It really never ceases to amaze me just how much good people suffer. It makes sense in our minds that the bad people, the mean people, experience the consequences of their poor life decisions and get what they deserve. However, especially when people that are trying to put Christ first- people we know and love- when they suffer, it can be excruciating to watch. It just feels wrong to see this happening so often. We can all probably think of a few people that we love who are struggling through debilitating illness or life situations right now.
Oftentimes our hearts just hurt when we hear of all the things going wrong in the lives of dear friends. It seems that just about any time a small group opens up for prayer requests, there are some really challenging situations where prayer is desperately needed. Because we love these people, we invest time in prayer, regularly interceding for them before the only One who can bring healing to any situation. Yet in spite of the many prayers, in many instances, God does not answer the way we all hoped.
Sometimes we find ourselves on the hotseat, wondering what have we, or our loved ones, done to deserve this? We turn to God on our knees and cry out to Him, pleading for wholeness and healing. Sometimes the answers are clear and God brings incredible relief from the pain. Sometimes He doesn’t. Because we are confronted by the reality of good people suffering so often, it is important for us to wrestle with the issue of why God so often seems to leave prayers unanswered.
When intense pain is involved, there really aren’t any easy answers. Some we understand, some we can’t. In the moment of desperation, first of all, we need to know that real peace is possible. But secondarily, we need to know how to get it. Christian cliches may sound helpful in theory, but they rarely provide the peace we need in the midst of pain. We must wrestle with unanswered prayers in a manner that is informed by God’s Word. There’s just no human ‘wisdom’ that is good enough. We will be exploring this question this weekend: How can we have peace in the midst of our pain? This is a crucial question.
We will look for answers from the life of Paul and his own journey through finding peace in the midst of intense pain. We won’t find any easy answers here, but I believe we will all walk away encouraged.
Paul is an excellent case study because it is hard to think of anyone more morally qualified, or anyone who went through as much difficulty as Paul. If Paul can achieve peace, so can we!
I invite you to join with us this weekend as we seek to find peace in the midst of our pain together. We’ll be looking at 2 Corinthians 12:6-10. Our socially distanced service is Saturday afternoon at 3:30, and our Sunday morning service is at 10:15, where you can join us online or in person. You are also welcome to join us for Sunday School classes at 9.
Have a great weekend and I look forward to pursuing Christ, Community, and the Great Commission Together with you soon!
-Pastor Nathan Rice