'suffering' Tagged Posts
The God for Sufferers
The book of Job chronicles the title character, Job, and his miserable suffering: he lost everything but life itself. There are not too many people that can claim his experience. As Job suffers, God reveals himself to Job. As in each book of the Bible, the book of Job is ultimately a revelation of God himself—who he is and what he does. In other words, the book of Job is ultimately about God—the God a sufferer needs. In particular, the…
Where Is God in Suffering?
A recent online poll shows interesting data on what Americans believe about God and suffering. Most Americans, roughly 80%, say that suffering in the world comes from people, not from God. Another 44% (indicating you could choose more than one answer) say that Satan is responsible for most of the suffering in the world. This data is good to know. My question (as always) is what does the Bible say about God and suffering? Arguably, no one in the Bible…
Does God Promise to Work Out All Things for Good?
I have gone on record in saying that Bible passages we think we know the most we know the least (see here and here). This is not any less true with Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” This verse is often used to give hope and encouragement during suffering and trials. Often this verse is understood to say something like: Everything bad…
Does God Still Reign?
At the beginning of 2015, I preached a sermon (which you can find here) titled “God Reigns in 2015.” I argued that despite all the uncertainty in the world, God still reigns. In the sermon I used the following examples of uncertainty in our world: Robin Williams death by suicide, the Ebola crisis in West Africa, and Malaysian Flight 370 vanishing during a routine flight. Not to diminish any of these uncertainties, but Covid-19, stock market crash, and political and…