-11
I.
Understanding Pain and Suffering
Among many challenges that skeptics and atheists throw
at Christians, perhaps the most difficult one is explaining the problem of pain
and suffering. Why would a loving God allow suffering in the World? In his book
31 Days Toward Trusting God, Jerry Bridges notes, "Sometimes we experience
unexpected and undesired situations filling us with anxiety, frustration,
heartache and grief. God's people are not immune from such pain. In fact, it
often seems as if theirs is more severe, more frequent, more unexplainable, and
more deeply felt than the pain of the unbeliever. The problem of pain is as old
as history and just as universal." [2]
Regarding physical pain and suffering, I can not fully
grasp why a sovereign God who loves us allows such pain and heartache. I look
to God's Word for some answers. We know that the ultimate cause of all pain and
suffering must be traced back to the sin of Adam and Eve, which affects us and
all of creation. Here are the curses God pronounced after the Fall of man.
In Genesis 3:14- 18, we read that God cursed the
serpent and put enmity between it and the woman's seed. He made childbearing
pains very severe for the woman. He condemned the ground and gave the man the
arduous task of cultivating and living by the grains from the ground. Finally,
the man and woman will die because they sinned against God.
In Romans eight, the apostle Paul recounts the effects
of these curses from the Garden of Eden and explains how God would one day
redeem everything. Romans 8:22, "For we know that all creation has been
groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
This explains why the wildfires in Maui and Canada, the
historic levels of flooding by hurricane Idalia in Florida, the biblical
proportions of earthquakes, and famine in several places. Experts and
politicians call it "Climate change," but the Bible calls it
"the earth is groaning."
This beautiful
earth is rapidly decaying. With no amount of legislation or money spent, we can
not save this earth under its present condition until the Lord redeems it on
the final day. If the earth is subjected to such a fateful end, how about
people, including believers in Christ? Romans 8:23: "And we believers also
groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future
glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering."
This explains why our bodies ache with pain, our hair
thins and becomes gray, and we are subjected to physical and emotional
suffering. It is all because of the Fall of man. But unlike the people in the
World, those who believe in Christ will receive new and glorified bodies. But
in the meantime, when we go through all kinds of suffering, we wonder where God
is when life hurts.
II.
God is close to the brokenhearted.
Naturally, when we go through
chronic pain and suffering, we wonder, God, where are you? Why are you too far
away from me? Why don't you intervene and heal and set me free? You are not
alone in crying that way. Many Biblical characters, like Job and David,
including Jesus, cried out to God in their suffering. Whenever I am overwhelmed
with life, I often refer to this prayer of David. I am sure some of you have
prayed it as well. Psalm 55:1-16
Vs. 1-8, "Listen to my prayer,
O God. Do not ignore my cry for help! Please listen and answer me, for I am
overwhelmed by my troubles. My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked
threats. They bring trouble on me and angrily hunt me down. My heart pounds in
my chest. The terror of death assaults me. Fear and trembling overwhelm me, and
I can't stop shaking. Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away
and rest! I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. How quickly I
would escape—far from this wild storm of hatred."
Here, we see David going through
pain and anguish. He wanted to run away and escape to a safe place where he
would be free from the trouble and dangers of life. He continues to pour out
his complaint, and in the end, he says to God, Vs. 16-17 "But I will call
on God, and the Lord will rescue me. Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in my
distress, and the Lord hears my voice."
Some of you here may be going through what David went
through or even worse. Cry out to God, our loving heavenly Father, who is
promised to be close to the brokenhearted and rescue those whose spirits are
crushed. Psalm 34:18. God always has a purpose for the grief he allows into our
lives. In James 1: 2:4, "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind
come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy, for you know that when
your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for
when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete,
needing nothing." How could we endure our suffering?
III.
Trusting in the God of all Comfort.
In the passage we read, the Apostle Paul explains what
suffering does to individuals and collectively in the body of Christ and how
one might endure it. The letter's context tells us that Paul went through
overwhelming hardship in the province of Asia, almost to the point of death.
Paul unfolds several truths about God's character and
how we can trust Him when our hearts are aching, and our bodies are racked with
pain. First, we will suffer even when we do God's will, sometimes even more so
because of His will. Secondly, we stop trusting ourselves but learn to trust in
God, our merciful Father, and the source of all comfort.
Thirdly, remember why God comforts us in all our
troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we can give
them the same comfort we have received from God. Fourth, be rest assured when
our troubles increase, God's comfort rises with them. Fifth, as God's children,
we don't suffer alone but with others in God's family. That is why we pray and
support those who go through pain and suffering in our Church family.
What does trusting in the God of all comfort mean? It
means we accept our pain and suffering are from Him. It is to say, God, I don't
understand why I have to go through this pain, but like David, we say and sing,
"But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have
rescued me. I will sing to the LORD because he is good to me." Psalm
13:5-6
No one particularly welcomes and enjoys pain and
suffering, yet we all suffer and go through heartaches because we live in this
fallen World. What is our consolation in our suffering, especially for being a
Christian? I Peter 4:12-13, "Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery
trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.
Instead, be very glad for these trials make you partners with Christ in his
suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it
is revealed to all the World." Amen!
