Suffering | Wayne Stiles

Archives For Suffering

Posts by Wayne Stiles related to suffering.

Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt

Any woman who has experienced childbirth understands it.

Any helpless man who has witnessed childbirth, like me (twice), understands it to a degree. That’s why the Bible uses the experience of childbirth as a metaphor of our lives.

Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt

(Photo: By D. Sharon Pruitt from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA. CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves . . . groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. —Romans 8:22–23

We would all love to have an emotional epidural to where we didn’t feel the pain of life. But that won’t happen.

God doesn’t give us a way to avoid the hurt.

But He does tell us what to think so we can make it through the struggle.

Why We Should Remember the Holocaust Today

At ten o’clock this morning, sirens rang loud in Israel.

People stopped—wherever they were, whatever they were doing—and stood at attention for 120 seconds of complete silence.

Imagine that for a moment. Two minutes. Silence. Everywhere.

800px Yad Vashem Hall of Names by David Shankbone Why We Should Remember the Holocaust Today

(Photo: Hall of Names in Jerusalem’s Holocaust Museum, by David Shankbone, CC-BY-SA-3.0)

Then the sirens rang again, and life resumed—full-speed. This annual pause allows the nation to remember the six million Jews who were murdered simply because they were Jews.

Today’s date marks Yom Hashoah, known as Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, the Jewish holiday that remembers those who perished in the Holocaust.

Many times I have visited Jerusalem’s Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem.

It changes you.

Finding Hope in Jesus’ Transfiguration

Sometimes we need a good dose of hope and encouragement.

We can get so obsessed with the weight of our cross that we forget Jesus showed us what lies beyond it. Today’s hardships can distract us from tomorrow’s hope.

Finding Hope in Jesus Transfiguration1 Finding Hope in Jesus Transfiguration

(Photo by Andrew Storms Happiness CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Jesus’ Transfiguration wasn’t some sideshow He did one day for fun. It came at a point when the disciples desperately needed some hope.

Scripture records it to offer us the same thing.

Some hope when we need it most.

Reconciling Pain and Prayer with God’s Love

Because God can stop our pain, we think He should.

So we pray. And pray. But nothing happens.

Sad Woman Reconciling Pain and Prayer with Gods Love

(Photo by Jiri Hodan. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

That’s what occurred with Mary and Martha. They sent a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus lay sick. But instead of immediately traveling to Bethany, Jesus stayed right where He was beyond the Jordan River. When He finally did arrive, Lazarus had been dead four days.

In other words, Jesus had taken His sweet time showing up.

From what happened next, I see several lessons to help us reconcile pain and prayer with God’s love.

Surrendering Your Will to God in Difficult Times

I have discovered that the most difficult battles in life simply mirror Jesus’ struggle in Gethsemane.

His words to the Father remain the most challenging words we could utter:

“Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” —Luke 22:42

Garden of Gethsemane olive trees tb051906423 Surrendering Your Will to God in Difficult Times

(Photo: Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus surrendered His will. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

Surrendering your will to God in difficult times is often harder than the trial itself.

I have found that my greatest challenges come not from those circumstances that press in upon me, but from the internal struggle to surrender my will to God. I enter Gethsemane daily and have to drag my will to the Father in prayer.

(So do you.)

Apply the Wisdom of Creation to Your Struggles

The awesomeness of creation exists as more than beauty for us to observe.

In spite of the chaos in our culture, the world screams of order in its origin. Its predictable seasons and trustworthy laws of nature reveal wisdom in its design.

Laser Towards Milky Ways Centre Wallpaper Apply the Wisdom of Creation to Your Struggles

(Photo by http://www.ForestWander.com (CC-BY-SA-3.0), via Wikimedia Commons)

The wisdom of creation we see is explained in the Bible we read. Wisdom played such an integral role in creation that the author of Proverbs 8 personifies it as a person present with God:

“Before the hills I was brought forth . . . When He established the heavens, I was there . . . When He marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was beside Him, as a master workman”—Proverbs 8:25–33

God’s wisdom displayed in the wonders we see also proves His wisdom in all areas of life.

Including the painful ones.

How to Fix Foundation Problems in Your Spiritual Life

Years ago, my grandmother’s 1909 house got a fresh layer of wallpaper.

But only weeks later, I noticed in a high corner the wallpaper had buckled, and in some places, it had even split.

foundation problems1 How to Fix Foundation Problems in Your Spiritual Life

When I asked her about it she said: “Oh, the house needs foundation work. Every time the seasons change and the wind blows a different direction, the whole house shifts.”

That made sense. For years I shaved inches off most of the doors trying to get them to close. But the repair only lasted until the wind shifted again.

Look closely at the lives of your friends and family. Maybe even your own life.

You’ll see this old house’s problem in vivid display.

Why God Allows Us to Crash and Hurt

I’ll never forget the day when one of my daughters learned to ride her bike without training wheels. (The “fall” was an appropriate season for this event.)

As she sped down a hill toward a huge ravine, I saw written all over her face the message: “I’m not in control!”

vivozoom 51493686 w 2 Why God Allows Us to Crash and Hurt

Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Vivozoom

As she raced by me, I reached out and lifted her off the bike—saving her from the ravine but causing her to fall. As the bike launched into the abyss, my rescued daughter hopped up hotter than a hornet!

“Why did you do that, Daddy?!” To answer, I simply pointed to the bottomless gorge I saved her from. But that didn’t matter. All she could see was that I caused her to fall.

Years later, I pondered how we can carry this same attitude into our relationship with God.

The Problem of Evil and a God of Love

We live in a world where it seems God turns a deaf ear to pain and evil.

Children hunger, immorality runs rampant, injustice occurs in the courts, and our loved ones die of cancer.

All under the nose of an all-powerful God of love.

noevil The Problem of Evil and a God of Love

It feels as if He were a God of love and justice and power, He would and could remove all evil. As it is, evil remains. So do our feelings of confusion.

In a forgotten corner of the Hebrew Scriptures we catch a glimpse of this seeming contradiction with the problem of evil as well as its resolution.

Envy Grabbing You? Here are 4 Tips for Freedom

For some reason, we tend to envy others.

Big time.

Be it a car, a position, a house, or a spouse, we want it. There just seems to be part of our nature that sees what we don’t have as what we need.

envy Envy Grabbing You? Here are 4 Tips for Freedom

Photo: iofoto, via Vivozoom

No matter what season of life we’re in, we tend to feel dissatisfied with who we are, or what we have, compared to someone else.

The teenager wants to be an adult.
The single wants to be married.
Those with no kids want kids.
Those with kids look forward to the empty nest.
The retired person longs for the seasons past.

If you’re not enjoying where you are today—and always looking for something better, something new, something else—then you’ll never have freedom in life.

Never.