Telling the Truth

Announcer: On today's Telling the Truth program, Jill Briscoe brings us a message she's calling Praising in Pain. It's the latest in her series, Triumph and Trouble, about how our view of God's love can affect the way we view hardship.

When life storms suddenly come your way, how do you respond? Do you doubt God's presence, questioning his concern for you, or do you see storms as part of God's plan for your life and rest assured, He cares for you and is in control of all things?

We want to help you trust in God's care and control in all the storms you face by sending you Jill Briscoe's message, Weathering the Storms of Life, as well as a set of 12 beautifully designed scripture cards to encourage you in troubled times. In Weathering the Storms of Life, Jill teaches from the Gospel of Mark, examining the disciples' experience in a sudden storm to address the issues of suffering and faith, challenging you to examine your belief in God in the midst of trouble.

Her teaching and the scripture cards will encourage you as you discover how you can be sure of God's love for you and His control over every circumstance, no matter how sudden, severe, or unexpected. Weathering the Storms of Life and the set of 12 scripture cards are our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today.

1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or give online at TellingtheTruth.org. Now, here's Jill with today's message called Praising in Pain.

Jill Briscoe: Today I want to talk about praising in pain. What a wonderful testimony to have to set the scene for this study. Charles Swindoll, Chuck Swindoll has a great book, and it's called Memorable Scenes, and he says this.

Take a drive through an average American suburb and what do you see? You might notice a natural canopy of evenly spaced trees, leaf-littered lawns, or touch football. Shingled roofs with strong gutters for stormy night security and bay windows for early morning bird watching. But that is just on the outside.

Broken hearts are all around us, in the house next door, in the adjoining cubicle at work, and in the seat beside us here today. In fact, pain is one of the few things we all have in common.

Maybe you are the one with the crushed spirit right now, the hidden heartache that's too deep for words and too private for prayer chains. Unfortunately, no easy three-step method exists for erasing pain. We can dissect it, describe it, analyze it, but we can't make it go away.

We can, however, learn to face it, to live with it, and that is just what took place down the street at Job's house. And we have been down the street at Job's house for quite a while in these studies.

Job's theology allowed for the righteous to suffer. Does yours? Does mine? His theology allowed for the righteous to suffer, and I believe that's the message of the Bible. That unless God supernaturally intervenes, which many times He chooses not to, not to do so.

Then because we are part of a fallen creation and have a fallen nature, then even though God is buying His world back, this is God's world and He wants it back and He's getting it back. As that happens, He allows pain to continue, and problems to continue.

But even if you have your theology right in your head, even if you say, yes, my theology does allow the righteous or the innocent to suffer. It isn't incompatible with the character of God as I believed He has revealed in the scriptures.

When it actually comes down to it, you can believe it, but when you find yourself in it, then your theology is put to the test. It's a little bit like diving into ice-cold water.

We lived on a boat during the war years in England. That was because our house got bombed and we had to go somewhere else. And so we ran to the Lake District, which is what everybody else was doing. My father happened to be home from the war that night. I remember it very clearly as if it happened last yesterday, and it happened when I was, what, five.

But I do remember it. Those are the things you do remember. And as we got up to Windermere, Bowness, it was just like camping time. I mean, everyone was there, sleeping in cars, just trying to get out of the cities. Many of them couldn't stay, of course. They had to go back. But my mother and my sister and I were able to stay. My father went back to the war.

And seeing there wasn't a house to buy, he bought a boat, which was very innovative and creative and we thought was wonderful. I mean, at five and seven, you know, could you think of anything better than living on a little boat on beautiful Lake Windermere, one of the most beautiful lakes in the entire Lake District, like little Switzerland up there near Scotland?

And so we had a very as far as we could, happy war years living on this little boat. And seeing it was little, very little, there was no bathroom, of course, there was a little potty on it, but there wasn't any way to bathe, and so over the side we'd go every single day before we got dressed for school. Mother would be cooking in the little tiny galley, this bacon and eggs. I can sort of smell it now.

And it got sort of pretty hard to take a cold bath, and we would literally break ice half the year, just just over the side, in and out. And it really woke you up. And I tell you I've got very we say in England, Nash. I don't know if you have that word. Do you have that word? No. It's a sort of good word. It says what, you know, soft. Nash. I've got Nash. I I if I go swimming, I need it bath hot now.

So that's what you've done to me coming to live in America, I think. But I do remember the shock of getting in the water. Now, I knew it was going to be cold, and I remember just perching on the side of that little boat called Mona, M. O. N. A., and and my sister would push me in or and we'd fight, and then we'd both fall in together or whatever it was.

And the shock. Now, I knew it was cold, but actually when I did it, it took my breath away. And that's what suffering's like. You know it's cold. You know it's going to hurt. You know it's painful.

But when you actually are pushed in or fall in or jump in, then the shock of it takes your breath away and does something to your theology in a hurry if you're not careful. And yet if we respond rightly to suffering as Job did and as other people have done down the centuries, then he does bring blessing into our life.

Elizabeth Elliott, in a path through suffering, says, A missionary who had been a guest in our home when I was about four, had her head chopped off by the Chinese communists when I was eight. I have never forgotten the newspaper pictures of her orphan baby peeping out of a rice basket carried by the Chinese Christians who had found her.

Jesus lets missionaries be killed. Jesus lets babies lose their parents. Elizabeth, of course, goes on to tell us that that's how it is. You should really read Elizabeth Elliott's writings, seeing we're studying the subject of suffering. She is searingly honest.

And some of the things as she works through her suffering are incredibly enlightening and helpful. And here is a tough lady, one tough lady, I tell you, I know her well. And yet, it doesn't mean that she doesn't hurt and she doesn't cry and she doesn't feel pain like you and I do.

She has an awful lot to teach us. I remember reading her book, which was it should have been entitled Why? Because that was what she was asking all the way through the book. When she buried herself in another tribe and stayed there forever and just about got the language down, there was one language helper.

Just one language helper that could do anything. This tribe had never heard of the Lord. They would never hear of the Lord unless Elizabeth got that language down and was able to communicate to them. And her language helper was murdered.

And that book came out of that experience. And it is a very thought-provoking book, as Elizabeth walks you through what she thought about that. And talk about angry. Elizabeth was angry, and it's a very, very good book. And so there are many things that are like getting into that water with the ice on the top of it.

When it actually happens to you, it literally takes your breath away. Now, we talked about waiting it out, or learning to live with it. That would have been a better title, maybe, for today than Praising in Pain.

In his book, Waiting, which is a very good book, Ben Patterson talks about this in another context than physical pain. I went through two broken engagements over a five-year period. Same girl both times. After the second and final break, I went to visit my friend. I was numb and tired of hurting. I felt dead inside.

We talked for a little while. When I got up to leave, he suggested we pray together. I prayed first, mumbling to God the best theology I could think of under the circumstances. I then waited for him to begin. Nothing came for a long time. I was about to ask what was wrong when I heard something, a sob. I asked him what was wrong.

All he could say was, it hurts so much. What hurts, I asked. What happened to you, stupid, he said. You know, going to begin to talk about how we can help people in pain. Not just our own pain, but how we can weep with those that weep, how we can absorb some of the hurt in a little sense.

And at the beginning of Ben Patterson's book, on the flyleaf, he says this. Second only to suffering, waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in godliness, maturity, and genuine spirituality most of us ever encounter.

Next to suffering, second only to suffering, waiting will do this. And so when we wonder why God doesn't hurry up and either bring us out of the pain, relieve us in the pain, help us in the pain, do something about the situation, change it, make something happen.

It is because the waiting itself teaches us something. And especially in American society, when we will not wait for anything. We are the most non-waiting country in the world. It is so instant. I saw a book. I could not believe. I don't know who wrote it, but I saw it advertised.

Learning to pray in five minutes. I mean, this book was all about how, you know, they would, I don't know how much you paid for this seminar. There was a seminar that went with it, of course. It was all packaged beautifully and and if you went to this seminar, you could go away knowing that all you needed to do was five minutes prayer and you didn't need to waste any more time praying because you could do it all in five minutes.

Now, that is so typical of how the church is absorbing this instant, got to have it now, bit. And yet in the theology of suffering, it's not going to happen like that. It's a question of waiting it out while God doesn't answer prayer. So if you're in God's waiting room, have you ever sit in a waiting room waiting for the doctor?

And you're sort of dreading it to happen, but you sort of want to get it over. There's a sort of relief when the doctor eventually comes and says it's your turn. And yet that waiting room experience, what do you do when you're sitting in the waiting room? Oh, you read the magazines. I write half my books sitting in waiting rooms, either at an airport or doctors or wherever.

It's a great place not to be passive, but to do something with the waiting time during the pain. I'm going to give you some practical ideas here. Let me finish a little quote of an article I wrote on the journey to soon. I wrote this, what do you do on the way to soon? Soon it will be over. Well, I'm on the way to soon. I want it to be now and I'm in the middle here.

I've learned that what you do with the journey to soon is vitally important. Waiting does not necessarily mean passivity. Waiting works us over, making us pliable in the potter's hand. He molds the wet clay. Hard waiting nearly always produces lots of moisture and forms a real grown-up person out of the child in us.

I'm learning to take action while I wait. On a plane not too long ago, I found myself looking forward to a quiet flight. But sitting next to me was a squirmy eight-year-old buckling his seatbelt like a veteran, which he was. He settled back for all of one and a half minutes.

He anxiously looked at his watch. And after that, and after liftoff, I waited for the big question. Few more minutes of sighs, gazing out the window, a lethargic attempt to read a comic book he'd been given passed before he turned to me. Are we nearly there? He asked.

I'm afraid not, I answered apologetically, feeling almost personally responsible for this vital piece of information. Maybe this food on this flight? He suggested hopefully. I think there is, I replied. That always helps to pass the time, he said.

What are your favorite foods? I asked. I hit a chord and made an eight-year-old friend. We launched into a catalog of our favorite foods until we finally reached the airport of our destination. My eyes followed him as he was hurried off the plane by an air hostess. And as he disappeared into the terminal, I prayed for him and for his salvation.

Maybe, I mused, no one has ever cared for his soul. Maybe if we had arrived sooner, I wouldn't have gotten to know him. When waiting for God to meet urgent needs, things can be accomplished that only God knows. I watched my mother fight to the death with cancer.

I had cried out in agony, Lord, release her now. Soon, He replied. And two days before she died, she put her trust in Christ. My husband called to tell me he was extending his evangelistic tour.

But it will soon be over, he said. His absence until soon afforded me the extra time to join a missions team and lead a big fish into the kingdom net. Waiting on the Lord does not mean waiting on everything else in life until the prayer is answered, the situation redressed or the nightmare over.

Waiting on the Lord means cultivating an attitude of trust, casting the bundle of personal care on Him while we busy ourselves with whatever duties we must do. The devil loves to slow us to a dead stop, telling us we need to wait until things are okay again before we serve, teach, preach, or take up our daily responsibilities.

He would paralyze us with the pain of waiting. He would say, it will soon be over. Wait until things are back to normal. This week a new problem has become resident in my life. Like the eight-year-old on the plane, I asked my Heavenly Father, are we nearly there?

I think I hear him saying, soon. On the way to soon. What do you do while you wait? How can you help somebody else to wait? Well, the first word is routine. Okay. Get back into some routine or help the person who is in pain to get into some sort of routine.

Maybe it's not a routine that they can return to if the situation is a very serious one. But routine helps. Just like a child is helped, I believe. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I believe a child is helped by routine.

So somebody in pain or suffering is helped. Now, I'm you're American, you're not English. Otherwise, you would know immediately what to do. You'd make a cup of tea. You'd make a cup of tea. You've no idea how that helps.

And it isn't the fact that you're making a cup of tea to drink and and I mean make a cup of tea. I don't mean a soggy tea bag bit, you know. I mean make a cup of tea like cup of teas are meant to be made. And it takes at least a whole ritual. And there's there's relief in the ritual, in the routine, getting the tea and warming the pot and boiling the water and making, you know, it just right and waiting and steeping it and adding the water and you've no idea what goes into making a real good English cup of tea.

But it's routine. Now, Job couldn't make tea on his ash heap, but he had to go home and pick up life's schedule, normalize. And that's what we need to do. We need to normalize.

A couple of years ago, I was going through a stressful waiting time. I remember Stuart saying, how are you doing? And I said, well, not so bad, not so good. And he said, now what are you going to do with yourself? And I said, well, I can't study and I can't read.

I know. I'm going to see to my plants. There is a relief in doing what needs to be done. Do something that you enjoy doing. Even if you don't feel you've time to do it, because routine really helps.

Announcer: Here's Jill to answer some questions about today's message. Jill, why is it so hard for us to accept that God does allow suffering?

Jill Briscoe: We feel somehow it depicts God with a defect in His character, and quite rightly, we reject that. In fact, I was in a church just this weekend, and a lady came up to speak to me at the end of the service and said, I've become a Christian, but I still have this huge question for God that is stopping me growing as a Christian.

I said, what is it? And she said, it's just, why would you send people to hell to suffer forever? She said, I cannot get over this defect in the character of God. Can you help me? And I simply said, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all may come to repentance.

God does not send people to hell. We send ourselves. And it was quite dramatic. In fact, people around us were taken aback by her reaction. She looked at me and said, oh, yes. We send ourselves. We don't need to go. Oh.

And it was just an eye-opener to her that He is not willing for any to perish, but that all should come to repentance. And if we go to hell, that's our choice. We send ourselves. And so we know that it cannot be that God has a defect in His character.

He is totally good, totally holy, totally right. And the Judge of all the earth will do right. That's what the scriptures tell us. Therefore, we haven't got a handle on the correct character of God. And so we need to be in the Bible a lot and figure it out.

What does the Bible tell us about the character of God? And He allows suffering, then look at the cross. You just have to look at the cross. You can't live in this world without a cross. And especially if you're a Christian. In fact, Jesus says, you think you suffer before you knew me? Wait.

If they did this to me, what are they going to do with my followers? There will be suffering in a different dimension for those who profess the name of Christ, as we identify with Him and share in His sufferings. In fact, it says in Philippians, it's given to us on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.

It's a gift. It's what goes along with carrying our cross and identifying with Jesus. So there's suffering that comes with our relationship with God, but there is not a defect in the character of God. Why does God allow suffering actually tells me that you're wondering why a good God would do such a bad thing?

A good God cannot do a bad thing. So there has to be another answer. So we need to wrestle with it.

Announcer: Thanks for joining us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message has helped you to experience life in all its fullness through Jesus Christ. Here's a note sent in by Macarthur, a listener in Dallas who says, I love your ministry. I'm blessed and inspired by your commitment to the truth.

Thanks for blessing us with those words, Macarthur. When life storms suddenly come your way, how do you respond? Do you doubt God's presence, questioning his concern for you, or do you see storms as part of God's plan for your life, and rest assured, He cares for you and is in control of all things?

We want to help you trust in God's care and control in all the storms you face by sending you Jill Briscoe's message, Weathering the Storms of Life, as well as a set of 12 beautifully designed scripture cards to encourage you in troubled times. Weathering the Storms of Life and the set of 12 scripture cards are our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today.

1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or give online at TellingtheTruth.org. Thanks for listening today. Come back next time for more encouragement from God's Word. Experience life, here on Telling the Truth.