Bible Studies: When the going gets tough

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Bible Studies: When the going gets tough

Young sad man on stairs Words: Abi Colthurst

Picture it. You’re hearing a message in church or in a youth service about suffering. The preacher is referring to passages like 1 Peter 4:13 or Romans 8:17 which speak of how God uses suffering to teach us to be more like Him. He’s illustrating his point with examples of how suffering is like fire, sent to refine us into precious silver. It’s a megaphone in which God speaks to us louder than at any other time. It’s a rod or cane which disciplines us for our good, despite the pain. You’re being told that suffering, like any other part of our human experience is within the will of God, and that He knows what He’s doing with your life even when you feel He’s abandoned you.

{mosgoogle left} Suddenly, all this teaching feels kind of irrelevant. Ok, there have been a few hard things in your life, but generally, well, life is good! Things are going pretty well, God feels close by and it’s hard to put yourself in the situation that is being described to you. You look around the room, and hope this lesson is falling on the right ears – oh yes, the girl in the corner gets bullied at school – you hope she’s tuned in as this message must be for her. And then there’s that guy, a year older than you, whose Dad recently died...you hope he’s listening and finding this a helpful talk.

I have been in this exact situation before. I hear a message about going through suffering and apply it to everyone else in the room because I’m not going through a hard time at that moment. But you know, we’ve got it all wrong! When you’re the one in the centre of the trouble, when it’s your mum who has cancer, or when it’s you who failed all your exams, or you whose parents are getting divorced, the last thing you tend to do is read passages in the Bible about the fact that God is using those situations for your good. It doesn’t feel good, it hurts. It’s much more likely that at THAT point of your life, you will be switched off to what feel like cold rational teachings about suffering and you will be more concerned with how you’re going to live through another day of the nightmare which has become your life. And this is why it’s vital to listen up, and understand the teachings about suffering BEFORE suffering comes, in order that you are prepared inwardly for what hits you.

When is it a good time to learn about God’s plan for us through suffering? Today! While the sun is shining and you’re feeling blessed. It’s too late to pile up sand bags once the flood has already come, that’s why they are stacked up BEFOREHAND, so that things are not ruined when the floodwaters burst the banks of the rivers. In the same way, we need to be building up our knowledge and understanding of God before we are hit hard with trouble, so that when trouble comes, we have a shield of teaching to prevent us from crumbling spiritually into doubt and despair.

I once heard about a man who five years into his marriage, was already praying that God would prepare him and help him when his wife died. Was his wife sick? No! Did he have any reason to believe they would not live out some 50 years of happiness together? No. But he was preparing himself in advance for a time when he might not have the capacity to think through these things, as it would be too painful. Now, there is another side to this coin – God gives abundant and special grace to us at the point of our suffering, and so even if we are unprepared, God will give us supernatural ability to cope. But the point is this – why not build up for yourself sand bags of teaching today? It might feel irrelevant at the moment but one day you might be very glad that you got your head around some of the tougher truths of the Bible, while you were still able to think rationally. The truths you ask God to etch on your heart today could be the very support and comfort you need for tomorrow.

Why not do your own bible study and think through some of these things today? Here are some key passages to look up, which teach about suffering:

Romans 5:3-4 – Paul says suffering is character-building.
Romans 8: 17-18 – Paul says we share in Jesus’ sufferings on earth, and then we share in His glory in heaven.
James 1:2-18 – James describes sufferings as a kind of test, for our good, and to lead us on to a new level of spiritual maturity.
1 Peter 1: 3-9 gives us an eternal perspective on suffering.
1 Peter 2:19-25 shows us how we can be witnesses for God by the way we deal with suffering in our lives.
1 Peter 4:12-16 – Peter tells us that suffering is a way of sharing in Christ’s experiences more fully.
Matthew 5:9-12 – Jesus tells us we are ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’ when we are persecuted, look at the passage to find out why.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 –“When I am weak then I am strong” This passage describes how suffering can be a good thing because it shows God’s power in contrast to our weakness.