God and Suffering: The Role of Prayer in Suffering
Today we’re continuing our series on God and Suffering. For the first two weeks of this series we looked in some depth at why there is suffering in the world, and then we looked at God’s role in the suffering human race, how it is that God enters into human suffering in order to fill it with his presence.
God entered into the world and embraced suffering himself in order to redeem humanity. He sent His only Son so that we would not perish but have eternal life.
Thus, those with open hearts to God, for those who have received Jesus, for believers, our suffering is experienced with a great sense of God’s presence and accompaniment.
The mourning we endure and the grief we endure are transformed by God’s love into the expectation of a new day; it is transformed into hope. The key, the key to altering the nature of suffering from being a diminishing experience to a redemptive one is, I want to suggest, today’s topic: prayer.
It is first in the choice to come to God in prayer when life spins out of control, when the unforeseen devastating experiences in life happen, when love ones die, when relationships end against our dreams and wishes. It is first in choosing to come to God in prayer. It is second HOW we pray. The HOW is hugely important. You know it’s possible to pray in pure despair. “God, just take me, now!”
I’m so glad that we have the Bible to instruct us. And I’m so glad that we have the example of so very many people who walked with God and wrote down their experiences of life and of their despair and of how they handled their suffering. They went to God, the first right thing to do. They were honest with God. That’s vitally important too.
They had faith in God. And it really seems like they had some level of understanding that God was present in what they were facing. God’s purpose in everything, every sorrow, every disaster, every unknown, tense situation is to redeem it, to take the bad that happens in our lives and work with it creatively so that good comes from it. God INFORMS our prayers, even when we don’t know how we should pray.
Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. 28 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.
There are a number of passages in the Bible that speak to the specific issue of prayer in the midst of suffering. We’ll look at a small number of them in order to see what we can learn together.
Psalm 4:1 Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer. 2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame ? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods ? 3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.
When we pray in public, there is often a certain formality, a certain amount of ‘safe’ language that we use. We do that because well, we ARE praying, to be sure, but the ones leading want their prayers to be understood by others who are joining in with them. Often one person gathers together the prayers of the people. That’s what we do here each Sunday.
Bu when we’re on our own, in our own prayer closets, so to speak, there is no need for any kind of formality with God. WE may choose formal language, because that is our tradition, and that is fine. But we can see from this prayer of King David, a certain directness. “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God”.
He just goes for it. He’s serious here. He needs an answer, he needs a response from God. The way he begins his prayer might sound almost forward or too informal to our ears, except that as he very clearly addresses God, and he does so in a faithful manner.
He knows that God is righteous. Righteousness just means right-ness. There is no evil or wrong in God. There is no unfairness, no leaning at any point toward unrighteousness. So the writer KNOWS who God is.
The psalmist is not looking at his distress, at the evil of people around him, and somehow blaming God for the actions and attitudes of others. KNOWING who God is informs our prayers.
Spending time in the Word of God, the Bible, is the absolute best way we come to know God. We get to know His character, His abiding love and his faithfulness. Knowing these things about God helps us to pray faithful prayers.
It helps us to not waste our breath, frankly, on blaming God. So many people are inclined to blame God. Rather, even our most desperate prayers then become an act of worship. That’s really important.
In his prayer King David rightly describes what is causing his troubles. His issue is not with God, it is with people. So he says, as part of his prayer: 2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame ? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods ?
There’s real wisdom here. David wrote this most likely at a time when he was being persecuted by Saul. David had been pronounced King, but he was waiting for his kingship to be realized.
In the meantime he was hunted like a dog by the outgoing king Saul, who was rather loopy to put it nicely. The ‘glory’ of David’s kingship had been reduced to this ‘shame’ of living as a fugitive and exile.
Saul had lost his right to be king largely through his choice to partake in witchcraft and idolatry; he had sought to bypass God, seeking other ways into the spiritual world and it had, frankly, destroyed him.
So David’s prayer turns here to the situation at hand. It seems like this has been going on a long time. He rhetorically asks his oppressors how long they will love delusions and seek false gods.
Recognizing the folly of humanity is wisdom here, and helps us to remember that God’s goodness exists apart from the actions of people.
"3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him. God preserves and protects those who truly seek after him. David has confidence that, although his choice to honour God is thus far only resulting in his own confidence in God’s abiding presence, God will come through for him. God hears…your prayers.
God is ALWAYS at work in your life. And we know that after the waiting, after the hiding, after the shame, God of course came through in David’s life in a big way.
He was crowned. His faith sustained him until God brought about his vindication. David shows us the importance of praying in the midst of our suffering, of knowing Who God is in the midst of our suffering.
I have some experience of this. Not my own direct suffering, but in facing grief upon grief like wave after wave of grief. I journeyed with my brother to the moment of his death from cancer, three years ago to this very day.
That was something I would do all over again, but it was a very scaring experience. And literally in the wake of mourning for my brother, the day after his memorial service, my son Jared was stricken with a strange illness.
He ended up in the hospital diagnosed with lupus, a disease which can range from being really quite manageable to being a life-long struggle with multiple organ issues.
This was overwhelming of course. Not yet having time to breathe from my brother’s passing, and then facing this terribly unknown future for my son.
So I prayed. I prayed probably very forward, blunt prayers to God. Asking why? Asking how? Asking for mercy for my son. I remember feeling my prayers were somehow not sufficient and the prayers of my wife were not sufficient, so we asked a great many people to pray.
We got the diagnosis of lupus on Friday. They did a Lumbar puncture on Jared and blood tests and told us to await the confirmation on Monday. The confirmation never came. We were told he had lupus…he had I think 7 of the 11 required symptoms that confirmed the diagnosis.
Monday morning he still had the symptoms, but he had no lupus. Gradually the symptoms went away. All his organs were restored. To this day, he is just fine. That weekend, exhausted as I was, I just poured out my petitions to God. I prayed for healing for Jared.
I prayed for wisdom and encouragement for Barb and I who I assumed faced this uncertain future with my son. But God delivered Jared, and God delivered Barb and I from grief upon grief. And so we praise His name!
The truth is, because of Who God is, ALL our experiences this side of the veil, this side of heaven, have the capacity to transform us…for good. That includes every moment spent suffering. Every moment spent mourning.
Let’s look at another psalm of David. I wish we had the original melodies for these psalms, these songs, of David.
Ps 6: 6 I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. 7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. 8 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.
The writer knows that God has heard his cry. His suffering is abated by this knowledge. His tears still flow, his pain is still real, but he knows he is heard. Someone said: “Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian”.
So while awaiting deliverance, while the answer has not yet come, while tears still flow and the body weakens from suffering, the psalmist affirms so beautifully: “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer”.
When we pray knowing who God is, when we pray in the midst of our suffering with our hearts at least partly attuned to the loving character of God, our prayer is as much for God himself than it is for the thing we ask of Him.
Sadhu Sundar Singh said: “Prayer does not mean asking God for all kinds of things we want, it is rather the desire for God Himself, the only Giver of Life”.
Finally, 3 last passages that challenge us in the area of how we choose to live, day to day, and how those choices affect ALL of our prayers. It seems that how we live, that the consistency we strive for in our walk with God, really, truly matters:
Ps 66: 17 I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. 18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; 19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
1 Peter 3: 10 For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. 11 He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
There is power in prayer. Huge power. And part of the strength and effectiveness, it would seem, of our prayers has some relation to how we choose to conduct our lives.
I should say that I do not see this as any kind of threat, but rather a strong encouragement and motivation to align our words and our deeds.
Our faith, what we profess to believe, and our actions are just ONE thing. Not two things. Someone said: “We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another”. (William Law)
The psalmist, whose identity is not clear, says: Ps 66:18 “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened…”
The Contemporary English Version says: 18 If my thoughts had been sinful, he would have refused to hear me. The Message paraphrase says: “If I had been cozy with evil, the Lord would never have listened”.
Now, of course, God hears ALL prayers. He is not prevented from hearing BECAUSE of our sin, as if our sin has some power over God.
But there is a clear sense that dealing with the sin in our lives honestly, confessing our sins and repenting of our sinful behaviours, is the natural and normal way and healthy for a believer, a Christ-follower, to live. The NLT puts it this way: 18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
One of the most common bits of counsel I give is this: “We’re not in this alone. We’re not intended to live the Christian life isolated from others”. One of the huge advantages of being part of a faith community, of coming out regularly, weekly in fact, to church, is that our struggles and failings and our joys and victories are shared things.
Every Sunday we worship together and we pray together and we have opportunities to pause and reflect. This helps us to keep short accounts with God. If somehow I don’t get around to it in the business of life during the weekday, I have the regular opportunity to come before God and, among a people moving in the same direction, align myself with God. Make things right with God.
We regularly celebrate communion, which is yet another opportunity to examine our hearts. Together we come to Jesus and cry: Ps 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”.
When we do this, when we confess our sins and repent of our sins, the Scriptures say that “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness”.
And then, cleansed and restored, we can joyfully say along with the psalmist: Ps 66:19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
So we see that God is close, God is near to us. He is close enough to hear. Living as we’re called to live, we needn’t be concerned that our prayers might be rejected. Knowing that God is love, we understand that God does not withhold his great love from us.
May we walk near to Him. May we keep short accounts. May you and I be found here at church often, worshipping together, confessing together, pouring out our hearts before our great and mighty God together.
May we know Him in our joys. May we know Him in our sorrows. May we always turn to him in prayer when we are afflicted with suffering.
Let’s pray. Holy Spirit of God. Abide with us, we pray. Draw near to us as we draw near to you. May our tears and yearnings poured out to You, bring solace in our suffering. May we, knowing your love and growing daily in that knowledge, may we seek Your face when all around is sinking sand.
May we remember you in the dark moments of our lives. May we feel your embrace at all points of our day. And may we serve you faithfully, as Your beloved Church. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
