Lessons from Suffering

Transcript

Lessons from Suffering
November 8, 2016 Nancy Butterfield



Lessons from Job 42:2-6

1. God can withhold or bestow His blessings as He chooses for purposes known only to Him.
2. We can trust God even when explanations are missing.
3. Although Job did not receive the answers he sought, he did come to know God more intimately.
James 5:11

~~Bottom line: Do we have the kind of God worth suffering for?

Lessons from Suffering:

1. Suffering produces “Fresh Joy”
Psalm 16:11

~~Happiness rests in pleasant circumstances. True joy rests in my relationship with my Lord.

A Mini Lesson from 1 Peter 1:3-7

Verse 6 “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.”

Verse 7 “So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

a. Our inheritance is protected by Our Loving Heavenly Father
Matthew 5:12

b. Suffering produces an eternal perspective
John 16:20-22

~~We can either choose to look ahead or look around us.

c. Suffering proves our faith
v. 7

2. Suffering is closely related to comforting others
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Psalm 23:4
Isaiah 49:13 JOY!!
2 Corinthians 1:6-7

3. Suffering yields greater wisdom
1 Kings 3:5-13
Job 28:12-20, 23-24, and 28

~~Wisdom from God pulls everything together during suffering, it helps us to endure suffering and allows us to have a proper perspective.


4. Suffering can produce true humility




Trials
“Our values determine our evaluations. If we value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us. If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to “count it all joy!” If we live only for the present and forget the future, the trials will make us bitter, not better.”
By Warren Wiersbe





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