Yesterday I wrote a post, God Forbid It!, but time (and already being way over the recommended blog post word count) didn’t allow me to complete my train of thought. Today I hope to come closer to completing it, though probably not, because on this side of eternity and with this finite mind it’s simply impossible to complete any thought on our God, except the thought that He is indeed GOD.

You can read yesterdays full post by clicking the title of it above. I am beginning this post by copy and pasting the ending of the it:

I have learned that before I pray, I am to ask God how I am to pray, because I do not know the greater purpose behind the circumstances.

Our human reaction to suffering is to remove it from ourselves and others as quick as possible… but sometimes, no most of the times, the sufferings are meant to bring us into the very presence of God, because without them, sin and Satan convince us that we don’t need Him…

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

Hebrews 5:7-9

So how we do know what to pray when we are faced with suffering… or we are faced with the suffering of the ones we love?

In the above passage in Hebrews, did you notice how Jesus approached His suffering?

…with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death

Did it sound like Jesus was super duper excited about His sufferings or not concerned about it all?

Absolutely not!

Yes, He is God, but let us not forget He is also the Son of Man. He came to be the answer to all our questions… He came in the flesh so that He would be able to sympathize with everything that we will ever go through. As we consider how to handle suffering and what to pray when faced with suffering, we don’t have to look any further than our Jesus… who came to teach us all things.

In the gospel of Mark we read

And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

Mark 14:34-36

Jesus called out to His Father in heaven and said, “All things are possible for You” He had no doubt that God could keep Him from going through this suffering. ALL THINGS are possible for God. Jesus never had a doubt concerning the authority, power, or ability of God. Jesus knew that God was not up in heaven wringing His hands together, pacing the streets of gold, racking His brain, trying to figure a way out of this mess so that His Son would not have to suffer. Jesus fully knew with absolute certainty that with one thought His Father in heaven could remove this cup from Him. Ability and possibility was never the issue.

The issue was always the will of God.

The soul of Jesus was grieved. He was hurting. The agony of His heart is clearly seen. It has been recorded here for us, I believe, so that we can know that the pain we feel, the grief we experience, the agony that comes from suffering does not mean we doubt our God, nor does it mean we lack faith… it simply means this hurts.

We see this again, as we see our Jesus respond to the suffering of others.

Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!”  

John 11:32-36

Jesus saw their weeping and was deeply moved and troubled and He Himself wept. He saw their suffering and it broke His heart. He wept with them… He wept with them KNOWING He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. The fact that He knew eternal life was coming did not negate the fact the separation of death hurt. And the fact that the separation of death hurt did not mean that Jesus lacked faith or assurance in the resurrection.

Jesus also wept knowing that Mary’s accusation was true. He didn’t rebuke Mary for her words. Jesus did not have to let Lazarus die. However, this was the will of God. He was to die… He was to die because Jesus was to raise him from the dead, so that all who were watching would see the works of God displayed!

Beloved it’s okay to weep. It’s okay to hurt. Death’s separation hurts… and just because it hurts it does not mean that we doubt that those in Christ live even though they die. It doesn’t mean we lack faith. It doesn’t mean we love our God any less… it simply means this hurts.

Jesus rebuked Peter when he said, “God forbid it!” but He did not rebuke Mary when she said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

So how do we pray and what do we pray?

“Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

We pray in faith, knowing that God can do all things, yet we pray in humility and trust, ready to accept His will, even when we don’t understand.

We, here in the States, live in a day when it seems that we should have the means and ability to save everyone from physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual pain. We have a self-help books and universities full of people seeking for the right pill and method to stop suffering. Yes, I believe medications and treatments are gifts from God to help us in this fallen world, but they are not our salvation. God’s word has told us to pray for the sick and the suffering, but let us pray also remembering that suffering is never needless nor is it ever without purpose.

 The sufferings remind us that we are fallen.

The sufferings remind us that we are helpless.

The suffering remind us that we need a Savior.

The sufferings cause us to look out from ourselves.

The suffering allow the works of God to be displayed in us…

Our human reaction to suffering is to remove it from ourselves and others as quick as possible… but sometimes, no, most of the times, the sufferings are meant to bring us into the very presence of God, because without them, sin and Satan convince us that we don’t need Him… 

Sin, suffering, mercy, grace, judgment, joy, love, peace, and everything in between either draws us to the cross of Christ or causes us to run from it… My hope is that no matter what you suffer, or how you see others suffer, this suffering causes you to run to the cross of Christ, to the throne of grace that His suffering made available to all who would come through Him.

Most of all, let us never forget that this world is not our home.

This world is fallen and full of suffering. The decaying of this earth is evident all around us, even though todays science tries to convince us that the earth started out as decay and has progressed to its current “superiority”. Most of our life’s mission is to remove suffering from mankind. We have decided that with enough education and control we can make this earth a perfect place. We will find the cure for all the effects of sin! We will find a pill to fix all emotional ills, a treatment for all physical ills, a method for all mental ills, and a stage for all spiritual ills. We shall not accept the consequences of sin… or see any purpose in suffering.

Our first reaction to anyone we hear of suffering is usually always the exact same of that of Peter… “God forbid it!”

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Matthew 16:21-23

Jesus announced that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer… the suffering was in the purpose of God from the beginning. The suffering was the only way to bring salvation to mankind. However, Peter was not on board.

God forbid it!

God forbid that you, the one I love, should ever be mistreated, hurt, or have to suffer in any way. God forbid that you go through any pain. God forbid it. Not you! Peter never even took a moment to let the words of the One He had just pronounced the Christ, the Son of the Living God, sink in. As a matter of fact He rebuked Him. Can you imagine? Peter rebuking the Son of the Living God? Can you just imagine the pain and fear that shot through Peter’s heart as he heard these words of Jesus? It would have to be a pretty emotional moment for him to rebuke his Teacher. This suffering made no sense to him at all. He did not want to see the One he loved suffer. Do any of us?

When we hear of anyone going through any kind of suffering, our first knee-jerk reaction is pull out the Scripture reference a couple of verses above this passage from Matthew 16…

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:19

We start casting out cancer cells, rebuking illness in the name of Jesus, binding the suffering and loosing the healing as if we are God. “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”  Then when the cancer doesn’t listen and the illness remains and the suffering continues we find ourselves questioning our faith, our god, our prayers, and we even find ourselves making excuses for our god… and I use a lower case “g” on purpose in this context.

How does Jesus respond to Peter’s knee-jerk reaction of God forbid it?

 “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Get behind me Satan? What? I mean Peter just doesn’t want to see the one he loves suffer… how could that be Satan? Isn’t Satan the one who inflicts and causes all suffering, so someone wanting the opposite of that and keeping that suffering from happening must be on God’s side right?

Not according to God.

”We use a term quite often here in the States, “needless suffering”.

I disagree with this term.

I don’t believe that suffering is ever needless… or purposeless.

We see this fact Biblically in the life of Christ and in the history of the early church. Jesus healed. He made the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear. He cleansed the leper, cured the lunatics, and raised the dead. After His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension He sent His apostles out all over the world doing the same to validate their words were His words and their power was His power.

The sufferings remind us that we are fallen.

The sufferings remind us that we are helpless.

The suffering remind us that we need a Savior.

The sufferings cause us to look out from ourselves.

The suffering allow the works of God to be displayed in us.

Suffering is never needless or without purpose.

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

John 9:1-3

Last week during my 9 year old Bekah’s bedtime devo, one of the questions asked was, “What has God done to show His power to you?“

Bekah’s response was quick. She immediately said, “Aunt Tracy and Aunt Phillis. God saved Aunt Tracy and Aunt Phillis has had breast cancer, colon cancer, and now has liver cancer, but God is taking care of her”  

My sister Tracy was in a horrible car accident, she still suffers pain from this accident until this day. My sister-in-law Phillis has been fighting some form of cancer for years and takes regular chemo treatments, but both these women suffer with grace. They still love their God and I dare say they love Him more today than they did before their sufferings began. 

And as a result of their sufferings, when their nine year old niece sees them, she thinks of the glory of God, of the power of God, of the works of God.

For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

1 Peter 2:19

These women didn’t do anything to deserve these sufferings… there was no particular sin that they openly and purposely participated in to bring on these sufferings. They came upon them simply because this world is fallen and sufferings come as a result.

When we look back at the acts of our Christ, think, would these people have ever came to Him had they not been experiencing sufferings? Would those who witnessed their sufferings ever have put forth the effort and energy to get them to Jesus had they not shared in their sufferings as they witnessed them?

No beloved, just because we don’t like suffering, does not mean that is needless or without purpose.

I have learned that before I pray, I am to ask God how I am to pray, because I do not know the greater purpose behind the circumstances.

Our human reaction to suffering is to remove it from ourselves and others as quick as possible… but sometimes, no most of the times, the sufferings are meant to bring us into the very presence of God, because without them, sin and Satan convince us that we don’t need Him…

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

Hebrews 5:7-9