So often our prayers and prayer requests remain generic and superficial: God help so and so, bless this, heal that, and so on. Generic, superficial prayers are heard by God, but we have to wonder if we are really “praying in the Spirit” when we maintain a generic, superficial course in prayer. He’s not a healing or blessing genie. God is set on changing us, making us into his likeness, confronting our sin, renewing our souls, strengthening our faith, deepening our joy. The Spirit specializes in “deep interior” prayers, guiding, shaping, convicting, renewing, leading to repentance and faith. In Speaking the Truth in Love, David Powlison comments our superficial prayer in sickness:

Too often pastoral prayers, prayer meetings, and prayer lists disheartened and distract the faith of God’s people. Prayer become either a dreary litany of familiar words, or a magical superstition. It either dulls our expectations of God, or hypes up fantasy hopes. Prayers for the sick can even become a breeding ground for cynicism: wouldn’t these people have gotten better anyway as nature took its course or medicine succeeded? Prayer can also become a breeding ground for bizarre obsession with health and medicine,; naming and claiming your healing…Sickness, like any other trouble, can force us to stop and face ourselves and find our Lord. I may find sins I’ve been too busy to notice: irritability, indifference, self-indulgence…Is God interested in healing any particular illness? Sometimes. Is he always interested in making us wise, holy, trusting, and living, even amid our pain, disability, and dying? Yes and amen. People learn to pray beyond the sick list when they realize what God is really all about.

If you have suffered or struggle to minister, counsel, or preach on suffering, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul Tripp has a chapter you should read. Mind you, Tripp is not dealing with the philosophical problem of evil; he is addressing the practical issues of suffering. The chapter entitled “Building Relationships By Identifying with Suffering” holds out a deeply communal, redemptive vision of suffering. Accordingly, he frames his chapter with this insight:

You are a sufferer who has been called by God to minister to other s in pain. Suffering is not only the common ground of human relationships, but one f God’s most useful workrooms. (145)

Tripp goes on to develop “the humble character of personal ministry” in suffering, noting that God sends suffering people into our lives, not only so that they will change, but so that we will change too. (146) He pushes back against the spiritual professional approach of many pastors, who are inclined to dole out advice and counsel in suffering without identifying with others in suffering. I was convicted of this tendency to identify with sufferers “from above,” not from their level. When recounting stories of suffering and how God sustained me through them, I have typically pointed to God’s sufficiency and the triumph of his grace, but without confessing my struggles towards embracing that sufficiency and victory.

As a result, on Saturday night I changed the way I told/shared/preached the story of losing my best friend to suicide. I did my best to follow Tripp’s advice: “Tell your story in a way that breaks down the misconception that you are essentially different form the person you are helping” (155). And I incorporated these elements: 1) the difficult situation 2) your struggle in the midst of it, and 3) how God helped you. Some of us need to do more of 1, just telling the stories. Others need more 2, to be more honest about our struggles in suffering. And others need more 3, to look beyond the pain to embrace and tell of God’s all-sufficient grace in suffering.

This chapter helped me immensely. I hope that this post helps you.

This weekend I preached a sermon on suffering (we will be podcasting soon). Not the most popular topic but one we can all relate to, eventually. The sermon was based on some research and writing I’ve been doing on Luke-Acts. In this message, I reflected on the numerous conceptual and verbal parallels between the suffering stories of Jesus and Paul.

My aim in this message was to develop a practical theology of suffering, not to deal with theodicy (the problem of evil). However, as with most of my messages, I am trying to keep the non-Christian perspective in view. What is it like for them to suffer? Well, there is a lot of overlap as well as some significant differences between how Christians and non-Christians should suffer. My main two questions were: 1) Should all faithful Christians suffer? 2) If yes, how can we suffer with purpose?

These were my closing comments:

The gospel offers us purpose in our suffering in two main ways: purpose that is redemptive and purpose that hope-giving. Suffering is redemptive for people who hope in Jesus. Purposeful suffering comes through Jesus by redeeming our pain and our sin. Through his life and death Jesus suffered and died in a way that no man will ever suffer and die again. Not only was he rejected, scorned and crucified, but he was also separated from his father’s love as he bore the weight of sin and evil in his death. As a result, Jesus can redeem your suffering by comforting you in your loss and pain. He is the “great high priest who can empathize with our every weakness.” He offers consolation, comfort, and acceptance in the midst of loss, pain, and rejection. He redeems our pain. Jesus gives your suffering purpose because he redeems it. He also redeems our sin, our escapism, our self-reliance, our bitterness, our pride by dying the death we should have died as a substitute sacrifice for our rebellion against a just God. Jesus offers us purpose in suffering by redeeming our pain and our sin. But that’s not all…

Jesus gives our suffering purpose through his resurrection. In the resurrection of Jesus we have the hope of no more suffering. Once and for all, he conquered death for all those who hope in him. In Acts 14:23, just after his stoning, Paul tells us: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” The kingdom of God is not escape from this world, an entrance into Nirvana, nothingness, but the renewal of all creation, bodies, culture and creation. The grand program of God is a new creation, and all who persevere through suffering by treasuring Christ, will inherit the world in which there will be no more sorrow and no more tears. Those who look to Jesus have hope in suffering, hope of final deliverance from all suffering and inheritance of a new creation. Our suffering is purposeful in Jesus’ redemption and resurrection, which makes him the center and source of all meaning. Ultimately, our suffering magnifies Jesus, in his death and in his life, as the King of the greatest kingdom to ever exist.

Of the three books on suffering that I read, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands was most helpful. In fact, chapter 8 from that book is worth a whole post. Remember, this sermon was not dealing with theodicy, but developing a practical theology of suffering. I read chapters from these three:

• Instruments in the Hands of the Redeemer (Tripp)
• God of Promise in the Life of Faith (Hafemann)
• The Reason for God (Keller)

Read it here.

Jason Kovacs is live blogging from the Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest conference.

“Have you ever wanted to invest yourself in something worthwhile? Have you ever wondered why your life seems to lack meaning or purpose? … If so, this book is for you. This book is about having a life that counts for something. It is about living to make a difference. Admit it. You’re a glory junkie. That’s why you like the 360o, between-the-legs, slam dunk, or that amazing hand-beaded formal gown, or the seven layer triple-chocolate mousse cake. You were hardwired by your Creator for a glory orientation. It is inescapable.

It’s in our genes. We’ll flock to a museum to see the Salvador Dali masterworks. We’ll wait in a ninety-minute line or a ride on the ultimate roller coaster. We’ll dream for days about the glory of the upcoming Thanksgiving feast. And we’ll work like crazy to achieve one glory moment in some area of our lives. We were simply made for glory, but not just the shadow glories of the created world. We were made for the one glory that is transcendent—the glory of God. When you rasp this, your life begins to make a difference.” – excerpt from A Quest for More, Paul David Tripp

“Arguably Tripp’s best work yet!”- Jeremy Lelek, President, Association of Biblical Counselors

Read chapter 1.