0:12

You're listening to Amy Hall and

0:14

Greg Coakle on the hashtag SDRS

0:16

podcast. Hey, Amy. Hey, Greg. All

0:19

right, let's get right into the question here.

0:21

This one comes from Ryder. Greetings,

0:23

STR. I was wondering if you can

0:25

give insight into God's plan. I constantly

0:27

feel like God hates me. I

0:29

have a congenital defect which constantly

0:31

affects my career choices, my self

0:34

-worth, and my bitterness towards God. Why

0:36

does it seem like God hates some and

0:38

favors others? Well,

0:41

I was inclined to make a joke at

0:43

first when he said, give us insight into

0:45

God's plan. And I was like, oh, yeah,

0:47

well, I've got that all figured out. no

0:49

problem, what's your question? But

0:51

now this has a lot

0:54

more gravity to it, but

0:56

in a certain sense the

0:58

more frivolous response is

1:00

still a factor. We

1:04

don't know what God's plan is

1:06

by and large, and

1:08

especially here as it touches

1:10

the individual lives of people.

1:12

We have a bigger picture. We

1:15

can see what God intended,

1:17

what went wrong, and what God

1:19

is doing to fix it. This is

1:21

a big part of what the

1:23

story of reality entails. But

1:25

I have a chapter

1:27

towards the end entitled

1:29

in between, or titled

1:32

rather, in between. Entitled means

1:34

something else. Titled

1:36

in between. And I

1:38

wrote that chapter because of a question,

1:40

something like this that was asked when I

1:42

was up in Fairbanks, Alaska. and

1:45

a doctor asked me,

1:48

his patients asked him, if there

1:50

is a God, why did their child

1:52

die? Something

1:54

to that effect. And

1:56

I guess the way I answered

1:58

it, I developed this in the chapter,

2:01

is that we can understand the

2:03

big picture. We

2:05

can know why, and

2:07

just to use warfare

2:09

as an analog here, we

2:13

know why we went to

2:15

war against the Japanese and the

2:17

Germans along with the other allies

2:19

in the Second World War. We

2:22

know that there were going to

2:24

be casualties. We had very good reason

2:26

to think if we persist, we

2:28

were going to win this war because

2:30

both the Japanese and Germans were

2:32

locked, landlocked in one case and waterlocked

2:34

in another with not a lot

2:36

of resources. We had unlimited resources. In

2:38

fact, the United States, we weren't

2:40

even being attacked. There

2:44

was every reason to believe we were going to win. We

2:46

just had to stick with

2:48

it. So we knew all the

2:50

big issues, but we could never

2:53

tell why is it that one

2:55

soldier died on any given

2:57

day on that particular piece of

2:59

real estate in France. Why

3:01

that person and not some other

3:03

person? When you get down

3:05

to the granular details, God doesn't

3:07

tell us that. We don't know

3:09

that, but I'll tell you one

3:12

thing. It is not because he

3:14

doesn't like us and he wants

3:16

us to suffer for illicit reasons,

3:18

as was kind of suggested there.

3:21

I have a little pamphlet

3:23

that I have next

3:25

to my reading table and

3:27

it's all about the

3:29

sovereignty of God and basically

3:31

what this pamphlet state

3:34

goes through with biblical justification

3:36

is that there's nothing that

3:38

is going to come into

3:40

the Christian's life that hasn't

3:42

already passed through the hands

3:45

of God for some good

3:47

purpose. God allows,

3:49

just like Job, there's

3:51

the paradigm, God

3:53

allowed these things to happen but he was

3:55

never out of control and it wasn't because

3:57

he hated Job. and wanted

4:00

Job to suffer. He had a

4:02

greater purpose. And I want

4:04

you to think of Psalm 23

4:06

for a moment. And what

4:08

I'm going to say is not going to

4:10

be satisfying to a lot of people. But we

4:12

know how the Psalm starts. The Lord is

4:14

my shepherd. I shall not

4:16

want. He makes me

4:18

lie down in green

4:20

pastures. He leads

4:22

me besides still waters.

4:24

Oh, that's nice. He

4:27

restores my soul. Wow,

4:29

next line. He

4:31

guides me in

4:33

paths of righteousness for

4:35

his name's sake.

4:37

So, when we start

4:40

out the Psalm, the

4:42

statement is, God's the one who's

4:44

in charge of us. He's taking care

4:46

of us. He does these things

4:49

that are great, and he's looking after

4:51

the long -term well -being of us,

4:53

restores our soul, but he's also looking

4:55

to glorify himself. in the

4:57

way he works with us. He

5:00

leads us and guides us the path

5:02

of righteousness for his name's sake, not for

5:04

our sake, for his name's

5:06

sake too. And so both

5:08

of these things are involved

5:10

when we are following the

5:12

shepherd in our individual lives,

5:14

when he is caring for

5:16

us in multiple ways. One

5:19

of them is to

5:21

make us better for

5:23

ourselves. good comes

5:25

out of the hardship,

5:27

but also because he's seeking

5:29

to glorify himself in

5:31

what he does in us.

5:35

And biblically,

5:37

this entails

5:39

hardship, always, for

5:42

momentary light affliction is

5:44

producing for us an eternal

5:46

weight of glory, St.

5:49

Corinthians 4. Paul

5:52

says in Romans 8, I do not

5:54

count the sufferings of this life to bear

5:56

any comparison to the goodness that's to

5:58

come. Now, he doesn't say there

6:01

that the sufferings are producing it in that

6:03

line, but he does say earlier in that

6:05

chapter, he says that we know that God

6:07

causes all things to work for good for

6:09

those who love him and are called according

6:11

to his purpose, for those whom

6:13

he pre... For new he

6:15

predestined to become conformed to the

6:17

image of a son So

6:19

there it makes it clear that

6:21

the hardship are to cause

6:23

a result in us to be

6:25

more like Jesus now if

6:27

we don't have a Firm conviction

6:29

about that and this is

6:31

taught in many ways in the

6:33

New Testament I just gave

6:35

you three or four references But

6:38

if we don't keep

6:41

reminding ourselves of that, it

6:43

is very easy for

6:45

us to be overwhelmed by

6:47

the difficulties and hardships

6:49

that are necessarily part of

6:51

everybody's life, but especially

6:53

the Christian. Because we have

6:55

foes that the world does not

6:57

have. The world of flesh and

6:59

the devil is the foe of

7:01

everybody, but since the rest of

7:03

the world is kind of going

7:05

along with all of that, there's

7:07

no conflict. It's this

7:09

Christian who is in a position

7:11

to stand against that and

7:13

has God working in his life

7:15

to cause things to work

7:17

together to conform to Christ, that

7:20

we have a unique set

7:22

of hardships. And

7:24

it seems like our dear brother

7:26

here, Ryder, is experiencing

7:28

that, but is interpreting

7:30

that as God's animosity

7:32

towards him. And

7:35

that's not the case.

7:38

In Romans chapter 12, the

7:40

writer identifies a

7:43

fact of childrearing.

7:45

All parents discipline their

7:47

children, and they discipline their

7:50

children for their good. Now, they don't do a perfect

7:52

job. But God

7:54

does. And he

7:56

identifies there all of that

7:58

discipline that God does for

8:00

our good at the moment

8:02

seems not to be joyful.

8:05

It's sorrowful. It's a bummer.

8:07

But afterwards, he says, it

8:09

yields the peaceful fruit of

8:11

righteousness. So these are all

8:13

particulars that the scripture brings to bear

8:15

on these, the kind of challenge that

8:17

writer is talking about here at hardship.

8:20

And it is... critical

8:23

that we interpret

8:25

our circumstances in light

8:27

of the truth,

8:29

or else we're going

8:31

to come to

8:33

the wrong conclusions about

8:36

it, all right? And

8:39

Ryder has a

8:41

congenital defect because this

8:43

is a special

8:45

hardship, okay? But

8:48

it has caused a

8:50

bitterness. because somehow

8:52

it is reflected on

8:54

his own sense of

8:56

self -worth. And

8:58

instead of seeing himself in Christ

9:01

and let that be the

9:03

foundation of his self -worth, and

9:05

now he's a child of God

9:07

who is being brought along

9:09

in the midst of difficult circumstances

9:11

to a good end. And

9:14

I'll just say this

9:16

is not theoretical to me.

9:19

I like all Christians go

9:21

through hardship, and

9:23

the way that I go through hardship,

9:26

and sometimes it feels debilitating at

9:28

the time, is to

9:30

remind myself of these truths

9:32

and that it is not

9:34

for naught. It is

9:36

not because God doesn't like me, because

9:38

He's mad at me, that He's punishing me,

9:40

that He's just trying to make it

9:42

hard at me. Do I ever

9:44

struggle with bitterness? Yeah, I do. But the

9:46

way I deal with it is I have

9:49

to go back to these truths, many of

9:51

which I mentioned already. And I

9:53

know these things off the top

9:55

of my head because I use them

9:57

to remind myself of reality. And

9:59

that helps me deal with my feelings

10:01

in the moment. If there's

10:03

one thing we know for sure,

10:05

it is that suffering does not

10:07

mean God hates you. And

10:09

not suffering does not mean

10:12

God favors you. Because we find

10:14

examples contrary to that. In

10:16

both directions, throughout

10:18

Scripture, you mentioned

10:20

Job. No one suffered

10:22

more than Job, and he was

10:25

favored by God more than anyone

10:27

else at the time. So

10:29

his suffering had a purpose to

10:31

reveal God to the world, to

10:33

bring about his glory, but also

10:35

for Job, to shape Job and

10:37

to reveal his love for God

10:40

and to honor Job. We honor

10:42

Job to this day. So

10:45

you cannot Determine and I know

10:47

it is such a temptation to

10:49

think that if you're suffering it's

10:51

because God hates you in it

10:53

or he Yeah, he doesn't love

10:56

you. I mean that that is

10:58

such a temptation. I think we

11:00

all have to fight you're right

11:02

Greg Think about Think about what

11:04

what David says I think

11:06

it's David. It might not be David who

11:08

does this song, but it's in more than

11:10

one song. But he'll say, well, why are

11:12

these wicked people thriving? Why are

11:14

they doing so well? Look at them.

11:16

They go down to the grave in comfort

11:18

and peace. And why is all this

11:21

happening? So even David is

11:23

saying, why is this happening? But at the

11:25

end of these, or whoever it was, I

11:27

don't remember if it's David. But at the

11:29

end, it always comes around to, but

11:31

I'm going into, I would

11:34

rather be in your sanctuary, and

11:36

you are my portion. You

11:38

are my reward. I will

11:40

be with you." And he sees

11:42

that being close to God

11:45

is better than being in comfort

11:47

going into the grave. And

11:50

there's a sense in which all

11:52

these things that are happening to

11:54

you, they're working towards your happiness

11:56

in God now and ultimately. The

12:00

better you know God, the better off

12:02

you will be. now and in the

12:04

end. And you can ask anyone this.

12:07

Look at Johnny Erickson -Tottish. I mention

12:09

her all the time, but who

12:11

has more of a right

12:13

to say, I would rather not

12:15

be in this wheelchair? But

12:17

she says she wouldn't trade it because of

12:19

what she's learned about God. Now, you might not

12:21

be in that position yet where you can

12:24

say that, and that's okay. But you do have

12:26

to trust that that's what God is working

12:28

towards, that you would know him well. with

12:31

cancer, which she has done. And

12:33

chronic pain. But look

12:36

at John the Baptist. God

12:38

loved him, right? He

12:40

died in early death, Stephen

12:43

stoned. God loved him. We

12:45

see this throughout. Look

12:48

at people in the Old Testament. You

12:50

have the kings who were really evil,

12:52

and then God says, well,

12:54

all of your relatives, all of

12:56

your future people are going

12:58

to be destroyed. But I'm

13:00

going to take your son right now

13:02

because he's the only person I see

13:05

any good in. So we actually suffer

13:07

as an early death and it's because

13:09

God favors him. So we can't make

13:11

that sort of judgment. We don't know

13:13

what God is doing. What we have

13:15

to do is look at God's character

13:17

and what he's done and Jesus came

13:19

to earth to suffer and die for

13:22

us. He proved objectively his love. So

13:24

whatever happens, we have to look at

13:26

it within that framework and know that God

13:28

has a purpose. He's working all things

13:30

after the counsel of His will. You

13:34

already mentioned the Romans

13:36

8, 28, 29. He's

13:38

working all things together for good to make

13:40

us like Christ. And it

13:42

can feel very hard, whatever

13:45

you're going through. And

13:47

sometimes it's hard to see that other people

13:49

are going through things too, especially if it's

13:51

something that's particularly

13:53

difficult. But I think

13:56

we have to remember objectively that

13:58

God proved his love for us.

14:00

And we have to look at

14:02

this as an opportunity God is

14:04

giving us to learn how to

14:06

depend on him and to trust

14:08

him and to know him better

14:10

and actively try to know him

14:12

better. Because if we can do

14:14

that and if we can be

14:17

like Job where we continue to

14:19

trust him, that brings honor. to

14:21

both you and to God. But

14:24

I think about what Peter says

14:26

in 1 Peter 4, Whatever

14:51

suffering you're going through now, just

14:53

remember, particularly if it's

14:55

coming because you love Christ. If

14:58

you suffer with Him now, you

15:00

will, you will glory with Him later.

15:02

You'll rejoice with Him later. So

15:05

Peter talks about how all over

15:07

the world Christians are suffering. All

15:09

you have to do is read through the

15:11

New Testament and mark down when people suffer.

15:13

When there's comments about his suffering, you'll see

15:15

that suffering does not mean he hates you.

15:18

So all of these things I think we

15:20

have to work out to understand and really

15:22

truly believe. Okay, let's go to

15:24

a question from Brianna. Well,

15:37

this is a little

15:39

bit similar to our

15:41

last question, and there

15:44

is no retribution. from

15:46

God on any

15:48

Christian for anything. And

15:51

the reason I can say

15:53

that with confidence is because all

15:56

of that punishment was taken

15:58

on Jesus at the cross. And

16:01

the work of the cross makes this

16:03

clear when we study it. The

16:05

writer of Hebrews

16:07

chapter 10 talks about

16:09

the perfect sacrifice to

16:12

take away all sin, there is

16:14

no longer any reason to do the

16:16

sacrifice over and over because the

16:18

sin is taken care of as far

16:20

as the east is from the

16:22

west. That's how far God

16:24

has removed our sins from him, though they

16:27

be scarlet, they should be white as

16:29

snow. These are statements in the text there.

16:31

Citing the Old

16:34

Testament actually, this

16:36

is the stable consistent

16:39

attitude of God regarding the sin

16:41

of his own people. Now, there

16:43

are times when chastisement is in

16:45

order, but that's because a person

16:47

is where word and there's a

16:49

Christian is and there's discipline to

16:51

put them on the right track.

16:54

Okay, but in this circumstance, this

16:56

is just evil that's befalling the

16:58

Christian. Why would anybody

17:00

think in light of the kinds

17:02

of things we've been talking about

17:04

that that evil is a

17:06

payback on them from God

17:08

for something they did. This

17:11

is a deficient understanding of the work of

17:13

the cross in my view, and I hope,

17:15

I feel bad for anyone

17:17

who kind of draws

17:19

that conclusion. I remember when

17:21

I was a kid, you

17:24

know, and I was being spartan

17:26

off to my mom or something,

17:28

then I'd turn around and run

17:31

into something, stub my hoe or

17:33

whatever, right after I was sparting

17:35

off. And she'd say, God, see,

17:37

God is punishing you for what you

17:39

just did, naughty boy. Well,

17:41

I don't think that's good theology. Punishment

17:45

will come later. And

17:48

it isn't just, now sometimes there

17:50

are consequences, but it

17:52

wasn't, in that case, running

17:54

into something was the consequence of

17:56

turning around and not paying attention. It

17:59

wasn't. I get hurt because God

18:01

engineered me to run into something because

18:03

I was not nice to my

18:05

mom, okay? And

18:07

I think sometimes, depending on a

18:10

person's upbringing or understanding of

18:12

God, they're going to be tempted

18:14

to think, okay, God's getting

18:16

back at me for something. Now,

18:19

God can certainly use hardships and difficulties

18:21

to get people's attention. And this is

18:23

going to, especially the case of a

18:25

non -Christian, but it

18:27

can do it with Christians as well. That

18:30

is, he is capable of using

18:32

a bad thing that happens to

18:34

you for good in your life.

18:37

It doesn't mean that he's causing these things to

18:39

happen because you don't worship it enough, so I'm

18:41

going to punish you by bringing this guy into

18:43

your life and he's going to be mean to

18:45

you. I think that

18:48

is unbecoming of the character

18:50

of God and not the

18:52

way God deals with his

18:54

children. In

18:56

this particular case, Is

18:59

it Brianna's friend? Yes.

19:02

Yeah. It would be

19:04

best to try to communicate to Brianna some

19:06

of the things I was just saying

19:08

that this is not the way God deals

19:11

with his own children. He's gracious to

19:13

them. He loves them. He

19:15

has kind to them.

19:17

Now kindness sometimes means allowing

19:19

discipline or hardship, but

19:21

he's not in retribution

19:23

mode anymore. That's

19:25

reserved for non -Christians. That is not

19:27

for believers. God has

19:29

not put a stop to all evil. He

19:32

just hasn't. And this

19:34

shows up in our lives in

19:36

different ways, and we honor him

19:38

when we seek justice, and

19:40

we can't know everything he's

19:42

doing in our lives through

19:45

that. All we can do

19:47

is look at, again, objectively,

19:49

we look at the cross. God

19:52

is sovereign, God is wise, God

19:54

cares about justice, God is

19:56

good, and God loves us.

19:58

All of those things are proved

20:00

objectively on the cross. That

20:02

means could he change the situation

20:05

just in a blink of

20:07

an eye? Yes, he could. But

20:09

if he doesn't, that

20:11

doesn't mean it's because he doesn't

20:13

love us. It doesn't

20:15

mean that. There are other things

20:17

he's working out. God could have

20:19

prevented Joseph's brothers from selling him

20:21

into slavery, but he didn't. In

20:23

fact, he had a reason for it. Look

20:25

at the succession of events

20:27

with Job. And it's interesting how

20:29

that whole event is introduced. Look

20:32

at my servant Job.

20:34

I mean, he was tenderhearted

20:36

towards Job as he

20:39

is describing him, even though

20:41

you have these progressive

20:43

worsening set of circumstances that

20:45

Job has to deal

20:47

with before he finally is

20:49

rescued from them by

20:51

God. But what I don't want

20:53

people to hear is that... God has

20:56

a reason for it, that we should just

20:58

allow it to continue. That's not the

21:00

case either. We don't know what

21:02

God is doing. All we know is what

21:04

we are called to do, and that is

21:06

to seek justice, that is to protect people.

21:09

We glorify God by rescuing

21:11

people and by protecting them

21:13

and by bringing about justice. It's

21:16

not that, well, okay, I'm

21:18

suffering and God is sovereign, therefore

21:20

I should just... here. No,

21:22

part of what God's doing is

21:24

having us reflect Him by

21:26

seeking justice and goodness. So

21:29

the fact that God is sovereign

21:31

doesn't mean we don't try to

21:33

change our situation. All it

21:35

means is that ultimately we're

21:37

safe in His hands and that

21:39

we can mean terrible suffering. So

21:43

this is again, this is why we

21:45

We can't trust that everything's going to go

21:47

right for us. All we can trust

21:49

is God's character. So you have to understand

21:51

God's character if you're going to be

21:53

willing to put yourself in his hands. To

21:56

your point about maybe resisting evil

21:58

that's in our life, even though

22:00

God may be using it, we

22:02

still resist it. I'm

22:04

working through the book of

22:06

Acts now in chapter

22:09

17, 18, 19, 20, 21.

22:11

It's amazing how often

22:13

the disciples, including Paul, flee

22:17

circumstances of persecution. Now

22:19

in some cases Paul wanted to jump

22:21

right in and his disciples said, you're

22:24

not going to do that. That's too

22:26

dangerous. We're taking you out of here.

22:28

And actually early on he was lowered

22:30

over the wall in Antioch and a

22:32

basket because of the persecution. So this

22:34

just underscores the notion there are things

22:36

that we that are harmful to us

22:38

that we need to attempt to flee.

22:41

if possible or deal

22:43

with in some fashion.

22:45

But whatever we can't

22:47

avoid, we take that as

22:49

from the hand of God, that

22:51

is God allowing it to happen for

22:53

a purpose in our life. Not

22:55

that God's causing it to happen,

22:57

not in my view at least,

22:59

but that God's going to let

23:02

this take place for some greater

23:04

purpose that he has. So

23:06

all we can do in

23:08

those situations is Do what

23:10

God has called us to do, seek what's good.

23:14

If there is something that

23:16

can be done to

23:18

change your situation, do it,

23:20

get help, seek justice.

23:22

Those are all beautiful things

23:24

that glorify God. It's

23:27

not that God wants us to

23:29

wallow in pain and suffering. That's not

23:31

what's happening. So again, don't

23:34

try to figure out what God is

23:36

doing because I don't think he's revealed

23:38

that in every situation. But many times

23:40

you can look back and see what

23:42

God did and how he brought you

23:44

where you are today and what the

23:46

purpose of the suffering that you went

23:49

through accomplished in you. So

23:52

it's kind of a difficult

23:54

thing to understand that God would

23:56

sovereignly allow these things for

23:58

purpose and still be good and

24:00

still want us to fight

24:02

those things. But you can see

24:04

this throughout the Bible. You

24:06

can see this happening. So

24:09

I hope that helps Brianna

24:11

and Ryder, and And we'd love

24:13

to hear from you If you have a

24:16

question and you can send it in on with

24:18

the hashtag STR ask. This is Amy Hall

24:20

and Greg Coakle for Stand to Reason.