At one time or another we have all probably been deeply wounded in our souls because of pain and suffering we have experienced. There are a lot of painful things that can touch our hearts, so much in fact that it can drive us from God.
From Pastor Tim Brown’s (Calvary Chapel Fremont) sermon Living With Pain — Job 1:20-22
Some of us aren’t going to be delivered from our pain. We will have to learn to walk with it and through it. If we don’t learn to walk through the pain, we can end up a spiritual cripple. The pain can walk all over us.
Pain and suffering can really mess up our prayer lives because when we suffer and experience pain all we can think about is getting rid of the suffering and relieving the pain. When we are in pain, it’s really hard to be fixed/focus on the will of God because we are focused on getting relief. When we are driven by pain, we aren’t focused on God’s will.
How Do We Live With Pain and Suffering?
How do we live with pain and suffering and not be possessed, driven, and/or consumed by it? How can we keep our pain and suffering from touching our hearts? Job is a good example of how and how not to live with pain. He didn’t let go of his sorrow, the Lord, and the truth.
- Job grieved — tore his robe, shaved his head. 1:20. it’s OK to grieve.
- Job worshipped God 1:20. Worship keeps pain from swallowing our soul.
- Job confessed the truth 1:21. When his pain went from personal to physical in Chapter 2, he continued to confess the truth. 2:10.
All of us will probably suffer in one way or another sometime in our lives if we haven’t already. Most of us will suffer more than once. Will the pain and suffering turn us away from God? Will we grow bitter toward God or bow in worship?
When we grow bitter toward God, we stop worshipping Him. Our grief can consume us when we stop worshipping God. When our suffering is louder than our worship, when our pain speaks with greater authority than the truth of God, we are on our way to becoming a spiritual casualty.
Stay In The Place of Worshipping God
Stay in the place of worshipping God and confessing His truth. Stay in Job 1:20 – 21 (KJV) — Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Worship God in Spirit and in truth. Lift your voice and your eyes up to Heaven. Let the Holy Spirit speak for you when all you can do is moan and cry. Place all you have in the hands of God and trust in Him.
As Pastor John MacArthur says and explains
The Book of Job underscores the importance of trusting God’s purposes in the midst of suffering because suffering, like all other human experiences, is directed by perfect divine wisdom. In the end, the lesson learned was that one may never know the specific reason for his suffering, but one must trust sovereign God. That is the real answer to suffering.
Christians are to submit to trials and still worship God, not because they see the reason for them, but because God wills them and has His own reasons which believers are to trust.
As Job 11:6 says — God exacts from you Less than your iniquity deserves (NKJV)
Where there are no rational or theological explanations for disaster and pain, trust God.
God never told Job about the reason for his pain. He never gave Job any explanation at all about the circumstances of his trouble. He did one thing in all He said. God asked Job if he was as eternal, great, powerful, wise, and perfect as God. If not, Job would have been better off to be quiet and trust Him.