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Twenty-five years ago my father suffered a major heart-attack and needed by-pass surgery. That’s a frightening prospect for anyone at anytime. Even so in his case, because the technology wasn’t where it is today and his heart was so damaged, the weight of the whole thing was particularly heavy. You can imagine the anxiety we were feeling.

A few of days before the surgery a man from our church stopped by the house. He had heard about our situation and wanted to share some things with us. It turns out that he had suffered a heart-attack and had been through by-pass surgery just a couple of years earlier. Very slowly and carefully, he told my dad everything that was going to happen; everything he would experience. He not only told him what the doctors would do but what each phase of the process would feel like. For example, “When you first wake up from the surgery,” he said, “you’ll feel like you’re drowning because you’ll have a big tube stuck down your throat. Your tendency will be to fight it, but that will only make it worse. Just try to relax and you’ll adjust.” As he continued to tell my father what to expect, he talked to him about the goodness of the Lord and how God had comforted him throughout his ordeal. He told him that God would do the same for him, and He did.

We had never met this man before that day; we were new to the church and it was very large on top of that. After he prayed with us and was ready to leave, my father asked him why he came by. He said that God had ministered to him during his time of need and he wanted to do the same for someone else. I didn’t know it at the time, but the Bible actually says that one of the reasons we suffer is so that with the comfort God gives us we can comfort others. That’s exactly what Jack was doing that day. In God’s providence, one of the reasons this man had suffered a heart attack was so that he could minister to us in just the right way at just the right time. Paul said, “If we are afflicted, it is for your consolation” (1 Cor. 1:6). Just before that he said, God “comforts us in all our tribulation, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (v. 4).

Why does God let you suffer? One of the reasons he allows us to go through the trial is so that He can comfort us. He’s the only One who can give true comfort, peace, and assurance during a storm. He wants us weaned from this earth and dependent on Him because He’s better than anything the world has to offer. He wants us to get the true joy and satisfaction of being comforted by Him. His presence and ministry to our hearts is even better than being delivered from the trial. It’s hard for us to imagine such, but it’s the truth. He wants us to know His peace in our hearts. That’s a very different thing than peace based on circumstances. God gives peace despite our circumstances. But He doesn’t stop there. As He gives us comfort, He wants us to turn our attention to others and minister to them. He wants us to comfort others with the comfort He’s given us.

Sometimes it’s hard to give words of real comfort to others if we haven’t suffered ourselves. It’s not impossible; the Word of God is the thing that has the authority and carries the weight and power by the Holy Spirit when we speak to others in their grief. But God uses people to minister to people and he uses people who have suffered to minister to those who are suffering in a similar way.

My father-in-law passed away this week. I’ve spoken many words of comfort to my precious mother-in-law and God’s Word has an entrance into her heart. But, when my mother speaks to her and tells her how she’s going to make it, those words have a special affect because my mother is speaking from experience. She lost her husband (my father) almost twelve years ago. It was tough, but God gave her strength. She is now able to testify to my mother-in-law of that strength; that strength that the Lord will definitely give. And, I have no doubt that my mother-in-law will have some comforting words to share with another grieving widow down the road.

Think about this: I had a tumor in my spine a few years ago. The pain was excruciating and I got to the point where I couldn’t walk. But then I had surgery and I’m better than ever now! About a year later, my neurosurgeon called me and said a woman was suffering from the same thing I had and she was very anxious about going under the knife. She wanted to know if I would talk to her. I can’t describe how thankful I was that God had allowed me to go through that trial. I was able to tell that women how she was feeling physically because I had been through it; I was able to tell her what I felt like now; I was able to tell her how God had met me and given me peace; I was able to do for her what Jack had done for my dad! And I’m not kidding when I say that it was an absolute joy to be able to do so. I had to suffer prior to that to be able to minister in that way, but what a pay-off – to give the comfort that God had given me to someone else.

Why does God allow you to suffer? So you can one day experience the joy – the sheer joy – of sharing Christ in a unique way with someone else who is suffering. God will comfort you so you can comfort someone else for their good and His glory.

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The old saying “when it rains it pours” seems to be true sometimes when it comes to the trials we face in life. There are occasions when we seem to be in one trial and get hit with another. That feeling or reality, as the case may be, is not far from what James actually tells us. He lovingly says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (Jas. 1:2).

Two of the words James uses are powerfully descriptive. The word “fall” is a compound word in the Greek: peripipto. The word pipto means “fall” and the little prefix peri means “around.” It’s the prefix we use in words like perimeter or periscope. The picture I get is trials falling all around us like rain. If you think about rain, there is space in between each raindrop. However, because there are so many raindrops and they are so closely spaced together, you can’t help but get hit by some of them. So too, because we live in a fallen world with trials falling all around us, we can’t help but get hit by some of them. Indeed, when it rains it pours!

The other descriptor is “various.” It means multi-faceted or multi-colored. It’s the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to describe Joseph’s coat of many colors. As we go through life, we get hit by raining trials that are multi-colored. In other words, we face many different kinds of trials. The truth is that you are just coming out of a trial, in the midst of one, or about to go into one. That’s not a thrilling prospect, I know.

But, James tells us to “count it all joy when we fall into various trials.” What in the world does he mean? How can I be happy about pain and suffering? How can I be happy when devastating things are going on in my life? Well, he doesn’t tell us to be happy; he tells us to “count it all joy” and that’s something very different. The word “count” is a term used in the courtroom and in the accounting field. In the courtroom, a guilty man may be counted or declared innocent. He may be one thing but he’s counted another. In the accounting world it refers to putting something on one side of the ledger or other. James says that we are to look at the difficulties we face and declare them joy; put them on the joy side of the ledger; or in simple terms, to consider them joy. Trials are not joyful but we are to consider them as joy.

Now before we unravel what James is saying completely, we have to understand that joy and happiness are two different things. James is not saying be happy in or about your trials. There are some circumstances where it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to be happy.

Besides, God gives us emotions for a reason. Of course, we must control our emotions and not let them get the best of us. For example, grief is good and is an expression of the very real loss we experience as human beings in relation to others or even ourselves. But depression resulting from grief is not good. A depressed person has lost hope; he’s lost the will to fulfill his God-given responsibilities. God doesn’t want us in that state and is there to strengthen us if we look to Him. Part of looking to Him is thinking rightly about our trials and that’s what James is getting at.

So James recognizes that heartache is just that: heartache. We can’t always be happy about our circumstances. What James is getting at is joy. Christian joy is the certain knowledge that God is in control and nothing has happened to us that He did not allow for a good purpose in our life; that He loves us more than we could ever imagine; and that we can trust Him to do what is best and right no matter what. We get peace in knowing these things. That’s joy.

That helps. But how can we really count our tough times joy? James says we can do that because we know “that the testing of our faith produces endurance.” Part of the reason God allows trials to come into our lives is to test our faith. The second half of that is to produce endurance in us. He tests our faith not so that He will know whether or not we are trusting Him (He knows already), but so that we will know how much or how little we are trusting Him. He tests us for our benefit. In the trial, we really learn where our focus is; we really learn where our hope is; we really learn where our peace, joy, and satisfaction is. If we find our trust is in Him and not ourselves or something else, we get real happiness from that. If we find our trust is in something other than Him, we turn our hearts to Him and find peace in so doing. The test helps us see.

Then, the benefit of being tested is what it ultimately produces in us: endurance. This word in the Greek is also compound and means to bear up under the load. God tests us with trials along the way to produce in us a greater and greater ability to bear up under the load of suffering. That’s important because suffering is simply a part of this life. At the same time, the Bible says that believers must enter the kingdom through much tribulation (Acts 14:22) and that suffering is part of what it means to be a Christian; we participate in the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. 1:5). But the good news is those sufferings will give way to great reward when we see Christ face to face (2 Cor. 4:17).

We need endurance to make it all the way to the end of life without laying down and dying from depression and without walking away from the Lord Jesus Himself. If life were a hundred-yard-dash it would be easy. We need no endurance for that. But it’s not; life is a marathon: a long-distance race; and we do need endurance for that.

Have you ever thought about what a coach does with a marathon runner? He doesn’t make him run twenty-six miles the first day of practice. But, he does put him through a workout. It doesn’t feel good; it’s tough. And the next day they do it all over again and as the days go by the Coach adds to the runner’s regimen. He makes him run further distances; he times him and makes him run those distances faster; he does interval work, pace work, and sprint work. He puts him in the weight room and then he makes him run some more. It’s tough on this runner; it’s not pleasant; he’s not happy. But, he does have joy – because he knows that what he’s going through is going to give him endurance to run the marathon. And when he runs the marathon with endurance, he gets the gold medal.

Paul says we work for a medal (crown) that’s imperishable (1 Cor. 9:25).We’re told in Hebrews to run the race with endurance. How? By looking unto Jesus, our great reward (Heb. 12:1-2). That’s why James says “Let endurance have its perfect work in you that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (v. 4). That’s what God is doing; He’s getting you to the victor’s stand – and that’s something to look forward to.

Where do you stand on the national debt and what we should do about it? Christians should have an informed opinion on these issues.

“Christianity Today” reports that The House of Representatives is working to cut $60 billion from the federal budget. While it includes deep cuts for environmental agencies, education, and foreign aid, it makes modest reductions for defense, homeland security, and police. That’s a paltry amount considering the debt crisis upon us. We as a nation, and indeed the church, find ourselves in a serious situation.

The good news is that these cuts are in line with the spending priorities of most American evangelicals. Further, a Pew Research Center survey found that evangelicals were more likely to favor reductions in federal spending over other Americans.

But here’s the bad news, like other Americans, many evangelicals wanted most areas to remain the same or increased. A large percentage of Christians favored spending increases in a variety of areas including public schools, health care, Medicare, social security, agriculture, energy, college financial aid, the environment, and scientific research to name a few. In many of those areas, a higher percentage of evangelicals favor increased government spending than non-evangelicals.

This dynamic is cause for alarm. Practically, it’s cause for alarm in that we can’t sustain our current level of debt accumulation: there is a pay day some day and that pay day could be catastrophic. It’s cause for alarm morally in that taxing the citizenry to pay for things the market could better provide only contributes to the financial burden laid upon us.

But here’s the larger issue for evangelicals: their desire to increase government spending is cause for alarm philosophically in that the role of government is that of protection, not the provision of goods and services that the market, again, could much better provide. When I say philosophically, I mean biblically. Christians, of all people, must look at the world through a biblical lens. Government does not exist to provide our every need and it certainly doesn’t exist to provide our every whim. Government is simply necessary (among other options) to maintain civil law in a fallen world.

By way of simple illustration, to forcibly take money from one group of individuals (taxation) to provide for the needs/desires of other individuals is not rooted in gospel freedom but in force. That is not to say that we shouldn’t be compassionate toward others and give to those in need. But that’s different. Would you think it right if someone came up to you on the street and held a gun to your head and demanded you hand your wallet to the homeless man lying on the bench beside you? Of course you wouldn’t. But you might voluntarily help him or anyone else. Force and volunteerism are two different things.

Laying aside legitimate purposes for taxation (and there are some), one might say that the people have voted for certain government programs and that makes them legitimate and the illustration fails. But, not all have voted for them and are therefore coerced to give to the cause of others. That’s one reason our founders rejected a pure democracy and opted for a Constitutional Republic. There are many things the majority would vote for in connection to their own interests that would not be right for the country as a whole or that would violate moral principles that are foundational to the proper role of government (think abortion for example). The programs in question go beyond the biblical role of government and those who vote for them are not taking into account gospel principles.

The Scriptural formula for financial security is hard work, saving for the future, and compassionate, voluntary gifts for those truly in need. Those principles apply to nations as well as individuals. It matters what we Christians think on these things. It matters so we may be more rightly related to God and so that we can influence our world in this area as ambassadors for Christ. The gospel is a comprehensive view on all of reality including government debt and spending. May we do our part in training fellow evangelicals in the ways of God? Perhaps then, we can influence our culture a little better in this area and have more opportunities to turn the conversation to Christ as people want to know where we get our ideas.

Musicians often know what the problem is, but they really don’t know the solution. When the Beatles sang, “Help, I need somebody, help, not just anybody,” no words could have been more true. Of course, they weren’t talking about the Lord Jesus as the “not just anybody” who could help, though He is the only one who can.

“Help me if you can, I’m feeling down” expresses a regular longing in our hearts. We have so many unwanted feelings, emotions, and desires. But, we can overcome them by knowing Christ. In Him, we have everything we need to handle what life throws at us and to be godly (2 Pet. 1:3).

Think further though. I frequently get questions like this:

Okay, I believe what you say about having everything we need for life and godliness and I know the Lord, but I’ve been struggling with (porn/ anger/ depression/ drugs) since I was twelve years old. I fight the feelings and do well for a while, but always fall, and then feel terrible. I see change in many other areas of my life, except in this area. I just don’t seem to be able to get victory. I know it’s wrong, I’ve confessed over and over again, I pray, and I want to change, but it seems hopeless. What should I start doing today to see God’s power make a change in me? I’m not even sure I know what God’s power means. Help!

Part of the answer to that question is in a person and not a method. We’re trained to look at methods and steps to solving problems when God’s solution is not like that at all. His solution is Himself. We know Him and as we keep our focus on Him, He changes us over time.

A person who truly knows God will increasingly love the things God loves and hate the things God hates. Do you truly hate anger or do you hate it at some level but derive satisfaction in it at another level? Do you justify it in the moment? You have to hate it. Do you hate porn or do you hate that you are drawn to it? Those are two different things. You might hate that you are drawn to porn because you know it’s wrong but you don’t hate porn if you’re constantly drawn to it. You love it. If you want to overcome porn, you can’t primarily focus on the fact that it’s wrong. You have to know God better. You have to develop your relationship with God. The more you know Him and love Him, the more you’ll hate porn itself.

So, there’s a sense in which there’s a method; you have to change your focus. That’s why Paul constantly tells us to renew our minds: it’s a matter of thinking about God and thinking like God. If you don’t think like God, you can do some things here and there but you don’t have a real heart to forsake what’s wrong and do what’s right. Your thinking has to change and only God can cause that. But He changes our thinking as we focus on Him!

Because God has saved us by His glory and virtue (character and strength), His divine power is at work in us. Peter further says that God has given us promises. As we reflect on those promises, we become more like God. He puts it this way:

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Pet. 1:3-4).

Let’s break that down by going from the last phrase to the first. The world has been corrupted by (Adam’s) sin and has a corrupting influence on those who don’t know God. In their sinful state, people lust after the things of the world, (porn for example), and are further corrupted (Rom. 1:18f). We who know God, says Peter, have escaped that corruption. We’re not condemned and become more like Christ over time.

How do we become more like Christ? Peter says we become partakers of the divine nature. That doesn’t mean we become God. It means that God lives in us and changes us. The word “partakers” has to do with fellowship. We fellowship with God and He imparts more of His character to us. We become more godly, not merely in our actions, but in terms of who we are. He causes us to increasingly love what He loves and hate what He hates.

How can we foster this fellowship? Peter says we do so by the exceedingly great and precious promises He’s given us. We have to know and embrace them. God’s promises refer in one sense to His Word on the whole. It’s about His promises to save us, make us more like Christ, and bring us to glory. Those promises are exceedingly great because of what they relate to: life and godliness. They’re precious for the same reason.

Now, we believe God’s promise that Christ is more satisfying than anger for example. We focus on God by focusing on that promise and in so doing, we become partakers of the divine nature; we get His power to change working in us.

How do you overcome unwanted feelings, emotions, and desires? Fellowship with God by focusing on His promises. He’ll change you by giving you more love for Him and what He loves and more hate for those things He hates. When you hate feelings or actions that are sinful, you’ll overcome them. You’ll get real help when you’re feeling down.

Christians go through trials and sufferings of all kinds in this life. This fact is the cause of confusion and indeed alarm to some. They’ve been told that Christians can live a life of health and wealth. Others have been told that life is overflowing with happiness, is filled with good things, and is basically care-free once a person comes to faith in Christ. So what does it mean when a Christian suffers? Some wonder if their faith is real; others come to the conclusion that God is punishing them for their sin; and still others figure God Himself is the problem — either He’s a liar or He’s not real.

The truth is that the Bible never promises that Christians won’t suffer. On the contrary, not only do all people suffer in this life, but Christians may suffer even more simply because they are Christians. In 2 Tim. 3:12, Paul says that all who are godly in Christ will suffer (persecution). James says that trials are merely a part of life (Jas. 1:2). Beyond that, God says He even brings us into trials (Zech. 13:9). But there is still an open question isn’t there? Why does God bring trials into the lives of those who have been redeemed? We can understand why unbelievers might suffer; but why does God allow His children to suffer?

There are a number of reasons why God takes His people through the fire. One of those reasons has to do with His glory. In Jn. 2:1-7, we’re given an informative account concerning this question.

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Here’s a man who was born blind; he’s suffered a great deal. The disciples ask an interesting question of Jesus: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” You can see that their thoughts concerning why people suffer are not unlike some of the thoughts that we might have. They simply assumed that this man had committed some horrible sin or he wouldn’t be suffering this way. He is no doubt being punished for sinning against God. If he’s not being punished, then the fault must lie with his parents; they must be the ones who committed some atrocity or else he would be able to see.

Don’t overlook Jesus’ first statement: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” It is true that all human beings are born spiritually dead in sin (Eph. 2:1-3) as the result of Adam’s sin and that all suffering in this world is related to that original sin (Rom. 5:12; 8:20-22). But a person is not born disabled because of personal sin. In other words, God doesn’t punish sin that way. Someone can be born disabled if her mother takes drugs during pregnancy. But that is the result of a destructive and sinful action that has physical consequences in a fallen world. That kind of thing relates to human sin, namely Adam’s and the universal affects of it. But God is not punishing a mother for drug use when her child is born disabled. Another mom could take drugs and her baby be born with no disabilities at all.

In the case before us, Jesus went on to say the man was born blind so “that the works of God could be revealed in him.” God was going to perform a miracle in this man’s life through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus healed the blind man to demonstrate the reality of who He is: the Light of the World.

And that’s the primary reason God takes His people through tough times: to show the world through them who He is. He may show people who He is in your life by enabling you to suffer with confidence and peace before others. I know a woman in her twenties who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was expecting her first child. Her prayer was that she would live long enough to deliver the baby. She actually died before full term, but the baby was saved. That’s a sad and painful story to be sure. But the glorious thing about it had to do with her faith and the faith of her husband. While in the hospital, they were a confident testimony to the grace and power of God at work in the lives of His people. After her death, a man told the husband he’d been watching them. He was about to divorce his wife whom he couldn’t stand. He came to realize he needed Christ in his life. He placed his faith in the Lord, committed to love his wife as Christ loved the church, and asked for God’s help to do so; and God brought it about. This man is not perfect, but He’s a new man in Christ and is lovingly committed to his wife. The works of God were revealed in and through the suffering of that precious young couple.

Who knows how God might display His grace and power in your life when you suffer? It’s so important because everyone needs to see who God is. There are people who need the Lord and may see Him through your ordeal. God could heal you for His glory or He could give you an opportunity to talk to others about Him because of your suffering. He could give you opportunity to serve Him, with joy, in a way you had not thought of prior to your trial. I suffered terrible back pain for over a year even getting to a point of paralysis. I couldn’t sleep much at all. Because my family was sleeping quite well at the time, I had nothing to do in the middle of the night. So, I took to writing a little more. In fact, my productivity level soared! Ultimately, I had surgery and can walk just fine now. But I wouldn’t trade that year for anything. God was so gracious to show His power in me in so many ways during that time.

Just remember: your suffering is not pointless. There are many things God is doing in your life through your hardship. But the most fundamental is that He is working in and through you in such a way as to make known to others just how real He is. And just perhaps, He is doing the same thing for you.