Well, welcome back to another edition of our podcast, Struggling Well. We're glad you're with us again this week. Hope you're with us this week. so we're in the midst of the kind of struggle, the kind of suffering that I think is the hardest or one of the hardest things to endure, which is there's no end in sight. You don't know when it's going to be over. you hear people use the phrase all the time, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. What happens if you're in the tunnel and you can't see the light? But you got to keep moving forward because that's what you have to do. If I can give some categories to the suffering to the struggles we have, I there are four that come to mind. There's the suffering. There's the struggle that comes from our disobedience. We go against God's design and there's a consequence to that and not always man-made consequence. Sometimes it's from the fact that we've gone against the design of God. That's one type of suffering or struggle. The second type is the suffering, the struggle that we face because we live in a broken, fallen world. This world does not operate the way it was designed to. When Jesus comes back, he'll make all things new again and he'll put us back to where we should be. The third thing is God uses those struggles and sufferings to test and to refine our faith.
to make us more like his son. and then the fourth is the struggle and the suffering that comes because the there's an enemy out there. scripture says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities of darkness. So those four categy stories represent the kinds of struggle, the kind of suffering that we face. add to that or caveat that with this idea, there's no end in sight and it adds to the difficulty of it all.
I wonder if there are some of you out there that are experiencing long CO. That was a phrase that came out during the pandemic or after the pandemic. I know a sweet girl who doesn't live far from us who is struggling with long co and it's been a number of years that she's experienced this and I would like to categorize what we're talking about too as longsuffering two words not one word that some of us are in a place where the suffering and the struggle is long and like Jimmy said there feels like there's no end in sight and we're in the midst of something that we can't see the end we can't see the end and that comes in a variety of ways I mean suffering is all relative to you and to what you're experiencing. One person might call what they're experiencing suffering. Somebody else might not see it that way, but suffering is a very unique thing. And in the last couple of years, last year in particular, I've been walking with a woman that I love dearly, and I don't even know her very well, but I have been very attracted to her walk with Christ, and she is experiencing a grief over a loss, and For her, the idea of an end to that grief is not there. There's no end to what she's experiencing and feeling. But our suffering also comes in different ways. Like there are tragedies, countless tragedies of I couldn't even begin to name them all, but just to highlight a few. There's the suffering that comes when you have an illness and it's a chronic long-term illness and there's really no end in sight. Or you might have in your family a special need. there might it could be a spouse, a child, whatever that has a struggle that they have that is not going to end. They may have they're in the midst of struggling with illness or mental health issues, whatever, and it feels like there's no end. there are people that are suffering in their marriages. Either their marriages have broken up or they are living in a marriage that is painful every single day. financial this is a crazy economy and there are some of you out there that are concerned about your job. You have job insecurity, not job security. And so that suffering of everyday wondering when the hammer's going to fall and you're going to lose your job. And then I think another one is criticism. You get constant criticism and it's day in and day out at your job from your spouse, your friends, your family. whatever. And there's a suffering that goes with that. Can you think of others, Jimmy, that
Well, no. I think the list goes on. We're And I should have said this earlier, you're going to hear us use the term suffering and struggle interchangeably. I don't those of you who are dictionary nerds can look that up and you can see there may be a difference, but in our for our grace, we're using them interchangeably. We mean the same thing when we say that. So, so that list is a good list and it's probably things we haven't thought of too that you could add to that list.
Yeah. It's not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination. But recently in our in the midst of the struggle, suffering that we're experiencing right now and I my voice sounds a whole lot peppier than what my heart is feeling. we have been overwhelmed by the amount of people that have sent us prayers they're praying for us, verses, poems, art, songs, you name it. It's been amazing. And I know I've been in times when somebody has sent me scripture and I just haven't been able to receive it. It just has, you know, not even penetrated my heart because my suffering at that particular time has been has overwhelmed me. The difference in where my heart is at right now is that I have been like a thirsty person in the desert in need of water. And so as people have sent us or text texted us cards, you name it, I've been reading each one carefully. Y and I tried to keep note of every verse that people sent us and I lost track. But the other day a friend of mine who I've known for years who is a funny, quirky young woman who I really enjoy a lot sent me some verses from Lamentations. And oddly enough, in the middle of what we're going through, I hadn't even thought of Lamentations. Again, overwhelmed sometimes in my head and my heart with what's going on. But she sent me some verses in Lament patience. Jimmy, do you mind if I talk a little bit about this cuz you know I'm going to anyway.
I know you're going to. So, go right ahead.
Well, I just wanted your, you know, your stamp of approval or you could take a nap if you want cuz I' I've got this. Okay.
We don't want it to be a 30-minute podcast, though.
Well, you know, I got to go where God leads, man. It could be 40 minutes. I don't know.
Oh my gosh.
But anyway, I did a little research on she sent me verses from the book of Lamentations, chapter 3, which is a familiar book in the Bible, but I did a little reading just to get my footing in limitations and it was written by Jeremiah and it contains his s his sorrowful reactions to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple which took place in his lifetime and in that book of lamentations all the misery of God's people had come because they didn't seek God and they didn't wait for him that is so key they didn't wait for him they had rejected and rebelled against God for generations. And then they were looking to other places and other things to rescue them. And what God was waiting for and what Jeremiah was speaking about was that if they would see God, then they would see his goodness. So when she sent me these verses, I was struck. Completely struck. If you read chapter 3, and I'm going to use the NLT version, the language there is just amazing. And a little side note, I think we've talked about lament before. and maybe we'll do more on that again sometime later, but Lamentations is a massive lament. And Jeremiah is speaking from such incredible pain and suffering. He is so impacted by what is happening to Jerusalem and to the temple and to the people and how disobedient they've been. He's discouraged. Ed, at one point he feels like God has shot arrows deep into his heart, that his own people are laughing at him. They're mocking him. There's bitterness from him. Here here's a verse in the NLT that says 3:16, he has made me chew on gravel and rolled me in the dust. I mean, this is honest stuff. But verse 20 is one that really struck me as she sent these verses to me. I will ever forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this. The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness. His mercies begin aresh each morning. I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord. And I know for me when I'm in the middle of a struggle or a suffering that it's really really hard to look up. And we've talked before about the verses in 2 Chronicles where Jehoshaphat and the people were saying, "We don't know what we're supposed to do." but we're going to keep our eyes on you. When you're in the midst of a dark place, sometimes God, you feel like God has left the room. But in the last few weeks, what has come to me is the verse, I think it's in Proverbs, when it says, "Be still and know that I am God." Well, you know, we toss that around and we send that to people. I actually have it on a thing, a little plaque thing in our kitchen. But in order for us to make it through suffering, we have to know God. We have to know what he says. We have to know what he says about us. further down in Lamentations 3:31, it this is so cool. This is For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also brings compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow. Thoughts, babe?
I was waiting for you to share your sermonet. no, that's fine. I'm going to take an offering in a few minutes. I expect you to give big.
so as I look back on those verses, and I think you said it so well at the end of verse 18, Jeremia says, "My endurance has perished and so has my hope from the Lord." So he's and then in verse 22 or verse 21, he's reminded of these facts and he has hope. So it's that constant struggle of where we set our eyes. If we set our eyes on God, then all the things that you said and all the things that Jeremiah said there are really true. But in the midst of the difficulties, in the midst of the struggles, in the midst of the suffering, It's easy to have my endurance perish and my hope perish in the Lord, too. So, as you said, to know God and to see him and to be aware of who he is and his character and how he operates with us is lifting my eyes to see that as opposed to simply looking at the struggle.
And it's really hard when you're in the midst of struggle, I think, to look because you feel so much pain. There's this ache. I don't know how else to describe it than an ache. It's like someone in the last few weeks has had my heart in a vice and every now and then it releases and I think okay I'm going to be fine and then again it just it there's this squeeze further down in Lamentations Jeremiah says my tears flow endlessly they will not stop until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees my heart is breaking and then in verses 55 through 57 he says but I called on your name Lord from deep within the pit so there's that place where when we're in that suffering and struggle where we can be completely honest with God. And I'm not saying that lightly, you know, sorry for stumbling here, but it's not it's just going before God and just saying everything that's on your heart. He can take it and being honest with him and then waiting for him to speak. when Jeremiah is calling from the deep pit, he says, "You heard me when I cried. Listen to my pleading. my cry for help. Yes. You came when I called and you told me, "Do not fear."
Yeah. And so, this isn't this is an interesting case because I think it's where a lot of our struggle comes from. It comes from our own disobedience. and that's clear in the book of Jeremiah and in the book of Lamentations that God's people had abandoned him and therefore there were difficulties that came. What happens when you don't understand where your struggle has come from, your suffering has come from? And so, next week when we come back, we want to look at the life of a man who I think typifies that. A man by the name of Job who never understands why God has caused the pain in his life that he has. We look forward to seeing you again next week. Thanks.