Gospel hope when Life Doesn’t Make Sense

By Paul David Tripp

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness – 2 Cor 12:9

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. – Romans 8:1-2

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1: 2-4

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. – Romans 8:28

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. – 2 Cor 5:15

– Suffering confronts us with the fact that life is not about us but about God. It is not about our glory but his It’s not first about our pleasure but about his. It’s not about our plans for us but about his well for us. It’s not about our control but his. It’s not about our little kingdoms but about his. It’s not about our successes but about the display of his majesty.

– We bring a rich, multifaceted inner world of thoughts, desires and emotions to every experience… you’re not just shaped by your experiences, but you give shape to those experiences as well.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. – Proverbs 4:23

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. – Psalm 73: 25-26

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all. – 2 Cor 4:16-17

– When you are suffering, you have to force yourself to pay attention to your private conversation, that is, the words you say to yourself that no one else hears. We are always talking to ourselves about ourselves, life, God others, meaning and purpose, relationships, trouble, solutions, hope, the past, the future, etc. Because of this constant internal conversation, we influence ourselves more than anyone else does, because we hear what we have to say more than we hear anyone else.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. – 1 Peter 5:9

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. – Matt 11: 28-30

– We never suffer just what we’re suffering, but we also suffer the way that we’re suffering.

– One of the hardships of suffering is profound feelings of weakness and inability… Suffering doesn’t make us weak; it simply exposes the weaknesses that have been there all along. It exposes the delusion of our sovereignty and independent capability. It’s painful to be confronted with who we really are and how needy and dependent we are.

– Discouragement is the experience of every sufferer. It is one of the burdens added to the burden of what’s already being suffered.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. – Josh 1:9

– The identity you assign to yourself also determines your expectations potential and actions

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. – 2 Thess 2:16-17

– Alternatively, suffering can form in you new and beautiful things, things that grow only from the soil of difficulty. Suffering has the power not only to renew your hope but also to transform it. Suffering can give you a type of strength unrelated to your gifts, health, power or position. Suffering has the power to help you see where you’ve been completely blind but didn’t know it. Suffering can bless you with a joy that’s independent of life being easy and people liking you. Suffering has the power to turn your timidity into courage and your doubt into surety. Hardship can turn envy into contentment and complaint into praise. It has the power to make you tender and approachable, to replace subtle rebellion with joyful surrender. Suffering has the power to form beautiful things in your heart that reform the way you live your life. It has incredible power to be a tool of transforming grace.

– Suffering exposes weaknesses, not just in physical body or in our relationships but also in our hearts. Difficulty exposes weak joy, weak love, and fickle worship. Suffering reminds us that we are not as righteous as we’ve thought and not as faithful as we’ve confessed to be. Suffering brings you and me to the end of ourselves, It exposes and confronts us. It makes it harder and harder to hold on to the delusion of our righteousness.

I will never leave you nor forsake you – Josh 1:5

– People are adding to their suffering by assuming power and control that they didn’t have and never will have.

– The Comfort of God’s Sovereignty: Suffering causes us to scan our lives and face the fact that we control very little… But realising we are not in control is also one of suffering’s biggest blessings… It is only when we abandon our independence that we find rest in one greater. Hopelessness is the only doorway to hope. When we forsake our trust in our power, we’re then ready to entrust ourselves to the power of another.

– So the rest of heart that every sufferer longs for never comes from demanding understanding. Rest comes from putting your trust in the One who understands and rules all the things that confuse you.

– Suffering causes you to hope that the day will be over, while you dread the day to come.

– The Comfort of God’s Purpose

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 receive from God. .. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. – 2 Cor 1: 3-9

– But God has used my weakness, confusion, and fear to soften my heart and make me much more willing and able to enter into the trials of others with an understanding and compassionate heart.

– Your Suffering doesn’t belong to you

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights – Habbakuk 3:17-19

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with you. – Psalm 139:13-18