How to Deal Effectively with Trouble

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

July 10, 2005

Romans 8:18-23

What a difference there is in the way that people deal with trouble when it comes to them. For instance, some people when they receive the least amount of trouble, a mere pinprick of irritation or pain, become embittered and have very little patience. You probably know a person like this. But others, when trouble strikes, do not change their attitude. They can have the world tumble in on them and yet remain balanced, serene, even cheerful. Since we live in a world in which we all have to undergo trouble, pain and suffering, we need to know, How to Deal Effectively with Trouble”

Trouble, suffering and pain is something that a child of God can expect. Even the most dedicated Christians are tempted to ask a times: “Why did this happen to me?” or “Why did this happen to Mrs. Smith? She is such a faithful, humble Christian.” Sometimes we get to thinking that God’s children should somehow be protected from tragedy.

A pastor once asked a man who suddenly stopped worshiping at church, “What the reason? “My daughter died last Christmas Eve,” he said. “I prayed to God – on, how I prayed! – that He would not take here at theat time. Bur she died anyway.”

And so the man became bitter in his attitude toward God.

The truth is, God’s children can expect that things will not always go their way. They can expect trouble and suffering. This is part of our heritage as the children of men, inhabitants of a sinful world.

Also we can expect suffering and trouble because we are followers of Christ. Christ had to suffer when He chose to become a human being. He suffered because there is sin in the world. He suffered more than any other human being because He took that sin upon Himself in order to undergo all of its evil consequences according to the Father’s plan to redeem sinful man. And so as we strive to obey our Father in heaven we can expect the troubles that the world gave to Christ. So we share in Christ’s sufferings. Because the world hated Christ, the world will hate us who are His followers. In the beatitudes Jesus Himself tells us: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

Sometimes we are tempted to groan under the weight of trouble, to complain and question God concerning His justice. We ask, “Why did this happen to me, I didn’t deserve this.”

The devil loves this, he loves a complaining Christian. He loves for us to question God and to groan under the weight of trouble. That makes his job that much easier, to turn us away from God.

Groaning and complaining is not the way to deal effectively with trouble. This only adds to the weight of our burden unnecessarily.

In dealing effectively with trouble we should see it as the plight of all God’s creatures. All of creation, this includes the animate and inanimate world, groans with pain because it was condemned to lose its purpose. Something happened to upset the order of the universe. Nothing is perfect, nothing is as God originally intended it to be. It is subject to vanity or to frustration. The wind offers cooling refreshment on a hot day, but it can also develop into tornadoes or hurricanes that destroy. The rain falls gently to the ground to give food to the plants, but it can cause rivers to flood and ravage the countryside as well. The beautiful flakes of snow that make the world so clean and white can also disrupt travel and commerce and cause hardship and suffering.

This was not God’s wish nor is it the wish of creation itself (if we can speak of creation as having a wish.) But God established it as the thing that we can expect. He tied creation to man; when man fell into sin, creation was corrupted, too.

In God’s great plan all the disruptions in nature, all the tragedy of the universe, all the sorrow of God’s creatures, ultimately are there because of sin. Sin disrupted the relationship between man and God. It also disrupted the relationship between all of creation and God.

So all of nature shares in our frustration, somehow. God has bound the destiny of all creation to ours. All of creation suffers along with us because of sin.

But we can endure it patiently because we know that our troubles are temporary, they are not going to last forever. God is going to redeem our bodies and free them from all weakness and frustration that sin has laid upon them. Out text says, “we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” We are not always going to have to put up with the troubles that we how have. One day we will be free from them all. In life it is a lot easier to put up with a little inconvenience when we know that things will get better. We know that when our Lord comes on the last day things will get better, then we will share completely in the glory that is Christ’s just as now we share in His suffering.

Nature’s groaning, too, will end in that day of liberation. Creation will share in our blessing. No more change and decay in all around shall we see. No more will the beauty of the world be spoiled. No more will the forces of nature destroy. No more will nature groan, but heaven and nature will sing. They will sing forever the song we sing about Christ’s first coming: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King!

Also we can endure our troubles patiently because we know that they are negligible, they are small and insignificant in comparison with the glory that God will share with us. Paul says in our text: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

In the King James Version it reads, “I reckon,” meaning to do some calculating. We might picture to ourselves a ledger sheet with the sufferings of this present time on one side and the glory to be revealed in us on the other. When we view this, we see that the glory side so outstrips the suffering side that it is hardly worth comparing. Or if we were to with them on a balance scale, we would see that the pan can’t even hold all the glories that will be given to us.

But still you ask, “Why does God permit troubles that cause us suffering to come to us?” Well it is God’s way of heightening our hope. If we had everything easy in this life, we would become self-satisfied. We would become content with material life as an end in itself. We would not long for life in heaven with God. We would be satisfied living our life here on earth. We would have no desire for salvation. We would see no need for the comfort and hope that God offers us. W e would die in our sins.

So trouble cause us to get the proper perspective, to stand on tiptoe to eagerly await the day of eternal importance. Have you ever seen a little child in a crowd ling the street, waiting for a parade? He reaches out over the restraining rope as far as he can get, stretches his neck, and strains his eyes to see the first sign of marching feet and waving flags and bright colors. This is the kind of waiting that St. Paul pictures for us. Troubles then cause us to eagerly wait in such a manner, to groan within ourselves, not complaining, but looking forward to the day when we will share in the glory of Christ.

In our troubles then, we can give thanks to Christ for enabling us to deal with trouble. He is the one who by His life, his suffering and death and resurrection has earned for us the title of sons of God. He has made us joint heirs with him. He has therefore won for us the hope of glory. The splendor that God has – the brightness of blessing that shines forth from Him as He sits on His glorious throne – this is what He has in mind for us. This is our destiny; not the problems, the troubles, the pain of a sin-bound world, but the gift, the glory of a Christ won heaven.

It is in Him therefore that we find our real answer to trouble. It is as we focus on Him that the Holy Spirit brings about the firstfruits in our lives and not the least of these is joy and peace. Christ has come to give us a foretaste of the glory we shall enjoy perfectly one day. This gives us a very important clue as to how we can live with the sufferings of this present time which God allows to come to us.

We can endure them patiently; we can endure them even gratefully; and we can triumph over them – if we turn to Christ for strength. He has revealed to us the love and the mercy of God, great enough to cover all our sins with His forgiveness. In that loving, forgiving Christ we shall find joy even in the midst of sorrow and trouble.

In Him we find our glory now, and with Him we shall enjoy our glory when he comes again.