Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense

by Paul David Tripp

I think it is very important for every sufferer to reflect on how utterly, unashamedly, and boldly honest the Bible is.

If you’re looking for escapist literature, the Bible is not your book.

God’s honesty about life in this broken world is a welcome to each of us to be just as honest.

It is frustrating to every sufferer to share their travail with people who don’t have a clue and can’t relate because they have no firsthand knowledge of what you’re talking about. Jesus is not just a student of our suffering; he became a firsthand participant in it.

Our motivation to stand firm in faith, even when we are going through things that we don’t understand, is found in one thing: God’s declaration of his intention toward us. In a hundred ways in Scripture he declares that he is for us and not against us.

The One who took on weakness is for you in your weakness, and that is the best of news!

People mean well, but often they don’t really understand what you’re going through, and because they don’t, they aren’t able to accurately target what you need.

Now, note that it isn’t sin to be discouraged. We will all be called to deal with difficult surprises because God’s plans for us are often very different from the plans we have for ourselves. We will all face “enemies” that are bigger in size and ability than we are. We will all be tempted to wonder why a good God would bring things into our lives that don’t seem good at all. But it’s important to understand that although it isn’t a sin to be discouraged, what you do with your discouragement is deeply spiritually important.

If you are suffering, and suffering has left you discouraged and more given to complaint than praise, it’s very important that you don’t assume the accuracy and logic of your perspectives on life. If complaint has the power to focus your vision, it can also twist and bend your perception of reality and the God who rules it. In this way, every sufferer needs to have their assumptions about life lovingly challenged, both by the clarifying truths of Scripture and the loving corrections of the body of Christ. Maybe you don’t see things clearly, maybe your assumptions aren’t accurate, and maybe God is not who you’ve come to think he is.

A life of courageous obedience, no matter what, is always rooted in a heart that trusts God.

As you face discouraging and disheartening circumstances, may God give you eyes to see his hand of goodness, and may seeing give you reason to trust him and to follow his loving call.

I know it is hard for those of you suffering right now to hold onto this—it has been for me—but it is important to grasp. God’s grace often does its best and brightest work when things are the darkest and most difficult. God is both willing and able to bring very good things out of very bad things. The cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate argument for this. What could be worse than the unjust murder of the Messiah? What could be more wonderful than Jesus’s death for our salvation?

Our hope is not found in understanding why God allowed suffering into our lives. Our hope is not found in the belief that somehow we will tough our way through.

ultimately our hope rests in the faithful and gracious presence of the Lord with us.

“And behold, I am with you always” (Matt. 28:20).

My track record is far from perfect. I couldn’t buy God’s faithful presence with my performance. If I had to earn the right to have him stay with me, I would have no hope.

But in all the emotional and spiritual ups and downs, on the good days and the bad days, when you fight or succumb, one thing is for sure. Your Lord is with you, and there is no struggle without or war within that will ever drive him away. And his presence guarantees that in your suffering, you will have everything you need.

Hardship has the power to burst the bubble of our self-sovereignty.

These are all good things to do, but the assumption that doing them controls outcomes is just not true.

If I were in control, there is no way I would have allowed physical travail into my life. In fact, I will make a confession. If I were in control, I wouldn’t let difficulty of any kind, big or small, into my life.

It is only when we abandon our independence that we find rest in one greater. Hopelessness is the only doorway to hope.

Sometimes God’s plan doesn’t make sense. At times God appears bad, even though he tells us he is good. At times it is hard to live in the tension of what God has promised and what he has brought our way. There are passages in life when we live with more mystery than clarity. We all face times when we cry out for answers that we’ll never get but that seem impossible to live without. Painful times come when we cry, “Why?” “If only _____,” or “How long?”

God’s secret will is called his “secret will” because it’s secret.

In his Word God graciously defines his character, and unfolds his grand redemptive plan, but he doesn’t explain himself when it comes to the details of how and why he rules his world the way he does.

Because we don’t understand, and because things around us or near us don’t always seem good, it is tempting to question the wisdom, love, and goodness of God. It is tempting to let our situational confusion begin to sow seeds of doubt, leading us to question truths that the Bible makes clear and that we have held dear.

God answered Job by pointing to himself, to his presence, power, and glory.

So the rest of heart that every sufferer longs for never comes from demanding understanding. Rest comes from putting your trust in the One who understands and rules all the things that confuse you.

His rule is always good because he is good.

Hope is found not in trying to solve all the mysteries that suffering brings our way but in running into the arms of the One who has no mystery and offers us his presence, power, and promises.

His will is always done. His plan always succeeds. Everything in creation does his bidding. And he’s infinitely wise and perfectly good. We shouldn’t interpret suffering as evidence of his absence, weakness, distance, or lack of care.

Your story will take you places you never thought you’d be.

When you are confused by God’s rule, do you remind yourself of his character?

In amazing grace God has chosen to expend his power and authority in a way that directly benefits his children.

He remembers every promise he has made, what we need, what we are going through, the broken, groaning world he’s left us in, and what it’s like to walk in our shoes.

Yes, we all live in moments, locations, situations, or relationships that seem to be spinning out of control, but they are not out of control. Yes, they are way beyond the scope of our control, but they under the rule of One who is not only in complete control but is also perfectly good in every way.

I thought I knew the plan until I took that fateful walk to Jefferson Hospital on that fall afternoon in 2014. In one moment, in that emergency room, the seemingly purposeful collided with the seemingly purposeless. God not only interrupted what seemed to be his plan for me but left me so damaged that I would never again be able to do ministry as I once had. Why would he give me these gifts and opportunities but leave me too weak to use them? I did lie in the pain of those first few days in the hospital and silently cry, “Why? Why me? Why now?” My suffering has been not just physical but deeply theological. And yours is too. You

Let me cut to the chase here. The biblical answer is yes, your suffering has a purpose.

We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Cor. 4:7–10)

What we suffer isn’t a failure of God’s plan but a tool to bring us in line with God’s plan so that we’ll love what he’s prepared for us more than we love our present comfort.

Paul confesses to the despair of heart he experienced as he was faced with his weakness and inability. These words, “We despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt . . . the sentence of death,” capture the spiritual battle in Paul’s heart that was underneath the physical travail. Remember, this is the apostle Paul. No

Hopelessness is the doorway to hope. The confession of hopelessness frees you from attempting to do what you don’t have the power to do on your own.

The picture here is that every child of God has a warehouse of comfort, rescue, strength, wisdom, direction, and protection. But because of the pride and self-sufficiency that sin produces in us, we don’t open the door of that warehouse; we live self-reliant lives, trusting that we can make it through on our own. So as an act of redeeming love, God leads us into situations that cause us to be confronted with our weakness so that we’ll open the door to the lavish resources of help that are in his warehouse of grace.

Second Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 12, and Colossians 3:12–17 tell us that God has never required any of his children to make it on their own. They remind us that we shouldn’t be ashamed of our frailty.

There’s nothing noble about bearing down and suffering alone. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster. Everyone has been designed by God for community.

I’m not counseling you to buttonhole everyone you meet, but take advantage of the people in your life whom you are sure know and love you and know and love God. They are tools of right-here, right-now grace. Invite them to be warriors with you in the spiritual battle. And don’t worry about what people think of you. Remember, you don’t get your identity, peace, security, and rest of heart from them but from your Lord. No one in your life is capable of being your messiah; people are tools in the hands of your Messiah, Jesus. It would be impossible to fully communicate the depth of the comfort, strength, and counsel I have gotten at crucial moments of spiritual battle from the dear ones God has placed in my life. Are you humbly and honestly communicating to others about how you’re handling your hardship?

You have incredible influence over you, because no one talks to you more than you do. The problem is that there are times when it’s very hard to say to ourselves what we need to hear. The travail of suffering is clearly one of those times. It’s hard then to give yourself the hope, comfort, confrontation, direction, wisdom, and God-awareness that every sufferer desperately needs. So you need voices in your life besides your own. You need to invite wise and loving people to eavesdrop and interrupt your private conversation, providing in their words things you wouldn’t be able to say to yourself. And don’t take offense when they fail to agree with your assessments; you need these alternative voices. They’re not in your life to hurt your feelings but to give you what you won’t be able to give yourself, and that in itself is a sweet grace from the hand of God. Who have you invited to interrupt your private conversations?

It’s humbling but true of every sufferer that accuracy of personal insight is the result of community, because sin makes personal insight difficult.

When you are suffering, you need to humbly invite wise and godly counselors into your life. I’m not talking here about professional help, although that’s good if necessary. I’m talking about identifying the wise and godly people already in your life who know you and your situation well, who can provide the clarity of advice, guidance, and direction that is very hard to provide for yourself. Don’t be threatened by this; it’s something we all need, and wise sufferers welcome it and enjoy the harvest of good fruit that results. Have you invited wise and godly counselors into your life to help you decide what would be hard to decide on your own?

2 Corinthians 1:3–9.

Suffering is the intersection where life’s deepest pains meet with the most wonderful blessings of grace. It’s the ground where mournful cries echo alongside heartfelt praise. It’s the place where God seems absent and his presence is most clearly seen. It’s the location of deep aloneness mixing with awareness of glorious love. It’s the place of raging spiritual war and miraculous peace. Suffering is where weakness intersects with strength, confusion intersects with wisdom, sorrow intersects with joy, and despair intersects with hope.