Prayer
Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?
Opening Question
Where or with whom do you feel most hopeful, happy, or comforted?
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.– Psalm 13:1-6
Cultural Responses to Suffering
In the sermon, we heard an outline of five explanations for suffering various cultures have offered through history:
The Moralistic Response, which proposes that you suffer because it’s your own fault.
The Self-Transcendent Response, which proposes that suffering is an illusion, and you only escape it when you let go of any attachment.
The Fatalistic Response, which proposes that your fate is inevitably terrible, you simply must accept it.
The Dualistic Response, which proposes suffering is the consequence of living in the midst of a cosmic conflict, and you must choose a side.
The Secular Atheistic Response, which proposes that since God does not exist and there is no divine purpose or design, suffering is only a meaningless interruption in our existence.
In the sermon, Dr. Green used a streetlight analogy to help us consider how we respond to the intersection of God’s love and human suffering. Each response can become unhealthy if we aren’t careful:
At a red light, stopping can become giving up on faith altogether. At a yellow light, pausing can become an opportunity to point fingers and blame God or others. At a green light, moving forward can become a way of speeding past the pain without stopping to assess the damage and grieve the cost.
Consider conversations you have had with others about pain and suffering. Have any of these responses shaped or influenced those conversations?
Do you think some people struggle to find reasons for suffering more than others, or are we all destined to seek explanations for the pain we or others experience eventually?
The Biblical Response to Suffering
In the sermon, Dr. Green explained how the intersection of our faith and suffering is the picture of the cross. “Calvary turns your conflict points into contact points.” Jesus bore our pain and our suffering on the cross so that we can understand:
Faithfulness and suffering can co-exist.
God’s sovereignty and suffering can co-exist.
Suffering does not always come with an explanation.
In Job’s story, he suffers the loss of his wealth, his children’s lives, his health, and his community’s respect, yet Job never learns why he suffers. If you are familiar with Job’s story, what is one thing you find particularly striking or meaningful from it?
Job’s story begins with Satan insisting Job is only faithful to God because God has blessed him, but Job remains faithful to God in the end. What helps you remain faithful to God and when you experience pain and suffering?
On the cross, Jesus suffered for us and as us to set us free from the power of sin and death. How is his suffering different from what we might suffer in our lives? How is it similar?
Our Personal Response to Suffering
Dr. Green offered six personal ways to respond to suffering
Weep
Trust
Pray
Think
Self-examine
Re-order Your loves
Which of these six responses do you tend to arrive at first when you face suffering? Which is more difficult for you to employ?
Are you currently walking through a particularly painful season, or are you close to someone who is? Which of these six responses could be a next best step for you as you process and navigate the road ahead?
How do you tend to respond when your faith collides with suffering? Do you stop, pause, or move forward? How might God be inviting you to do these healthily through a season of suffering?
Closing Thought
As you close your time together, read this liturgical prayer written by George Matheson together, and then pray for any specific needs the group may have:
Restore my soul, O God. There are green pastures around me for which my eye has no lens; there are quiet waters beside me for which my ear has no chord; restore my soul. The path in which I go is already the path of your righteousness; open my eyes, that I may behold its windows. The place I call dreadful is even now the house of the Lord; the heavens shall cease to hide you when you have restored my soul. May I be content to know that your goodness and mercy shall follow me without waiting to see them in advance of me. Amen.