5 Ways To Suffer Well

Jul 16, 2019

All of us are human and either have or will experience suffering in our life. So, we need to know how to handle that well. For your benefit, we are giving you the complete breakdown of our show with all points and scripture references to help you or someone else you know through their dark season.

If you like this show, share it with others and be sure to tag us! Even better, would you rate and review our show in iTunes? It significantly helps the show reach more people! Thank you!

1) Repeat God's promises to yourself
 

• This is easier said than done, but the best thing we can do is to remind ourselves of the God we have entrusted our lives to. [Hebrews 12:1-2]
• This is a CHOICE. Believe God’s truth over what we feel in our time of pain. Believing our feelings leads down a dangerous path “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable--who can understand it?” - Jeremiah 17:9

 

[2 Corinthians 4:17-18] – “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

• We focus on Christ and His promises, understanding we are NOT alone in our pain!

“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” -Romans 8:26-27 MSG
 
 
2) Sing in the victory and the pain

• The psalmist cries to God is good times and bad. He did not forget to worship God in His suffering. -Psalm 86 a song of lament.
• Worship and praise of God in your most trying times can become a battle cry for you! The song that gets stuck in your head should be one of victory and belief that Jesus is Better than anything else in this world.
• An act of surrender and trust. Believing before the victory comes that we have victory in Jesus and that He won't leave us where we are now.
• Acts 16 Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God in prison.

 
3) Run to community
 
•       Our pain and suffering will drive us to isolate ourselves, which is one of the worst things we can do. Choose to have your brothers and sisters support you when you go through trials. [Galatians 6:2]
 
[Proverbs 17:17] – “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a difficult time.”
 
[1 Corinthians 12:26] – “So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

• When you are weak, you need a friend whose faith you can stand on. A friend that will lower you to Jesus.
• Just one or two trusted people is all you need. BUT don't wear your friends out - know your boundaries. They are your friends, not your therapist.
• Seek out a good counselor as a part of your team!

 
4) Choose daily to keep fighting
 
•Even when the pain doesn’t go away, we remind ourselves that God still has a plan for me, He is still working in me and He is going to finish what He has started in my life. [Philippians 1:6]
 
[Job 13:15a] – “Even if he kills me, I will hope in him.”

• Trust there's purpose in your pain.
• We cannot always see it in the moment of our pain, but God is with us and is working in our lives in the midst of our pain.

 
[James 1:2-4] – “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
 
5) Use your pain as a gospel opportunity
 

• The people closest to you take a deeper notice of you when things fall apart. With the world watching, what am I showing them?

 [2 Corinthians 1:4-5] – “He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”

• God has people waiting in the wings that need to hear how you survived. To know they can too.

 
Resources
"Why Suffering?" by Ravi Zacharias
"When I Don't Desire God" by John Piper
“It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way” by Lysa TerKeurst
"My Affliction for His Glory" by Daniel Ritchie
To book Daniel to speak - Daniel speaks to communities large and small all around the country on this very topic.



This week we are loving:
Daniel - Cheerwine, the soda of the Carolinas as a sweet simple pleasure in the summertime.
Heather - Voxer app. It allows her to stay connected to friends better than texting when phone calls are hard to coordinate.

As always, you can find us here:
Daniel 
www.danielritchie.org
Twitter || Facebook ||Instagram 

Heather
Instagram 

Have a great week and be kind.