Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Why do we suffer? It's one of the oldest questions in the human experience. But whether it's developing faith or cultivating humility, suffering is always purposeful in the hands of God. A.W. Tozer once said, "It's doubtful God can use anyone greatly until he has hurt him deeply."

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll explores five reasons we suffer and why God's Word is the one thing that will stabilize you in the middle of your pain. This message comes from his study of 2 Thessalonians. Chuck titled today's message, "Light for Dark Days."

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: Before I talk about the Thessalonians and the things they went through and the things Paul said to them, I thought I ought to share with the congregation five reasons we suffer. Understand there may be fifty reasons, but these five are clearly set forth on several occasions in the Scriptures.

First, personally to develop faith. No one can have a strong faith who does not go through periods of suffering. If you'd like to add verses in support of these things, why don't you choose James 1:2-4? Second, we go through suffering doctrinally to expose wrong. There is nothing like some suffering to expose to us and reveal to us wrong in our lives.

That would be a doctrinal reason we suffer. Paul wrote the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:30, "For this cause many of you are weak and sickly, and some of you have died." He had reference to a time of suffering and illness that had swept across the church because of wrongdoing. While you're at it, you might add along with 1 Corinthians 11:30, James 5:13-16, where we are told to confess our faults to one another and we will be healed, suggesting in the context that we are going through a time of difficulty where healing is needed and there is wrong that needs to be confessed.

Third, vertically, let's call this, to learn obedience. Vertically we suffer to learn obedience. Hebrews 5:8 states, "Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience through the things that he suffered." Obedient people don't just emerge automatically and indifferently on the surface of the earth. They have learned through suffering to obey.

Now that brings me to the horizontal reason we suffer. Horizontally, to cultivate humility. To cultivate humility, to develop faith, to expose wrong, to learn obedience, to cultivate a humble heart. Let's use 2 Corinthians 12:7 for this one, where the apostle says twice in the same verse, "That I might not be exalted above measure." God sent Paul a thorn in the flesh, and it kept him from being arrogant and proud.

Ultimately, fifth, ultimately to glorify God. How easy to leave that one out. To glorify God. I quoted 1 Peter 4:12-13 earlier. Let me quote verse 16. "If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God." That's 1 Peter 4:16.

So let me encourage you over the next five or six days to commit to memory these five reasons we suffer. Tuck them away in one of the creases of your brain. You have a little room left up there to put something important. Let's insert these thoughts in the next several days. We suffer to develop faith, to expose wrong, to learn obedience, to cultivate humility, and to glorify God.

Let me add this. I have never, ever met a Christian whom I admired, whose life was deeply used by Christ, who was a stranger to suffering. Never. I don't think I ever will. Tozer was right. It's doubtful God can use anyone greatly until he has hurt him deeply. Listen when God speaks in your pain. Listen to him.

Now, having said all of those things about why we suffer, let's spend a few minutes finding out four ways to encourage those who are suffering. In the little letter Paul wrote the Thessalonians for the second time, we find tucked away in the last five verses four ways to help people going through the fiery ordeal.

I want to go through them one by one. No need to make them sound more profound than they are. They stand from God's Word as wonderful techniques in ministering to the suffering. Some of you are better adept at this than others. And those of you who are ministering to the hurting, remember the counsel from this passage.

Now, these Thessalonians were going through hard times. I just learned this week in my study that Pliny the Elder during the days of the Roman Empire stated the first place Gentile Christians were killed was Thessalonica. It may have been that the first Christian family among the Gentiles was killed between the two letters Paul wrote the Thessalonians.

It may have been that just recently the congregation had buried one of its earliest members. It may have been a widow that he had in mind, whose husband stood unreservedly for the things of Christ and paid the maximum price and died a martyr. So we're not surprised when we come to verse 13 to discover that the first response in encouraging the suffering is compassion.

"But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord." It must have been wonderful to hear words like, "I give thanks to God for you," and, "You are, brethren, beloved by the Lord." Those two statements drip with compassion. The first one upholds the dignity of each individual who is suffering. I give thanks to God for you.

And the second affirms their security in the family of God. You know who often needs this, men and women? Our children. Our children are being beaten up, assaulted, bruised, and hammered away at by a world system that hates the things they believe in and stand for. And the one place they can find hugs and embraces of reassurance is at home. Or can they?

What is the last time you simply put your arms around your child, though he or she may be half grown or fully grown, looked him in the eye a moment and said, "I love you dearly. I give God thanks for you. You are beloved by the Lord"? One man wrote, "Compassion is not a snob gone slumming. Did you ever take a real trip down inside the broken heart of a friend to feel the sob of the soul, the raw red crucible of emotional agony, to have this become almost as much yours as that of your soul-crushed neighbor? Then to sit down with him and silently weep. This is the beginning of compassion."

Oh, we need that. Oh, we Evangelicals need that. We are so quick to shoot and so slow to heal. So quick to put them out of their misery, get rid of them, and to heal them back into dignity and life. David Niven, before he was a popular American film star, was a British officer helping in the mop-up of those days in Europe when Germany had just surrendered.

Coming out of the scenes of those days is a story that Niven tells in a work I have read, and it goes like this. "I passed a farm wagon headed for the village. I glanced casually at the two men sitting up behind the horse. Both wore typical farmer headgear, and sacks were thrown over their shoulders, protecting them from a light drizzle.

"We were just past them when something made me slam on the brakes and back up. I was right. The man who was not driving was wearing field boots. I slipped out from behind the wheel, pulled my revolver from its holster, and told the corporal to cover me with his Tommy gun. I gestured to the men to put their hands over their heads and told them in fumbling German to produce their papers.

"'I speak English,' said the one with the field boots. 'This man has papers. I have none.' 'Who are you?' I asked. He told me his name and his rank. General. 'We are not armed,' he added. I saluted and then motioned to them to lower their hands. 'Where are you coming from, sir?' He looked down at me. I had never seen such utter weariness, such blank despair on a human face before.

"He passed a hand over the stubble of his chin and quietly said, 'Berlin.' 'Where are you going, sir?' I asked. He looked ahead down the road towards the village and closed his eyes and said, 'Home. It's not far now. Only one more kilometer.' I didn't say anything.

"We were quite still for a long time, and then I said, 'Go ahead, sir.' Almost as though in pain, he closed his eyes and raised his head, and then with a sobbing intake of breath, covered his face with both hands, and they drove on." That is compassion.

Knowing that we have someone right where we want them, knowing we have them in their most vulnerable state, and even as in this case, having given themselves to the worst kind of leader with the wrongest of motives, we are ready to pull a revolver and shoot rather than say, "You're trying to find your way home, aren't you? Come on home." Some of those strugglers, I repeat, are our children. Help them find their way home.

After compassion is the need for instruction. And I don't necessarily give these to you in a one-two-three fashion. They might change in the process of time as you express these to your suffering friend. But I think instruction is also needed for the hurting or by the hurting. Notice how he puts it in verse 13.

"We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this he called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, anyone who reads those two verses will tell you, and you will observe, there's a lot of theology there. And there's no reason for excuse. Sometimes the one thing that is needed to stabilize the suffering believer is a sound dose of carefully presented theology. The reminder that God has chosen you for salvation. You're still in his family, though you may not feel like it.

He has called you through the gospel. He did the calling. You didn't whistle for help. You were the result of his love, not your love for him. He is on your side. If God be for us, who can be against us? He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sound theology. Strong theology. Given to the person who questions his own worth.

Remember the last time you were really hurting? It may be today. I mean, the bottom really had dropped out of your life. You didn't feel worth that much to God. And you banged on the door of heaven, and it was as though the heavens were brass. You wondered, "Where has God gone?" Wouldn't it have been helpful if a friend came alongside and said, "God hasn't left. God's never moved. He's here with you, and the circumstances you're going through cause you to forget that you have been chosen from the beginning for salvation. You have been set apart by the Spirit and by faith in the truth. It was for this reason he called you through the gospel. You're still in his family."

I got a very moving piece of mail by special mailing this past week. I don't know the lady who sent it and may never meet her. She lives in another city, in another state. But her close friend is hurting, and she happens to be in a hospital here in our area in Southern California. And she said to me in the letter, "Chuck, we've never met, but I appreciate what you're doing, and I don't know how to ask you but just upfront. If it's possible someday for you to drop by, my friend is going through a terrible time."

And she described this awful case of malignancy. It is so precarious that if this woman moves her neck hurriedly, she will literally break her neck at that vulnerable spot, and she'll be paralyzed from her shoulders down. And so none of the nurses feel comfortable ministering with her because of the fear of a lawsuit that they caused the break.

And so on top of the physical illness and the bleak tomorrow of her life, she feels isolated. I did drop by that day. And I found the most pathetic scene you would ever want to see. Here is a woman in a brace whose chin is propped high by this chest brace she wears all the time. And it looked as though there were spikes that were in her neck. I saw blood running from one, holding her in this incredibly erect position, just like this.

Can you imagine living your days in a hospital room away from your family and friends braced like that all the time? I stepped in, and the light of her presence was incredible. She cheerfully greeted me. I moved closer to her, and after establishing a bit of a brief friendship, I had the privilege of sharing with her some sound theology. It was a wonderful moment.

Not only did she come to know Christ, and not only did she respond beautifully to the whole message of Christianity, but she said, "Would you come back?" Well, I went back in about twenty minutes, to tell you the truth. And I took a few things that I thought might help her that someone could read to her or perhaps she could read.

And what I shared with her was much the same as what we just read. That she has been chosen from the beginning for salvation. That there is a purpose and there is a reason in the midst of all of this trouble. And God alone knows it. And he isn't absent. And now in that room at all times, there is a guest, there is a friend, there is the Savior.

Who hasn't struggled with what C.S. Lewis wrote about in *A Grief Observed*? "Meanwhile," he writes, "where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, you will be welcomed with open arms. But go to him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting, a double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away."

I've felt that at times, I got to confess to you. That's gutsy writing. Christian writers don't like to put things down like that. Doesn't sound right. But it's true. Haven't you heard the door shut? Haven't you heard the bolt lock? Haven't you heard the silence of heaven? It's when you're at rock bottom and there is nobody to tell you the truth, and your mind plays terrible tricks on you and you start believing the tricks. It's awful.

At times like this, the sufferer needs instruction. Arms around him or her, words spoken tactfully and at just the right time. You're able to give just the right counsel, and the light comes back. During one of the hardest times in my past, I closed all my doors and pulled all my shades. And I don't know how many times I wrote my resignation. I went through this terrible shadow that was over me, and I couldn't escape it.

And I had a friend come and virtually force his way in, thankfully. Took me for a ride. He didn't make me listen to one of my own tapes. Thank God. He didn't make me harmonize with him in singing a chorus of worship. He didn't preach. He loved me. He listened to me. He instructed me.

When I got back to the office, another friend of mine had dropped by. Happens to be an artist who does a real good job with a piece of paper and a pencil, and he had drawn a picture of an old monk. It was great. Big old toe sticking out of his sandal, long sackcloth robe, standing with a big finger in the air and the words, "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing? Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who this may be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabaoth is his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle."

I was ready for the army the next day. It was unbelievable what that did to me. Two men loving me too much to leave me alone with the tricks being played in my mind instructed me. And so must you. This is for you. This isn't for me today. This is for you. My gift to you. Not only compassion, but instruction, and on occasion, yes, exhortation.

Sometime the sufferer needs a swift kick in the pants. You won't find that written quite that way in this 15th verse, but that is sort of what's there. "So then, brethren," when he says brethren, you have to tighten your belt because you know he's going to go for you. "Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us."

Now, why would he come on so strong and say, "Now, stand firm and hold fast"? Well, maybe you've already forgotten verse 2 told us that they had been shaken from their composure, that they were disturbed because some kind of spirit or message or letter had come from Paul to them. They were deceived, verse 3 and verse 5, they had failed to remember some things he had told them when he was with them.

And so in their instability, he says to them, "Hey, men and women, stand firm." Can't you imagine the widow who read that for the first time? Or when the pastor of this young budding church in Thessalonica stood and said, "I have a letter from Paul. And he says to those of you who have lost a mate in the last few hours, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught." Imagine the comfort that would bring.

Bill Meyer: Stand firm. Hold fast. Don't give up. Those words were written to a congregation under fire in ancient Thessalonica, but they land just as squarely on our shoulders today. We pray that today's edition of Insight for Living has been an encouragement to you. Please stay with us because there's much more that Chuck Swindoll wants to show us in 2 Thessalonians. He titled this eight-part series, "Steadfast Christianity."

Bear in mind that Insight for Living offers audio messages for this study. And there's also a Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook as well. You can find all the details at insight.org/offer. One of the threads that runs through Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians is the power of someone who refuses to let you quit.

Paul poured his life into that small band of believers, mentoring them, challenging them, calling them back to what they knew was true. That's what great leaders do. They don't abandon you in the fire. They stand with you and say, "Hold fast." If you sense God calling you to that kind of leadership at home, at church, in the workplace, or anywhere that He's placed you, we have a book that will inspire and equip you.

Few stories in all of Scripture illustrate courageous, steady leadership more powerfully than the story of Nehemiah. And Chuck Swindoll's classic book, *Hand Me Another Brick*, draws timeless principles from Nehemiah's remarkable rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall. Whether you're a pastor, ministry leader, board member, a teacher, or simply someone who influences others, this book will sharpen your vision and strengthen your resolve.

And it's yours when you give a donation to support the ministry of Insight for Living. Ask for the book, *Hand Me Another Brick*, when you write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. Again, that's Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. Or call us at 800-772-8888. The book is available online as well when you visit us at insight.org/donate.

How do you help someone who's suffering? I'm Bill Meyer. Hear Chuck Swindoll's convincing answer tomorrow on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Light for Dark Days," was copyrighted in 1986, 1991, 2002, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.