01 May Discussion Guide: Where Can Wisdom Be Found? Week 14
Prayer
Take the first 10 minutes of your time together to listen to what God is doing in one another’s lives and pray for any specific needs people in your group may have.
Suffering…it’s a reality everyone goes through at some point in life. But what does suffering mean? Does it tell us something about ourselves? Does it tell us something about our world? Does it tell us something about God? The answer is a resounding YES. The real question is what does suffering tell us about those things, and perhaps even more importantly is the question of how can we navigate through our suffering in a way that makes us stronger in the end? That is what we will discuss during our time together.
Discussion Questions
J. B. Priestley, British Novelist
”Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us every day, but it changes and withers at a touch.”
If you could write the perfect story for your life what would it look like?
How would the story differ from the life you are currently living?
After thinking about that, would you like to change your answer to the first question?
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
What does our suffering reveal about our ability to control life?
Suffering reminds us that we are not in control of our circumstances. Sure, we can make decisions that can keep us out of immediate danger like looking both ways before crossing the street or not smoking or drinking and driving, but when we are confronted with the unexpected death of a loved one, the betrayal of a spouse, or a diagnosis of some disease it is impossible to pretend like we’ve got it all under control. No, the reality is that pain and suffering can come into our lives at any moment and there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it.
If we’re not in control then who is?
In our day and age there are a few options people like to choose in regards to this question. Evolution and random selection could be in control if God does not exist. In which case those who are not suffering should rejoice and though it may be tough to watch they should actually just let nature take its course and stand back and watch as others suffer and die off. However, that does not sit as truth in anyone’s spirit if they were honest with themselves. Another option is that karma is in control. Suffering is simply the justice of some impersonal force paying you back for the wrong you have committed in the past. Again, if this is true then suffering is deserved and though we can be compassionate towards others and wish they weren’t going through it, in the end you would have to admit that suffering is something you had coming to you so just deal with it. Or, there is a personal, loving, purposeful Creator God who is in control of the Universe and therefore our suffering must have a personal, loving purpose behind it.
How does it make you feel to admit God is in control? Why is that?
Philippians 1:19-21, 4:11-13
For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
If God is in control, then what does that mean about the purpose of our lives?
If God is in control it can only mean that the purpose of our lives is determined by Him and therefore must be for Him. Romans 11:36 tells us that everything exists for His glory. Meaning our purpose is to image God, or reflect who He is to the rest of Creation and to live life in such a way that demonstrates His ways are perfect and His love is unconditional.
Is there any situation life can throw at us that can keep us from glorifying God with our lives?
Not at all. In fact it is actually the most difficult situations that often provide the greatest opportunity for us to image God and to show the world that He is worth more to us than anything else this world has to offer.
How might that realization change our perspective about suffering?
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How have you seen a difficult situation shape you into the person you are today?
In retrospect would you go back and change anything about that difficult situation now?
Jim Elliot, Missionary to Ecuador
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
What does loving God in the midst of our suffering communicate to the world around us?
If glorifying God is the chief purpose of our being, and if suffering presents such an opportunity to bring glory to God, then what does that mean about God’s allowing us to suffer?
It means that suffering is actually one of the greatest gifts God can give us as His image bearers. Because God is a God who is acquainted with suffering, a God who willingly chose to enter into our broken world and take our shame, guilt and suffering upon Himself, then suffering in our lives actually presents us with a window to peer into the depths of God’s heart. It invites us into a deeper and more intimate knowledge of who God is and how much He loves us, which in turn transforms us more and more into the image of Jesus. Though none of us would ever wish to suffer, the Gospel actually turns suffering from something we should run from to something we should embrace, knowing that God is up to something spectacular in our lives.
How might that reality empower us to “rejoice in our suffering”?
Closing Thought
Job 42:5-6
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
In other words, Job is saying that what he has suffered has actually served to bring him into a deeper and more intimate knowledge of who God is.
How does suffering enable us to know God more intimately?
How does our suffering enable us to lead others into a more intimate knowledge of God as well?