In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Many have turned their back on Jesus because they believed following him meant they would not have to face trouble or crisis or heart-breaking loss in this world.  When the trouble and trauma came, they felt betrayed by God as if he had not kept his promise to them. I have seen this after someone discovered their spouse had been unfaithful.  I have seen it after the death of a child. I have seen it after healing did not come.  Each one felt betrayed because life did not turn out as they expected and because God did not answer their prayers as they hoped. They had believed for a relatively trouble-free life.

To be sure, there are many promises of blessing, healing, protection, and deliverance in scripture.  However, there are also assurances that those who follow Jesus will experience trouble, persecution, and betrayal in this world.  Some trouble comes from our own bad decisions.  Our walk with Jesus does not exempt us from the law of sowing and reaping.  Bad decisions bring negative outcomes. Some are minor.  Others are catastrophic. David’s adultery with Bathsheba is front and center as evidence.  David repented of his sin but there were still serious consequences from his bad decisions.  The child born to David and Bathsheba died.  His son Absalom conspired to take his thrown.  That son then died in battle.  Because of his repentance, David was forgiven.  His relationship with God was restored.  God walked with him through the consequences, but he still had to deal with the loss and betrayal his sin had triggered.

At other times, we will face trouble and crisis simply because we still live in a fallen world and operate in enemy territory.  Our unseen enemy is very real and works tirelessly to derail us and, if possible, snuff out our faith. Even without his attacks we are broken people living with broken people. Hurts and losses come out of living in a world of broken people with free will. Often it is free will to hurt others.  Sometimes, because the earth has been cursed because of sin, natural disasters will also bring their share of pain.  

What we must remember is that our pain does not come from God but from sin and the accumulation of billions of people reaping what they have sown through their rebellion against God.  Unfortunately, we also reap what others sow…like innocent bystanders being killed because of a drunken drive or a deranged person walking in to a school with an AR15.  

That seems discouraging, but here is the good news.  First of all, we know that God often does protect us and provide for us when things could easily have gone the other way.  He has saved us many times, even when we did not know we were in danger. He does bring healing … sometimes supernaturally and sometimes through the grace of healing.  And yes, he does sometimes deliver us from the consequences of even our own actions and the actions of others…but not always.  However, I have seen time and time again that in our worst moments we are not alone. He brings grace to the moment that sees us through to another day.

And although trouble may come and we may face our worst fears, one promise stands that gives hope to every situation. The apostle Paul declared, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom.8:28). The challenge is in accepting that what may be in our eternal best interest is not always what we have in mind. God’s primary commitment to us is to get us across the finish line with our heavenly citizenship intact.  We naturally want everything this side of the funeral to be as smooth as everything in the other side.  We will have seasons like that but we will also have seasons that belong to living in a fallen world. 

All in all, we will get scrapes and bruises in this world that we don’t always understand.  God will not cause those but will use those to shape us, mature us, and prepare us to fulfill the destiny he still has for us.  We may feel like Joseph in an Egyptian prison, but those bitter days prepared him to lead a nation as Pharoah’s second in command.  At other times, we may not sense the good that God is working for us until years later when we look back to see his hand.  Don’t be surprised when trouble comes.  Blessings are promised but so is hardship at times.  God has not forsaken you and his grace will be sufficient.  Ultimately, he is working to get us home with him where there will definitely be no pain or sorrow ever again. 

Well…it’s nearly Thanksgiving so it seems appropriate to say a little about giving thanks. As children, some of us were taught to always say “thank you” for any gift or courtesy. Apparently, not everyone was taught that bit of etiquette, but God certainly wants his children to say, “Thank you.”

Paul wrote. “Rejoice always,  pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Th 5:16–19). Three directives are set out here for God’s people – rejoice, pray, and give thanks. The directives point to a lifestyle, not just an occasional moment of rejoicing, praying, or being thankful. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances.

Interestingly, these are also keys for mental health. At a recent conference in South Africa, a breakout session on mental health emphasized that the practice of “intentional gratitude” was a bedrock of mental health. The idea of intentional gratitude is the art of learning to look for things in your life for which you can be grateful and then expressing gratitude for those things on a daily or even hourly basis.

I have met with many, many people through the years who, at least from my perspective, had significant things to be thankful for, but had become focused on one issue in their life that was not what they wanted it to be. That negative focus on the “one thing” created a kind of tunnel vision that kept them from recognizing all the other good things in their life. As a result of their constantly negative focus, they became depressed, bitter and resentful. They typically took offense at God for not answering that one prayer and took no notice of the thousands of others prayers he had answered.

Without doubt, some of the “unanswered prayers ” were related to real tragedies – the death of a child, a divorce, a longing for marriage that had never been fulfilled, the loss of a business, a crippling disease that had yet to be healed, and so forth. These are real things that impact individuals and families. But God has never promised us passage through this life that does not include loss, pain, and trouble. He simply says that he will walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death.

The truth is that we must accept that we may experience deep pain and disappointment in this world. The promise that God will wipe away all tears is for the next world. But intentional gratitude will alleviate much of the pain in this world that may be self-imposed. Thanksgiving is a spiritual discipline that keeps us from losing our balance and that keeps us from forgetting that we are loved by God. If we practice that discipline between the hard seasons, we can remember to look for his love and blessing even as we stand beside a grave. That is what gives us hope.

I have heard this verse misquoted and, I believe, misunderstood. Some say we should thank God for all circumstances. But, he says in all circumstances. The difference is significant. If I thank God for my cancer or for the death of my child, I am saying these things come from him. If I thank him in that circumstance, I am thanking him that he is with me, shall sustain me, and will bring me into a place of comfort once again. That is my hope. Because of Jesus, he shall turn my mourning into dancing.

I believe our ultimate question is whether God loves us or not. Every blessing, every encouragement, every meal, every healing, every person who cares about us is an expression of God’s love. If we evaluate his love on the basis of one tragedy, disappointment, or loss, then we miss the reality that he is still loving us and caring for us in a myriad other ways.

Giving thanks in all circumstances is a key to mental, spiritual, and relational health. As we come into this season of Thanksgiving, we may want to begin to be more intentional about perceiving his love and acknowledging it through prayers of thanksgiving to him…for the big things and well as the smaller things of life. It is his will for us in Christ Jesus and his will always brings a blessing.

We have just finished a string of funerals and are looking ahead to others soon unless the Father intervenes supernaturally. One was a freak automobile accident in which a woman was killed right in front of our church. One was a baby who lived only a few days after birth. Another died from cancer which had already reached stage four when diagnosed. Another was a very loved man in our church who had been dealing with health issues, who simply laid down for a nap and never woke up. These were all within two weeks of each other. We also have another dear friend who has just been diagnosed with stage four cancer and doctors are giving her about a year to live. This is life in a fallen world.

I have had my own share of pain in this life just as you have. We pray for protection. We pray for healing. Some are protected and others are not. Some are healed and others are not. We could go into a whole theological treatise on the subject of why some are and some aren’t, but that is never fully satisfying. I think the real question for us is how do we deal with pain and loss and even our disappointment with God when we are impacted by tragedy…including child abuse, birth defects, rape, divorce, and injustice.

Most of us, myself included, want to live in a bubble of protection as children of God in which we never lose, we never grieve, we never hurt. But Jesus said to those who follow him, “In this world you will have trouble.” Even on the pages of the New Testament, people were persecuted, arrested, martyred, beaten, shipwrecked, hungry and so forth. Jesus, the very Son of God, found himself as a political refugee in Egypt as a child and as an adult often found himself hiding from Jewish authorities who were trying to kill him. We are certainly promised peace and protection in scripture but it usually doesn’t look like we want it to. We want the absence of struggle and conflict. But most promises are fulfilled in the midst of struggle and conflict.

Think of David. He was anointed to be king of Israel years before he took the throne. In the meantime, he was falsely accused, hunted, betrayed, embattled, hungry at times, and always at risk of being discovered by King Saul. It was in the midst of these trials David declared the faithfulness of God, and in the midst of these trials when the Father prepared a table before him in the midst of his enemies (Ps. 23).. The promise is that God will see us through the trouble rather than preventing all trouble…though I am sure he does much of that as well for all of us. We will all have to navigate troubles in this life. I think there are three things we must do to navigate them well.

(1) Determine that God is good. Confirm that no matter what I experience, he loves me. Jesus died for me. He has given me his Spirit and written my name in heaven. He has been merciful to me and blessed me in so more ways than I can number. I need to settle that in my heart so that when tragedy comes, I do not accuse God of abandoning me. This is always the enemy’s ploy. He always accuses God of being uncaring, unreliable, and even cruel. He wants us to come into agreement with him. We cannot. We stand on the goodness of God.

(2) When loss or tragedy come, we may feel that we prayed God’s will with faith, but our prayer still wasn’t answered. We may be confused as our experience seems to contradict some biblical promises we have stood on. We may face a set of circumstances and outcomes we simply don’t understand. Our response will have to be a willingness to live with some level of mystery while we stand on our belief that no matter what, God is good and his purposes are perfect. There are things in the spiritual realm that we may be totally unaware of that Give Satan access to us and our family. There may be purposes of God that we cannot grasp that will be accomplished through hardships. We must believe that all things work together for good….even the hard things.

(3) We must use our own pain to bless others. Paul wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows” (2 Cor. 1:3-5). Simply put, you will find God in the midst of troubles and if you hold onto him, he will bring you out and set you on your feet. You will learn invaluable truths in that process and will gain empathy for those coming along behind you. As Christ’s pain worked to bring good about in our lives, our pain will help others survive what we have survived.

Suffering can be endured if is has meaning. Meaningless suffering can destroy us. When we have faith that God will use our pain to minister to others, it gives our suffering meaning and redeems our pain and our loss. After forty years in ministry, I have learned the truth that our healing is only completed when we have used our tragedy, our loss, or our failure, to minister to others. When we have done that, our pain then counts for something, We may still not understand why it happened, but in our willingness to share God’s comfort with others, Satan is defeated. As they old idiom goes, we have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. When we use what Satan meant for harm to do good, God completes our healing.

We will all suffer pain and loss in this world. God has not lied. The word of God tells us this is true but also that Jesus has overcome the world and we will as well, if we hold onto God in spite of our confusion and the mysteries we face. When we stand on the truths we do know, rather than being side-tracked by experiences we don’t understand and when we use our pain to bless others, healing comes and victory is ours. Ultimately, every promise we long for will be fulfilled when we stand beside Jesus in heaven. In the meantime, hold on to him when the storms come and you will see his goodness once again.