Questions to Ask in Times of Trouble

2 Corinthians 1:2-5

INTRODUCTION

All of us have trouble in our lives.

Some of us more than others.

I have known people who have relatively tranquil lives and others who have had so much trouble that I wonder how they can keep on.

One of our residents told me of the deaths of three of her grandchildren. She said, “That’s more than my share.”

Some have more sorrow than others, but none of us is exempt.

In the book of Job, one of Job’s friends, a man named Eliphaz, exclaims, “Human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward!” (5:7).

- Troubles from broken health, despondency, broken relationships, financial worries, deaths of loved ones, difficulties of children and grandchildren and loved ones…

When we are faced with crises in health…or finances…or relationships, we cry out: “Why? Why? Why?” and sometimes, “Why me?”

That cry of “Why!” isn’t sin. It is normal. We want answers.

If we could just know “why?” it would be easier to bear our troubles.

A friend in a nursing home once said to me, "I don't say, 'Why me?' I say, 'Why not me?' Everyone has troubles. Why should I be exempt?"

The people who wrote the Psalms in our Bible constantly asked God “Why?” in their prayers:

Psalm 10:1: “Why do you hide yourself in time of trouble?”

42:9: “I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?”

44:24: “Why do you sleep, O Lord?”…Why do you hide your face?”

88:14: “Oh Lord, why do you cast me off?”

Even our Lord Jesus asked “Why?” when cried out in his distress: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

There is a family in our church who lost their little daughter to cancer when she was only a small child. They watched her suffer terribly and then die, and they have never stopped asking why? They cling to God with faith…but they still ask “Why?”

That question is the question that we may not find the answer to on this earth.

This is a question we will have to live with.

We will never know why all these things happen.

But there are a questions that we can ask God, and, I think, find answers—answers that come from God’s Word…from people of wisdom…from our own experience.

I. Here are three questions we can ask of God and maybe find answers to:

“How can I keep hold of my faith while I’m in this dark valley?”

“How can I honor God in my time of trouble?”

“How can my suffering connect me with the suffering of the world?”

A. The first question: “How can I keep my hold on God in my trouble?”

Paul writes to Timothy: “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called…” (1 Timothy 6:12).

In other words don’t give up. Keep living for God. Keep serving others as you are able.

Live like a person of faith, even if you have doubts.

Keep reading your Bible. Keep going to church. Keep giving generously. Keep praying as you are able.

Live the life of a disciple; live as though you had no doubts.

I remember a time when I was in such a dark valley that I couldn’t pray, so I just kept saying The Lord’s Prayer over and over. That helped keep me connected to God.

Jesus told us that the path that leads to eternal life would be hard.

Paul wrote, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14.22).

Sometimes it seems that the way is so hard that we must give up, but Jesus promises to be with us to the end of the road. He will give us strength for each hour…for each day.

Never give up.

Remember there are people more sorely tried than you are.

Right now there is a woman in a prison in Sudan, in Africa.

Her name is Meriam Yehya Ibrahim.

Meriam is in prison with her little daughter of six and a newborn daughter born in her prison cell last month.

She is a Christian woman in a Muslim country.

She has been condemned to death for her faith in Jesus Christ.

Her judge has told her that if she will renounce her faith in Christ, she will be freed. If she doesn’t renounce her faith she will die.

Sometimes it helps to know we are not alone in our suffering—and to know that others have remained faithful.

Cling to God in your sorrow. You can survive. Don’t give up on God.

B. The second question you may ask in times of sorrow is “How can I honor God in my trouble?”

St. Peter wrote a letter to people who were suffering greatly for their faith.

He told them to think of their troubles as tests, to prove the genuineness of their faith (1 Peter 1:6-7).

He tells them that their faith is more precious than gold, which is proved genuine by being tested by fire.

If we hold on to God by faith when we suffer, we prove the reality of our faith and the reality of the God in whom we trust.

We who love the Lord Jesus want to bear witness to our faith. The strongest witness we can give to the reality of God in our life is our faith when under pressure.

C. The third question we may ask ourselves in times of sorrow is “How can my suffering connect me with the suffering of the world?”

Shusaku Endo was a well-known Japanese author.

Only about 1% of Japanese are Christians, but Endo was a Christian and became the most noted novelist in Japan.

In one of his novels he tells the story of a young girl named Mitsu.

Mitsu is so tender-hearted that she can’t bear to see others suffer without trying to do something to help them.

Although she is not a Christian, someone gives her a cheap little metal cross to wear on a chain around her neck. On it is the figure of the Christ.

One day, she is faced with the possibility of doing a generous—but very costly—deed for a destitute mother and child in great need.

She tries desperately to turn away, but then she hears a voice that seems to be borne on the wind.

The voice comes from the Christ of the cross. The Christ of the cross tells her, “The important thing in this life is to link your sadness to the sadness of others. That is the significance of my cross” (The Girl I Left Behind, p70).

I have read that the difference between a depressed person and a broken-hearted person is that the depressed person sees only her own sorrow. The broken-hearted person sees everyone’s sorrow and shares it.

CONCLUSION

In a time of great trouble in his life, St. Paul wrote the most personal letter of his that we have in the Bible.

In his letter he tells of how he was so utterly, unbearably crushed that he despaired of life itself.

He tells of many sorrows and struggles. He tells of being afflicted in every way, but not crushed; of being perplexed, but not driven to despair; of being persecuted, but not forsaken; of being struck down, but not destroyed. He tells of his thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan that afflicted him and was not taken away, even though he prayed earnestly for God to remove it (2 Corinthians 4:8-10 and 12:7-11).

And in that same letter he writes this to his friends in Corinth (2 Corinthians 1:3-4):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our affliction,

so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction,

with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

There it is. To have known great sorrow and the comfort that only God can give, can give you a great ministry.

When people are in trouble they don’t go to people who have never known sorrow; they turn to people who have known trouble and can understand.

Last week we were in the Twin Cities for our youngest granddaughter’s graduation party.

We met a family from our son’s church—a wife named Rinna and her husband, Chris, and their teen-age son. The woman was wearing dark glasses, which was odd because we were in the house.

She told us that she was from the Philippines. Her husband had met her when he was in the Philippines on business and they had fallen in love and been married.

As we conversed, Rinna told us of having experienced many serious operations on her brain, and the result was that she had lost an eye. She said she had so much metal in her brain that they couldn’t fly in airplanes any more because of the metal detectors at the airports.

But Rinna was bubbling over with happiness and praise to God for all he had done for them. In her many stays in the hospital she had made many friends with the other patients, the nurses, and the doctors. I understood that the reason for Rinna’s happiness wasn’t because she was miraculously still alive but because of the many opportunities she had had to share her faith with others and help them bear the burdens of their troubles.

She told that one of her nurses had lost her job and come immediately to Rinna’s house to tell her of her trouble and find sympathy.

A woman wrote to the Bible translator J. B. Phillips, who was also an Anglican priest.

She told of how she had suffered greatly:

a lonely and unhappy childhood,

a husband who became psychotic and deserted her leaving her with three small children to bring up by herself,

polio which left her handicapped,

poverty,

a daughter who had a mental breakdown and who had repeatedly attempted suicide.

This woman wrote of God’s faithfulness through this time. She wrote this at the end of her letter:

      “By no other thing than suffering do we learn to come into union with Jesus more fully or more speedily. And to me the greatest value of any form of deprivation (quite apart and beyond one’s spiritual life) is the wonderful way in which it can be used by God….People will not listen truly to a fit person who tells them to offer pain to God and try to rejoice in being able to share his sufferings and the burden of the world! But if they see [one who] is crippled and knows what pain is all the time, then they listen and will think about it.”

(Vera Phillips and Edwin Robinson, J. B. Phillips: the Wounded Healer, p95)

I think that for many, the saddest thing about growing old is the feeling of uselessness.

But if we love Jesus, we don’t become useless.

If we can still love people and if we can accept the love of others, we are not useless.

If we can still pray for people, we are not useless.

If we can still express our faith in God to others, we are not useless.

We can look forward to the greeting Jesus promises to those who are faithful: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the Joy of your Lord.”