Counseling: Trials and Suffering Flashcards
Trials and suffering are unnatural
God’s original creation was very good (Gen. 1:31)
In the garden, Adam & Eve experienced perfect harmony with each other and with God (Gen 2)
Suffering entered God’s good creation as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin (Gen. 3)
physical suffering
- death (2:17, 3:19)
- painful childbearing (3:16)
- difficult work (3:17-19)
Relational suffering
- alienation from God (3:8-10;23-24)
- alienation between people (3:12)
- marital discord (3:17)
Emotional/psychological suffering
- guilt & shame (3:7-10)
- fear (3:8-10)
Suffering is universally experienced (Rom8:20-22)
What is the promise of Rom8:20-23
Promises freedom from suffering.
20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[a] including the new bodies he has promised us.
Why do believers suffer a little more sharply than non-believers
For the non-believer, this is their best life, but we know that this is not the way it is supposed to be, and we know that there is a better place than this.
Restaurant analogy:
What is worse than the food at a restaurant being bad, is knowing that there is a better place around the corner, but no one wants to go there, and so you have to suffer through your meal.
Does God suffer with us?
Yes
Sin and its consequences grieve God (Gen 6:5-6; Eph 4:30)
God immediately promised a coming rescuer who would defeat the Serpent and suffer in the process (Gen 3:15)
This promised rescuer who suffers -Jesus turns out to be God himself (John 1:1-3, 14; Phil. 2:5-11; Acts 20:28)
Jesus, The God-Man, took on flesh so that by dying he might destroy the one who brought death into God’s good creation, the devil (Heb. 2:14
Gen 6:5-6
5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.
What is the one thing that every bit of suffering is connected to?
Disobedience to God, this why counselors, call people to obedience because it is the absolute best way to live, and flourish
Will there ever be an end to suffering?
The curse pronounced in Genesis 3 will finally, be removed (Rev 22:3) and there will be no more suffering (Rev. 21:4)
As counselors are we trying to solve a problem?
No, we are not trying to solve problems, we are drawing people to a person to follow
Do we suffer as a result of our own sin?
David after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, the child conceived dies and his family unravels. All of this is predicted beforehand by the prophet Nathan as a direct result of David’s sin (1 Sam 12:9-12)
Ananias & Sapphira - The Lord strikes them dead after they lied to make themselves look more generous than they really were (Acts 5:1-11)
Should we take our suffering to God if our suffering is due to our own stupidity or sin?
Deuteronomy 8 shows that even when the Israelites were under God’s discipline, God still cared for them.
Hebrews 6:4 States that we can go before God’s throne to receive mercy
The proper response when our own sin causes our suffering is confession & repentance (2 Sam, 12:13, Ps 32, Ps 51), though this doesn’t necessarily remove sin’s consequence
When we suffer as a result of our own sin
We need to repent and seek mercy at God’s throne and ask God for the grace necessary for dealing with the consequences
The suffering of mystery
Job - though his friends argue incessantly that Job must have sinned to deserve his suffering, in reality, he was described by God himself this way “there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8)
The suffering for righteousness sake
Paul was stoned, whipped, beaten, imprisoned, threatened, slandered, deserted by friends, suffered poverty, all because of his efforts to spread the gospel and plant churches (2 cor 11:23-29)
Different Kinds of Suffering
- Suffering due to our own sin
- Suffering of mystery
- Suffering for righteousness
- Suffering of loss
The suffering of loss
Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus grieved over the death of their brother, and even Jesus himself, who was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, weeps (John 11)
God’s purposes in trials and suffering
God was sovereign over Jesus suffering (Acts 2:23; 427-28)
God was sovereign over Job’s suffering (Job 1:12;2:6)
God is sovreign over the suffering fo Christians (John 21:18-19; Acts 9:16; Rom 8:28-29; Rev 8:28-29; Rev 6:10-11)
