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Lesson OneSuffering Comes With The Freedom To Choose5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoSuffering Reveals What Is In Our Hearts5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeSuffering Takes Us To The Edge Of Eternity5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourGod Can Turn Suffering Around For Our Good5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FivePain Can Warn Us Of Danger5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SixIn Times Of Crisis We Find One Another5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SevenSuffering Gives Opportunity To Trust God5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson EightPain Loosens Our Grip On This Life5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson NineGod Suffers With Us In Our Suffering5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TenGod's Comfort Is Greater Than Our Suffering5 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 1
Discussion Questions
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Douglas Geivett said that people sometimes respond to suffering by becoming bitter against God or by rejecting Him. Can you identify some Bible characters who displayed those responses?
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Cain was bitter and killed his brother. Joseph’s brothers were bitter because they were jealous of his favor with their father. Naomi was bitter against God because of the loss of her husband and sons.
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The Israelites during the Exodus and the time of the Judges often let their crises lead them to complain against God and become bitter about what they perceived as His neglect of their needs.
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Paul Brand spoke of patients “taking off the mask” in private. Why do you think it is important for God to unmask our hearts—even if suffering is required to accomplish it?
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Without being unmasked we cannot see and know our true selves and therefore cannot begin to work towards being better people – the kind of people that God wants us to be.
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By taking the mask off of our hearts, God is able to reach our hearts, and this is where the change needs to happen. Sometimes the suffering gets us to the real issue in our hearts that a would never have been found without suffering. God loves us so much He will use suffering to help us get to the root cause of the issues of our heart. God is able to show us what real love is in order for us to have the heart change for Him that He is seeking from us.
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We use our “masks” to hide from God just as Adam and Eve hid from Him in the Garden of Eden. We sense that somehow we are naked and fear exposure. God unmasks us so that we can see ourselves clearly and so that we can recognize that God’s love is complete and unconditional.
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Think about the amount of pressure required to transform coal into a diamond. What would be the human counterpoint of that necessity for pressure? How can pressure affect us?
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I would venture to say that the life itself is the pressure we endure. Like the lecture said, our reaction to that pressure is what is intriguing. We want things to be easy, and when suffering happens we want to find someone to blame for it – too often that is God. However, without the pressures of life we would not grow prepared for the challenges down the road. Without being poor as a child the adult might not know the value of money. Without the loss of a loved one early on the adult might not appreciate who they have in their lives now. To end, here is a sports analogy. After a great regular season a team goes into the playoffs and gets knocked out in the 1st round. The following year they win the championship after another strong regular season. What to do we always hear sports pundits say? “They needed to learn how to lose before they could win.” And no one disagrees. They are think that it is spot on. So why so different with life and suffering?
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We are creatures of ease. We want things with minimal effort. How often I hear my kids or my students say. “It’s too hard!” They have no perseverance to push through and learn what they can do. I think pressure is necessary so that we will get beyond feelings of things being hard. In truth, life is hard. But knowing that you don’t have to go through the pressure alone, knowing that the pressure is under the submission of a God Who loves you beyond all imagining, means that the pressure will bring about good. It will bring about strength. It will get you to the best place God has for you if you choose to trust Him in it. We get to choose to accept or reject God’s best.
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The pressures that form us as human beings primarily come through relationships. Proverbs 27:17 states it this way: As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. We can accept that sharpening or resist it.