Why Good Christians Suffer: PART 19
- Grantley Morris
- 2 hours ago
- 16 min read
Why did the twelve apostles in Jerusalem rejoice that they had been “counted worthy” to be flogged for Jesus’ sake (Acts 5:40-41)?
When writing about Bible Heroes in Biblical Examples of Unanswered Prayer & the Implications for Us (listed in the links at the end of this page) I have expounded on other Scriptures confirming what a privilege it is to suffer for our Lord. That portion of the webpage is so relevant to our current discussion that I am sorely tempted to repeat it here. The entire webpage has so much other useful and inspiring information, however, that rather than add to the reading of those keen enough to read both pages, I suggest reading it (if you haven’t already) after completing this page.
What if you can’t find the answers you crave?
If you are perplexed by God’s actions or inaction, you are in excellent company. What I wrote decades ago rushes to mind:
God’s saints accomplish great things while staggering around in dazed bewilderment. “By faith,” says Scripture, “Abraham . . . went out, went out, not knowing where he went.” “I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, said Paul, “not knowing what will happen to me there.” The disciples were frequently stunned or mystified by Christ’s words and behavior. The psalmists were forever asking, “Why?”
Psalm 10:1 Why do you stand far off, Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
Psalm 42:9 I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
Psalm 43:2 . . . Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Psalm 44:23 Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? . . .
Psalm 74:1 God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
Psalm 88:14 Lord, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
And in the midst of his suffering, Job didn’t have a clue what was going on.
It’s exciting to gaze ahead, but faith grows best in the dark. Life in the sunshine is so exhilarating that we seldom notice our faith beginning to droop. It’s when things are dim, that spiritual life mushrooms.
Don’t for a moment think I have anything close to all the answers I yearn for. Most of my Christian life has been tormented by questions. Answers might have come after interminable years (often decades) but only to be replaced by equally vexatious ones.
It happened even while writing this webpage. Despite writing being fundamental to my calling, it has always been a frustratingly time-consuming, mentally taxing process for me. Remember me earlier saying how I used to want to be God’s mindless typing machine, but God valued my contribution? Well, the human effort it takes is one consequence. It is living proof, among what must be literally millions of examples, debunking the myth that if something is of God it should be easy and painless. (George Müller, for instance, though famous for a life filled with daily financial miracles, kept finding that lifestyle a burden– see note below.
How would you like to amass so much wealth that you could educate 122,683 children; buy 282,000 Bibles and one and a half million New Testaments; give away 112 million books, pamphlets and tracts; support hundreds of missionaries; and feed, clothe and house 10,000 children from the time they were orphaned until becoming independent? George Müller did. And he achieved this not by sweat and business acumen, not by garage sales and mailing lists, not by borrowing or asking for help, but solely by faith and prayer. He refused to let his needs be known to anyone but God. Fifty times in just one two-year period there were insufficient funds to see them through the day, yet what was needed always came in time.
Though Müller enjoyed God’s miraculous provision daily for more than sixty years, the life of faith never grew easy for him. Even in his later years when he gained international fame, he still had to pray in every penny, often having to economize and wait virtually to the death knock before it arrived. The Lord so believed in Müller and so cared for his continued spiritual development that he kept the tests coming for sixty years until finally granting him a financially easier life when Müller entered his late eighties.
For months, I had sacrificed much ministry to allow time to write this webpage. That devastated me as much as seeing people all around me in anguish and not lifting a finger to help them. The Lord kept giving me thoughts for this webpage, however, and I dare not squander his precious gift by not making time to faithfully recording them. Other than my distress over how much ministry this was preventing me from doing, I was amazed at how well I was coping and very grateful. Then I began to suffer some sort of mental exhaustion. It was like trying to think straight while severely sleep deprived. Sometimes I was so incapacitated that I would do things like go to a teller machine and leave behind the cash I had just withdrawn. I often wondered if it were safe for me to drive. Yes, the Almighty could have changed all of this but you will not find me going on strike; demanding God make it easier before I serve him.
This mental fog stripped me of even more ministry time, and instead of being able to catch up on sleep, I found myself wasting countless hours; too tired to do anything and yet, for some mysterious reason, adequate sleep kept eluding me. I don’t think torturous thoughts over wasted time were the culprit, but they certainly kept me entertained while lying awake for hours on end trying to sleep. Adding to my distress was that for years, readership of my webpages had been significantly declining and I was unable to find the strength to do anything about it. I was strongly tempted to wonder if God had virtually given up on me and no longer wanted to use me.
With the benefit of hindsight (and the return of the ability to think a little clearer) I know that, as always, the Lord has taught me much through all these struggles, I would not in a million years trade an easier life for what I have learned. One of the benefits was the reminder that all of us are important to God, not because he needs us, but because he loves us. If we are sidelined, God is not handicapped. It is critical that we be faithful to whatever task he assigns us. If, however, the Almighty refuses to perform the miracle necessary for us to meet a particular need, we can rest in the assurance that he has a better plan that does not require our services.
A long time ago, I read an anecdote about a famous missionary pioneer who had achieved astonishingly much for the kingdom of God. Although the precise details have faded from my memory, I was so shocked that the impact has remained. Friends were lamenting what a loss his death would be. He replied it would simply mean one less person to mess up God’s plans. I had always thought his remarks were extreme. Through what I have now learned, however, I am sobered by how true it is, not only of me but of even the greatest of us. Like letting a three-year-old help bake a cake, us serving God is a beautiful act of love on behalf of both parties. Nevertheless, in practical terms, our contribution hinders the Flawless One, rather than helps him.
My primary point, however, is that in the midst of all that was overwhelming me, I was completely mystified as to why God would allow any of it.
Although it remained frustrating, what empowered me to cope was rebuilding my trust in God. A little later, I will provide some tips on how to receive more answers. Among the many things that all my years of questions have taught me, however, one of the most important is this: the trust that lets us snuggle into God and rest in him is a priceless jewel, alongside which even the most satisfying answers are mere trinkets. Remember that quote from the victim of Nazi atrocities: “When you know God, you don’t need to know why.” Knowing that God is trustworthy comes not from knowing a thousand facts about God but from knowing him. It comes from countless hours of heart to heart communing with him.
If, to you, trusting God suggests warm, peaceful feelings, think again. Snuggling into God can sometimes be like a terrified or bewildered child rushing to his mother, flinging his arms around her, and burying his head in her bosom, while continuing to feel distraught. Resting in God can at times mean mustering every speck of willpower to force yourself to be still when everything within you yearns to run away in panic-stricken fear or disgust.
Mark 11:24 . . . whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them . . .
James 1:5-6 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God . . . But let him ask in faith, without any doubting . . .
A divine principle hides in those Scriptures: faith comes first and is preeminent. As God expects us to trust him without having yet received any answer to prayer, so he expects us to trust him without having received any answers to the questions screaming in our head. Answers might eventually come but faith comes first.
We expect answers before we will trust, but God expects us to trust before he gives answers. Yes, some answers we would have to accept by faith anyhow because even if we heard them they would not ring true to our tiny mind. And some answers we could not hear or accept until after trust has done its work in quieting our spirit. Even with answers we could understand or hear, however, the Lord usually keeps quiet until we have resolved to hold on to him by raw faith without the answers we clamor for.
We think it only right that answers come first, but the God who is always right insists that trust comes first. We can dig our heels in and grow exceedingly stubborn over this, but the one who is right even when we think he is wrong, is even more stubborn than us. If we refuse to give in, the impasse can last a lifetime. For as long as it takes for us to surrender, however, we will be needlessly hurting ourselves and robbing ourselves of peace.
Just as it would be ridiculously insulting to our intelligence, let alone to God, to think we might be more powerful than the Almighty or know more than him, so it would be equally ridiculous to think we might be more compassionate than the God who died for us, or more moral than the terrifyingly holy and flawlessly good Lord.
Faith is taking God at his word – the God whose word keeps our every atom and the entire universe from disintegrating (Hebrews 1:3). It is stubbornly choosing to believe what he says and refusing to be swayed by every indication to the contrary.
Earlier, I spoke of me being tormented by questions, but that was more illusion than reality. It is actually doubts, not questions, that torment. Doubts come not from lack of answers but from lack of faith.
Faith: Our Responsibility
Matthew 8:10 When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel.”
Matthew 9:22 But Jesus, turning around and seeing her, said, “Daughter, cheer up! Your faith has made you well.” . . .
Matthew 13:58 He didn’t do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Matthew 14:31 Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.” . . .
Matthew 16:8 Jesus, perceiving it, said, “Why do you reason among yourselves, you of little faith, ‘because you have brought no bread?’
Matthew 21:32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
Mark 5:36 . . . “Don’t be afraid, only believe.”
Luke 8:25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” . . .
Luke 12:28 But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?
John 1:50 Jesus answered him, “Because I told you, ‘I saw you underneath the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these!”
John 3:12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
John 6:36 But I told you that you have seen me, and yet you don’t believe.
John 8:45-6 . . . If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
John 10:38 . . . though you don’t believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.
John 14:10-11 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
John 16:9 about sin, because they don’t believe in me
John 16:31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
John 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”
Like obedience, faith (taking God at his word) is our responsibility, not God’s. This is shown, for example, by Jesus repeatedly singling out individuals to praise them for their faith and rebuking others for their lack of faith.
It is not a matter of waiting for God to magically drop faith in our lap; it is a matter of digging deep to muster the faith that, despite not seeming to be there, God has already buried within us.
In the midst of my turmoil and unanswered questions I resolved to increase my faith that God is trustworthy; deciding that regardless of how things seemed and how I felt, I can rest in the certainty that God is greater than me – greater in power, greater in love, greater in goodness and greater in every other desirable thing – and that he has every concern in hand, even when I cannot see how. By choosing this act of faith, I slammed the door in the tormenter’s face. The questions remained but they ceased to torment.
Peace came, not as some uncontrollable act of God but as the logical consequence of my refusal to doubt him, no matter how defiantly doubts might rise. Since it is common for feelings not to respond to logic, I kept on believing, regardless of whether feelings of peace or feelings or feelings of anxiety flooded my heart. To let feelings hold my faith hostage and determine whether or not I believe, would be ridiculous.
We have a tendency to regard faith and peace almost as if they were beyond our control when actually, like obedience, they are activated more by willpower than by waiting for some type of spiritual ‘magic’ to happen.
The Lord recently told my wife she should flush doubts, fears and hurts down the toilet whenever they came. That sounds rather gross but the image was deliberate. He explained that although she often drops offensive things such as doubt and resentment, she tends to pick them up again later. It seems the Lord chose the toilet analogy for two reasons. First, to flush anything down a toilet is to make a one-off decision to make its retrieval almost impossible. That’s important. Unfortunately, however, we humans have a tendency to renege on our decisions. That introduces the second reason: if, once flushed, there remains the slight chance of retrieval, the thought of what one would have to do to try to get it back would be enough to significantly reduce the temptation to even consider it.
The Lord was saying (and I believe it applies to us all) that what my wife does with her fears, doubts and hurts is up to her, not him. Nevertheless, the wise and spiritual response is to flush them away the moment they come, and just as she would not want to put her hand in a sewer, so she should recoil from picking up these disgusting things again.
Faith heroes, no matter how great, can be riddled with doubts, fears and hurts. They just keep on clinging to faith and obedience regardless. That’s what makes them heroes.
So being plagued with such things as doubts is of no spiritual consequence. Refusing to trust God, however, is entirely different. That is alarmingly serious. To refuse to trust until we receive answers that satisfy us would be to refuse to let God be our God. It would be to reject him as our God and install ourselves in the place that all logic and conscience screams belongs to him alone. It would be arrogantly and rebelliously usurping God and making ourselves our highest moral authority, or honoring ourselves as the greatest source of wisdom, or as the most dependable power in our lives – the one most lovingly committed and supernaturally endowed to looking after our best interests.
Praising God, thanking him and deliberately stirring ourselves to rejoice in him are powerful ways of building trust and receptivity to hearing from God. So is obedience. (How can we discover how brilliantly his plans work unless we try them?) Humility is also important if we are to receive much in the way of revelation. And we need to seek divine answers both through prayer and through Bible study. For more help in finding answers, see the link at the end of this webpage: Receive More Spiritual Revelation: The Help You Need to Find Deep Spiritual Secrets.
For now, however, let me focus on how to build trust in God and know him better.
Having had the privilege of supporting many trauma victims, I understand how trauma powerfully etches into one’s mind a long-passed horror, keeping the memory as vivid as if it has just happened and frustratingly stronger than memories of all the good, subsequent years. Alongside the trauma, the good things feel as if they barely ever happened. This afflicts these dear people with a distorted perception of current reality that perpetuates their distress and anxiety.
I am not touting it as a quick or complete cure, but I believe that lessening the distortion and increasing these people’s feeling of security can be helped by deliberately and regularly recalling all the good things they have experienced, and everything that means they are now safe. It takes time, but I think that dwelling on such positives can help restore some balance in their perception of current reality that trauma stole from them.
The tendency for things to slip out of a healthy, realistic balance can apply not just to what we might call trauma but to other forms of unpleasantness. As disturbing as it to suffer a distorted view of everyday reality, however, what is even worse is that it can distort our view of spiritual reality; preventing us from seeing God as being as good and trustworthy as he really is.
Let’s approach this from another angle: if we usually spend a total of one hour a day thinking about God, this seems quite an achievement and yet it means our mind usually spends 23 times more a day dwelling on things other than God. Should, then, we be surprised if other things seem several times more real to us than God?
I am not suggesting anything extreme. I have tried and tried, and failed and failed to do much to redress this imbalance in my own life. I think becoming obsessive about it, exhausting ourselves and/or condemning ourselves for not doing more, could prove counterproductive by making it a burden and turning our perception of God into a harsh taskmaster. Might it prove beneficial, however, for a tiny move toward thinking a little more often about God each day? There is certainly no shortage of biblical incentives to give it a go. Here’s just a small sample:
Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
Acts 16:24-25 . . . threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God . . .
Psalm 34:1 . . . I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.
Psalm 63:6 when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches.
Psalm 119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you, because of your righteous ordinances.
Psalm 119:148 My eyes stay open through the night watches, that I might meditate on your word.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates.
Romans 8:5 . . . those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 4:18 . . . we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Ephesians 5:19-20 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice!”
Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night . . .
Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked . . . but his delight is in the Lord’s law. On his law he meditates day and night
Psalm 73:25 Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
Psalm 88:1 . . . I have cried day and night before you.
Psalm 119:97 How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.
Psalm 119:164 Seven times a day, I praise you, because of your righteous ordinances.
Psalm 145:1-2 . . . I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you. I will extol your name forever and ever.
In the Psalm 119:62 reference to midnight above, it helps to realize that in an era before electricity, late night shopping, and so on, midnight was ludicrously late.
The Story So Far
It seems likely to me that the more our mind keeps dwelling on the negative, the larger it will loom in our perception of reality. As I wrote years ago: praise magnifies God; the alternative magnifies the problem. The last thing we need is to see God as tiny and the problem magnified.
I believe praising God, thanking him and deliberately rejoicing, plays a critical role in healing this distortion.
Praising, and especially rejoicing, takes considerable effort. I believe the very effort, however, helps intensify the positive in our consciousness, thus making these spiritual activities particularly powerful in correcting any imbalance in our mind caused by unpleasant experiences.
Links Referred to Above
(Best Left Until After Reading This Entire Series)