This week, in a limited way, I felt the pain of people suffering around me. One of my students is having to endure ongoing health issues, another is abusing drugs to cope with trauma, and a friend of my family tried to commit suicide. My heart goes out to them. I’m praying for God to intervene and save them. He intimately knows each of them and loves them dearly.
Perhaps you are also in pain emotionally, mentally, physically, or spiritually. I know this may sound preposterous or impossible, but when you face difficulty, praise God through it. I’m convinced that is a key way to cope with the pain. In the praising process God draws you closer to himself, gives you an eternal perspective, transforms your character to reflect his, and prepares you to empathize with and comfort others. Rely on God to see you through every trial, his grace is sufficient to sustain you (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Rest assured that in his perfect time and perfect way he will provide deliverance, for he loves you beyond measure and always has your best interest at heart (John 3:16; 1 John 1:4:9-10; Ephesians 2:4-5; Philippians 1:6).
God Hears, Understands, and Delivers
I realize I don’t know what you may be going through. But God does. He sent Jesus, God the Son, to bear the sin of the world and its consequences. Jesus has gone through and is victorious over anything you may face. Anyone who trusts him can be reconciled with God and receive his new, abundant, and everlasting life.
I’ve come to trust Jesus to save me from my sin and I experience his ongoing peace, hope, deliverance, and restoration. He provided for our family when my dad abandoned us and he helped me through depression. He spared me from serious injury in a motorcycle accident. He saved me from dying from a collapsed lung in the remote mountains of Chihuahua Mexico. He sustained me during 18 months of chronic sciatic pain. I had to constantly stand because I couldn’t sit for more than a few minutes at a time. He resolves stressful conflicts and issues my wife and I face as we manage a mobile home park. He gently, but firmly points out my self-centered waywardness and helps me repent in order to serve him and others before myself.
Some pain is due to our own foolish choices, some is due to being an innocent victim of the sin of others, and some is due to living in a fallen world of broken people. Eventually God will put and end to evil and suffering, establish righteousness, and restore the universe, but in his mercy he is presently withholding his final judgment until more people have come to be saved by trusting and obeying Jesus. The apostle Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Throughout history God has faithfully delivered millions of people who praise and rely on him. God saves those who turn to him every single time without exception. God will heal and deliver you also, but it will be in his perfect time and flawless method. He may perform miracles. He may deliver through natural means like modern medicine or counseling. He may work through other people. Or he may restore you instantly and completely by bringing you home to heaven.
The apostle Paul encouraged believers, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose…If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:18, 28, 31-32, 35, 37-39).
Move Forward in Faith and Thanksgiving
In all circumstances God calls you to trust and obey him even when you don’t understand why, when, or how. An example of this is the nation of Israel around 1500 BC. Through Moses God promised Israel he would deliver them from slavery in Egypt to inherit their own land flowing with milk and honey where they could worship him freely. However, in their flight from Egypt the Egyptian army pursued them. At a critical point they were surrounded by their enemy on one side and the sea on the other. Annihilation seemed imminent. Out of fear the people complained. They resented trusting God, listening to Moses, and even leaving Egypt as oppressive as it was. God replied by asking Moses why are they standing there crying. God had promised to deliver them and he always fulfills his promises. God told them to move forward in faith and see what he will do. Then he did the unimaginable. He parted the Red Sea and restrained the army while Israel, comprised of more than a million people, crossed over to safety. Afterward God released the army. They began crossing in order to attack, but God no longer held the water back and the army who had blasphemed God drowned (Exodus 14).
So when you feel pinned in from every side don’t lose hope or stand idly by in fear, doubt, bitterness, pity, or inability. Don’t even let pain dictate your life. Move forward in faith that God loves you, he sustains you, and he will deliver you through your trial or from your trial just as he promised.
Conclusion
If you follow Jesus you can expect difficulty (2 Tim 3:12). Jesus taught his followers, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Redeem suffering by thanking God amidst it. Instead of complaining or demanding to know why you are facing a trial, ask God to teach you and mature you through it. You don’t have to necessarily praise God for the trial itself, but you can and should praise God for the transformative results he will bring from the trail. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4). Thanksgiving shifts your perspective from you to God. It opens you up to listening and learning. It helps you stay positive. It reminds you of how great God is and of your need to rely on him. It transforms you to become more like Jesus, which better enables you to serve those around you with his love and salvation working in you and through you (Rom 5:1-5; 1 Peter 1:6-7, 5:8-11).
I realize this is much easier to write about than to live out, especially when you are hurting and feel misunderstood, desperate, or alone. If that’s where you are at right now, I’d like to conclude by encouraging you to pray the words of David, king of Israel, from Psalm 23. David experienced tremendous difficulty and suffering throughout his life, but he looked to God for solace and victory.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23).
Moving forward I pray that you continue to praise God through difficulty and rely on him to deliver you.
Note: Here are a few songs that might encourage you as you seek to praise God. Alive and Breathing by Matt Maher, How Great Thou Art performed by Hillsong and Lauren Daigle, Good God Almighty by David Crowder, and Come What May by We Are Messengers.