Scriptures, Songs, and Saints – Suffering
Beth lead our church in “Scriptures, Songs, and Saints” this month, on the topic of suffering.
Making Sense of Sorrow and Suffering – July 13th, 2025
In his introduction to The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis confesses that he wanted to write the book anonymously because he felt like such an amateur and a layman when examining the topic of suffering. “If I were to say what I really thought about pain,” Lewis surmised, “I should be forced to make statements of such fortitude that they would become ridiculous if anyone knew who made them.” Still, Lewis wrote the book, as have many other devoted followers of Jesus throughout the years wrestling with the question ”Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Song: Behold
Song: How Glorious You Are
Of course, Christians aren’t the only ones who ask why there is so much suffering in this world. But because we believe that God is in control of our lives–and that He is inherently good– the presence of pain and suffering is more difficult for us to reconcile at times. We wrestle with our theology. We minimize or explain away our struggles. We look for someone to blame. Often, we question God. Jesus’ disciples once asked Him if a man had been born blind because of his sin… or because of his parents’. It was an understandable question, since in Jesus’ time most suffering was attributed to someone’s sin. John 9:1-3, tells us: “As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.'” In that remarkable moment, Jesus took the focus from finding someone to blame for this man’s blindness and turned everyone’s attention to God, His Heavenly Father and the miracle that was about to take place. And then He healed the man.
Song: Show Your Power
In Acts 10: 38, Peter proclaimed: “You know about Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Jesus made it clear how He feels about suffering when He walked here on Earth. He was moved by compassion and empowered by the Holy Spirit and went about alleviating suffering by ministering healing and deliverance. He also promised that when He left, the Holy Spirit would come and empower His followers to do the same. In John 14:12-13, Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Song: I Can Do All Things
”If you ask anything in my name, I will do it!” We hear these words and our hearts cry out for the miracle-working power of God. We pray prayers of faith… and sometimes we see miracles. But other times, our prayers seem to go unanswered. Sickness continues to plague us and the ones we love. Relationships remain broken. Circumstances don’t improve. Sometimes, we experience unimaginable tragedy and loss. At times, we cry out like David in Psalm 13: “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.”
Song: Slow Kingdom Coming
In His final hours with His disciples, Jesus encouraged them with the promise of the power and presence of His Spirit. He urged them to ask the Father for anything that they needed in His name. He promised to be with them always. He also told them, “In this world, you will have tribulation.” In the Vineyard movement, we recognize that we live in the “now and the not yet.” We believe the kingdom has come… but also that the kingdom is coming. The kingdom is here, but we still wait for its arrival. And we find ourselves very often living in the tension between these two truths. “It’s a slow kingdom coming, but it’s coming. And we will wait for You.”
Song: Every Hour
The truth is, even when God is “on the move” and working miracles in our midst, there is still suffering in this life. We live in a broken world full of broken people. But we live with hope. And we live in dependence on God and His Holy Spirit. And we lean hard on the mercy and grace of God. Jesus has promised to return and to make all things right, and we cling to that promise. While we wait, we believe that by His Spirit, He is always with us. And we believe that God has a purpose for the suffering He allows. James 1:2-4 tells us: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Our trials and tribulations–these frustrating, uncomfortable or even painful situations we find ourselves in– are what God uses to make us into disciples who will reflect His glory more perfectly to the world around us.
Song: Take My Life
Communion
Song: Take My Life (reprise)
Song: Come and Rest
In her beautiful allegory, Hinds Feet on High Places, Hannah Hurnard takes us on a journey with Much Afraid, the timid servant of the Chief Shepherd, who accepts His invitation to journey up to the High Places with Him, leaving behind the Valley of Humiliation and her relatives, the Fearing Clan. She soon learns that the journey will be long and difficult, though, and she is dismayed that her closest companions and guides on the way will be Sorrow and Suffering. Patiently, the Chief Shepherd assures her that this is His truly the only way to the High Places. “Fear not, Much Afraid,” He says. “Only believe. I promise that you will not be put to shame. Go with Sorrow and Suffering, and if you cannot welcome them now, when you come to the difficult places where you cannot manage alone, put your hands in theirs confidently and they will take you exactly where I want you to go.”
Song: Take Heart
God is using the things we suffer to make us more like Him, to make us into the image of Jesus. Sometimes it feels as if we are being crushed under the weight of the things we endure, but God uses everything, even the crushing, to bring about a greater release of His Spirit living in us. And — It is in those most painful of times that we often experience His tenderness and lovingkindness more than ever. Psalm 34:18 says. “God is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” In 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, Paul said: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not completely crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
Song: New Wine
Jesus told His disciples, “If you want to be my disciple, you must take up Your cross daily and follow Me.” This experience of dying to the flesh and being resurrected into our new life in Christ is something every true believer experiences. It is part of our journey to becoming like Christ. But it is also key to our emotional and spiritual healing and to finding true freedom in Him. In his book, Wounds that Heal: Bringing Our Hurts to the Cross, Stephen Seamands says this, “Over the years, as bruised and broken people have shared their wrenching stories with me, the inner voice of the Spirit has prompted me to offer them a special invitation: ‘Come with Me. Come with Me to Calvary. Come stand beneath the cross of Jesus. Gaze with Me at the twisted tortured figure there. Consider the broken, bleeding Son of God. Reflect on your hurts and wounds in light of His.’”
Song: At the Cross
Paul embraced and even celebrated his sufferings when he wrote in Philippians 3: 7-11: “But whatever things were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and to participate in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
Closing Prayer: We thank you that You are a God who shares Your power with those that You love. As Your children, we are called and anointed to bring healing and deliverance just as Jesus did on Earth. We celebrate that supernatural power. We also thank you that You are a God who comes close. You share Your presence with us so freely. Sometimes that presence brings miracles, and sometimes it simply brings comfort. You are near to the broken-hearted. You will never leave us nor forsake us. Lord, we cry out as Paul did, “That we may know You…and the power of Your resurrection…and the fellowship of Your sufferings.” Show us how to let suffering be our teacher. That we might be more like You. In Jesus’ name.
