[1-10]  [11-20]  [21-30]  [Nazareth Syndrome]

PART I: 30-Days to A More Resilient Faith
[ Days 1-10 ]

Day #1: The Crucible of Crisis
Read: Psalm 119:67; James 1:2-4

Who in their right minds would prefer hard times to easy? Ask 100 people which they prefer, and 100 would answer the same: give me the GOOD TIMES!

So how does one account for two very strange statements I heard recently? At a small group meeting a woman started her word of praise to God by saying, “I thank God for my stroke.” Then in May, while in Nepal assisting earthquake victims, I heard a man say, “I thank God for the earthquake.”

Crazy, right? But consider the fuller context of both.

In the case of the woman, she was thankful for her stroke because it brought her back to the Lord and also was healing her relationship with her estranged son. Though walking is now a bit of a challenge for her body, in a figurative sense, her spirit has a new spring in its step!

The man in Nepal is a pastor, and he has good reason to thank God for the April 25th 7.8-magnitude earthquake! Though his life became very difficult since that fateful day, he rejoices because the earthquake has brought his neighbors to their church in search of a safe place to sleep. The close contact between believers and unbelievers has resulted in quite a few of his formerly lost neighbors finding Christ!

It makes one wonder if, as Paul and Silas left Philippi, they, too, were thanking God for the earthquake, which resulted in their early release from jail, and more importantly, in the salvation of the jailer and his family!

Such stories are not all that unusual. Many know of people whose lives have been completely turned around by tragedy. I recently heard a story of someone whose difficult temperament was utterly transformed by a cancer diagnosis. Today she is a joyful person who is grateful to God for all the friends she discovered she has. She never knew such joy B.C. (before cancer).

So, there’s obviously another side to suffering, a side we could call an “inconvenient truth.” This truth is hinted at by the Apostle James in his bizarre statement, “Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds…” (James 1:2).

For these 30 days, we will consider the ubiquitous presence of “things-going-badly” in life. We may reach some surprising conclusions about crises, ourselves, the human experience, and yes, even about God.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) Have you or someone you know ever said, “I thank God for my cancer”, or an earthquake, or some other great trial or loss? How could this be true? Share your story.

2) What are some lessons you have learned or gains achieved through suffering that make it suffering worth it (not that we have a choice)?

3) Even unbelievers have said they thank God for cancer, or some other hard thing that has happened. How might someone walking with Jesus through suffering mean this in a way that an unbeliever could not?

Day #2: God Uses Crisis to Move People – Geographically
READ: Genesis 45:5; Genesis 46:1-4; Acts 8:1

My thoughts on the subject of crisis have evolved a lot from when I was first approached by Encompass World Partners about developing a Crisis Response ministry. To be honest, at that time I wasn’t sure crisis ministry was a good fit for me. But all that changed when I looked at the role of crisis in the Bible, and I came to a conclusion that left me wildly passionate about serving in crisis.

What conclusion did I reach? I saw that God uses crisis to move people, to change people’s hearts, minds, and sometimes even their geography. The crucible of suffering awakens; it shakes us from life’s patterns and routines so that we are listening differently; it readies our mind to see afresh. But God uses crisis to move people geographically? Really? Yes, even geographically. Consider these well-known examples.

ISRAEL INTO EGYPT
When God wanted Israel to go into Egypt where they would grow into a great nation, how did He move them there? He sent a severe famine (crisis) and as food grew scarce, the patriarch Jacob had no choice but to seek provisions in the only land that still had food: Egypt.

His sons were welcomed by the “Egyptian” official, and they returned home with bulging sacks of grain.  Turns out that this generous official in Pharaoh’s court was none other than Joseph, their brother!

And how did brother Joseph end up in Egypt? It was by his brothers’ wicked betrayal (crisis) years before, when they treacherously sold him to traveling merchants “happening by” on their way to Egypt.

Another geographic migration brought on by crisis was 430 years later, when God used ten horrific plagues (crisis) to bring Israel, now a vast nation, out of Egypt.

MOBILIZING THE EARLY CHURCH
After Pentecost the church was exploding; Jerusalem was Christianity-Central. Believers were living and fellowshipping together, and their numbers grew daily as they anxiously awaited Jesus’ return.

But weren’t they forgetting something?  Oh, yeah, the Great Commission. Their town, Jerusalem, was only Phase I! So how would God move the church into Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth? Through persecution (crisis) ignited by Stephen’s martyrdom (crisis).

Indeed, all throughout history God often has used crises – famine, betrayal, plagues, persecution – to move people into His good and perfect purposes.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) Has God ever used a crisis or hardship to move you geographically? Describe it and how things turned out.

2) Can you think of Bible stories (other than those cited above) where God achieved something important in someone’s life by relocating them?

 

Day #3: God Uses Crisis to Move People – Changing Hearts
Read: Acts 9:15-16; Acts 14:22; 2 Cor. 11:23-29

Saul of Tarsus. The best of the best. Sincere. Zealous. Smart. Highly educated. Passionate in his zeal for God. And dead wrong.

Suffering is central to Saul’s story. It starts with his inflicting suffering on the church to destroy it, which ironically, God uses instead to spread the church. Then after two years, God’s purposes in the persecution having been accomplished, the tables turn and now Saul is on the receiving end of the suffering. But let’s go back to the beginning of the story.

GOD’S CHOSEN VESSEL TO SUFFER
On the road to Damascus, Saul is traveling with documents authorizing him to capture, imprison, and even kill followers of Jesus. Suddenly, a bright light flashes from heaven and strikes him down. A voice from heaven says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” It is the voice of Jesus! (Jesus’ words answer forever the question, “Where is Jesus in my pain?” – a subject for another day.)

Now blind, Saul had to be guided by his posse to the home Jesus had indicated, and for three days he sits in darkness, in stunned silence and awe, wondering how he could have been so wrong! At the end of those three painful days, Saul emerges a man with a completely changed heart.

As it turns out, Saul – now going by his Greek name Paul – is God’s chosen means to spread the church. Pre-conversion, this happened unintentionally, on his part anyway, as he scattered the church through persecution. But after his conversion the persecutor becomes the persecuted, and he suffers as few others in all of church history. All to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

God said of Saul, “[He] is my chosen instrument…I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” This prophecy proves true, and who can read without emotion Paul’s long litany of suffering in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29?

It was not out of vindictiveness that God allowed Paul to suffer; it’s just what was required in order for Paul’s mission to be completed. One time when Paul had reached his limit, God lovingly appears to Paul in a dream to strengthen him. “Do not be afraid [Paul]” God says, “I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you…” (Acts 18: 9-10).

Paul spoke from deep experience when he wrote, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) On Easter Sunday morning, Jesus found His disciples “together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders…” (John 20:19). Not many weeks later we find them pouring into the streets (Acts 2) and public places (Acts 3 & 5:18-25) boldly speaking out in Jesus’ name in defiance of the Jewish leaders’ orders.

What made the difference for the disciples so that they came to willingly accept suffering they knew would come as they walked in obedience to the Lord?

2) Imagine a friend who recently lost a loved one that they had fervently prayed God would heal. Describe what the below two responses might look like:

  • Lovingly yielding in faith to this difficult trial knowing God can only act in love towards His children.
  • Harden their hearts against God because of the outcome He allowed.

 

Day #4: God Uses Crisis to Move People – Changing Minds
Read: Jonah 1; Jonah 3:1-3

No discussion of God’s using crisis to move people is complete without dealing with the uncomfortable subject of how He uses crisis to change rebellious minds. Sadly, there are way too many Bible examples from which we can draw!  Pharaoh. The Israelites in the desert. The Israelites in exile….

But the best example of God’s using crisis to change someone’s mind is this one.

GOD’S COMPASSION FOR MOSUL
God’s heart was broken because of the wickedness of the people of Mosul (Iraq), the modern name for Nineveh. God called the prophet Jonah of Galilee to go preach to the Ninevites; perhaps they would repent and be spared God’s judgment!

What a privilege to be chosen from among all people to be God’s envoy! But we all know that’s not how Jonah saw it. From Galilee, an obedient Jonah would go north and east to Nineveh, but instead our disobedient Jonah went south and west.

Oh, what misery he could have been spared if only….  But Jonah’s mind was made up.

Running to Joppa, he boards a ship going anywhere but Nineveh. In exhaustion he falls asleep in the bottom of the vessel – running from God is hard work! We all know the story – big storm, thrown into the sea, God sends a big fish, Jonah swallowed alive….

How miserable it must have been in the belly of that fish! Stench. Half-eaten fish floating. Seaweed tangling. Ears paining in the deep. Fear… Think of it! It had to be terrifying!

Still, even in all that nastiness, it took three whole days of agony – of crisis – for Jonah to change his mind.

Finally Jonah prayed: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you…I,
with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good.” (Jonah 2:7,9)

The fish vomited Jonah onto land, and the soggy, smelly prophet wobbled toward Nineveh, shakily at first, but strength grew with each step of obedience. The Ninevites repented and God had “compassion on the Ninevites [by not bringing] on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10).

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Think of a time when you suffered because you were slow to obey something God wanted you to do (forgive someone, say something to someone, do something, etc.)

  • What did that situation teach you and what advice would you give to others based on what you learned?
  • What might be at the core of a believers obstinance in accepting and obeying the path God has indicated?

 

Day #5: The WHYs and WHATs Behind Suffering
Read: Romans 8:28; Job 1:6-8

The WHYs in life are tricky, and this is never truer than when it comes to WHY God allows a trial.

Maybe it’s to move someone geographically – “Their house burned down because God wants them to move to Texas near their son.”

Or is it to change someone’s heart? – “God is teaching that person not to be arrogant.”

Maybe it’s to change someone’s mind? – “He got fired so he’ll stop refusing God’s call to ministry.”

When it comes to the WHYs behind trials and crises, filling in the ocean-wide gaps between our knowledge and God’s is sketchy at best and dangerous at worst. Too often we get it all wrong, which only makes it harder for the person in crisis.

JUDGING
Of course, Exhibit A is the experience of Job. Job’s comforters thought for sure they knew why he was suffering so: it was because of secret sin in his life. But the truth was just the opposite, wasn’t it? Indeed, Job was targeted for trouble precisely because he was upright, not because of sin in his life! God was confident Job’s faith would withstand Satan’s worst. So Job’s comforters’ speculation led them to a conclusion exactly opposite from the truth.

COLLATERAL EFFECTS
Sometimes a trial touches us while the real target is someone else. For example: An unsaved nurse needs to meet you, so you land in the hospital. Or your insurance man is struggling with suicidal thoughts and needs hope; of course the natural connection between you and your insurance man is a claim. Ouch!

If there’s any truth to the theory of “Six Degrees of Separation” – the belief that every person on the planet is six or fewer people away from all others – it is quite possible that the primary reason trouble may come to me may at times be for someone else, someone I may not even know!

Though the WHYs of trouble are often too sketchy for conjecture, we can at least be confident about the most important thing: the WHAT of hardship – that God is wringing every ounce of good out of trials touching those who love Him.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The devotional says, “When it comes to the WHYs behind trials and crises, filling in the ocean-wide gaps between our knowledge and God’s is sketchy at best and dangerous at worst. Too often we get it all wrong, which only makes it harder for the person in crisis.”

  • Share (or write about) an experience – from the Bible or wherever – where someone “got it wrong” about the Whys behind someone’s suffering. 
  • Did this wrong conclusion make it harder for the person in the difficulty? If so, how?
  • What lesson can we learn about trying to guess the reasons behind suffering?

Day #6: All That We Don’t Know About Trouble
Read: John 16:33; James 1:2,12; 1 Peter 1:6-9; 1 Peter 4:12; Hebrews 12:5-13

When questioned about the existence of God, Albert Einstein is alleged to have answered: “Man knows perhaps 3 percent of all there is to know. That leaves 97 percent we do not know. Isn’t there room in that 97 percent for God?”

In between the things we know are vast expanses of things we do not know. Navigating blindly through these voids most certainly leads to wrong conclusions, especially when those conclusions have to do with trouble in our lives.

Our loving Heavenly Father has not left us to navigate blindly through these oceans of unknowns. He has given us the necessary instrumentation – two essential guides – to lead us through space, time, and trouble so we can avoid being broken and shipwrecked on rocky cliffs of doubt.

GUIDE #1
The first divine guide is truth. While He hasn’t revealed every truth that can be known, what truth He has revealed is a solid, trustworthy guide through life’s hazards.

Truths we know about trouble… It is:

  • EXPECTED – Jesus guaranteed we’d have trouble (John 16:33), so why be surprised at our suffering “as though something strange were happening to [us]”? (1 Peter 4:12).
  • PURPOSEFUL – Peter said trials purify and strengthen faith and result in heavenly reward (1 Peter 1:5-7).
  • REASSURING – Trouble sent to correct us when we err proves we belong to Him (Hebrews 12:5-13).
  • GOOD – Paul said God redeems good out of trouble (Romans 8:28).

GUIDE #2
The second divine guide is faith. Faith is the great bridger-of-gaps, the connector-of-dots that fills the spaces between the truths we know.  Simply put, the “math” of troubling times is: truth + faith = confidence.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) Of the four truths about suffering listed here –expected, purposeful, reassuring, good – which one do you find especially strengthening vis-à-vis suffering? Why did you choose that one?

2) What does it mean that faith bridges gaps and connects the dots during times of deep trials?

 

Day #7: The Uncomfortable Truth About Trouble: God Could Stop It!
Read: Ephesians 1:11

For the next two days we venture out into waters that will feel choppy and uncomfortable regarding the connection between God and trouble.

One month after 9/11, Christian apologist John Piper wrote an article entitled, “Why I Do Not Say, ‘God Did Not Cause the Calamity but He Can Use It for Good.’” In it, he establishes a difficult but biblically irrefutable truth: that God chose not to prevent 9/11. Indeed, that on that day – and every other – God was working “all things after the counsel of his will.” (Eph. 1:11) Below are excerpts from that article.

“Among the ‘all things’ under God’s sovereignty are the:

“From the smallest thing to the greatest thing, good and evil, happy and sad, pagan and Christian, pain and pleasure – God governs them all for his wise and just and good purposes (Isaiah 46:10).

“Lest we miss the point, the Bible speaks most clearly to this in the most painful situations. Amos asks, in time of disaster, ‘If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?’ (Amos 3:6). After losing all ten of his children in the collapse of his son’s house, Job says, ‘The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD’ (Job 1:21). After being covered with boils he says, ‘Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?’ (Job 2:10)

“IT IS A MYSTERY, INDEED, how God governs all events in the universe without sinning, without removing responsibility from man, and with compassionate outcomes!”

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) Why do you think the truth that God is sovereign and in control over all makes some feel confident and others feel fearful?

2) What would be some underlying beliefs (true or misconceived) about God’s character that each reaction – confidence and fear – reveals?

 

Day #8: The Uncomfortable Truth about Trouble – God is Complicit!
Read: Genesis 37:26-28 & Genesis 45:4-5; Job 2:1-8; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; 1 Corinthans 2:7-8

This is our second day of venturing out into uncomfortable waters concerning the connection between God and trouble. Yesterday we contemplated God’s sovereign control over everything. Today’s truth is perhaps even more uncomfortable! It is that – there’s no escaping it – God is complicit in our trouble.

JOB 
The best place to start is with the story of Job, the quintessential story of faith under fire. Was Satan free to strike Job at will? No, Satan had to ask permission from God, and God set boundaries on Satan’s power to harm.

JOSEPH
It was Joseph’s brothers who betrayed him. THEY sold him as a slave to merchants traveling to Egypt. But many years later, when his brothers came to the horrifying realization that Pharaoh’s official was none other than their little brother Joseph, they heard Joseph’s amazing statement: “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (Genesis 45:5)

Years later he would reaffirm this conclusion to his brothers: “Don’t be afraid. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish…the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:19-20)

PAUL
God entrusted Paul with direct revelation and knowledge unlike any other man besides Jesus. So to keep him from becoming proud, God gave him a “thorn in the flesh,” also called in the same verse “a messenger of Satan.” (2 Corinthians 12:7)

JESUS
And the most beautiful gift ever given, our salvation, which brings us richness and joy every day, is the result of the most horrific suffering and vile crime ever committed, when Satan struck Jesus on the cross. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8)

While there are aspects of this mystery not to be grasped this side of heaven, what is abundantly clear is that the forces of heaven (good) and hell (evil) come together in pain. TROUBLE is where these opposite (but not equal) forces meet to work for entirely opposite ends: God to lift, bless, and strengthen; Satan to bring down, kill, and destroy.

Will our faith stand? Will trouble make us better or bitter? Which will it be? 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) How might we be comforted by the knowledge that Heaven (God/good) and Hell (Satan/evil) meet together in suffering?

2) How could this perspective change our response to trials and hardship?

3) Do you think the scene in heaven that resulted in Job’s great trials still happens today, or was that just a unique occurrence? (Consider Zachariah 3:1 & Revelation 12:10b.)

 

Day #9: The Strategic Place of Prayer in Crisis
Read: Psalm 22:5-21; Matthew 26:39; James 5:13

Whatever you may think of the movie “The Passion of the Christ” (Mel Gibson), I think the scene at the foot of the cross got a lot right. Looking down from the cross, Jesus sees a vile-looking “humanoid” (Satan) circling through the crowd. The creature’s sneering grin grows deeper as each breath of the Savior becomes more labored. Satan’s ancient plan will soon be realized.

Poetic license? Not so fast. But to find the source text one must leave the Gospels and go to the Psalms of David. Psalm 22, the prophetic account of the crucifixion, reads: “a band of evil men has encircled me.…bulls surround me…roaring lions open their mouths wide against me…dogs have surrounded me.…” Horrific. Evil.

The psalm continues, recounting the future prayers of the dying Lamb of God from the cross, “But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword…Rescue me from the mouth of the lions….”

Surely Heaven and Hell met at the cross! In a lesser, but very real way, the same is true during any crisis. Crisis brings people to their most vulnerable; and that’s where Heaven and Hell rush in although for completely opposite purposes.

Our only weapon to wield, as demonstrated here by Jesus, is prayer, which penetrates the veil, touching the heart of the Father and breaking the resolve of the evil one. Prayer – simple, desperate, and earnest. Only prayer.

OTHERS WHO SOUGHT DELIVERANCE THROUGH PRAYER 
[PAUL]  Three times Paul prayed for God to remove his thorn in the flesh. (2 Corinthians 12:7)

[JOSEPH]  The Bible records none of Joseph’s prison prayers except those requesting wisdom to interpret dreams, but certainly this man of God prayed constantly to be delivered from prison.
[JOB]  Job sweetly yielded to God’s will, offering up almost super-human prayers to Him who “gave, and . . . has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21).

James agrees, writing simply: “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray…” (James 5:13).

PRAYERS ANSWERED
All four would affirm that their prayers were answered, though the answers looked different from their requests:

  • Jesus still was made sin, but rose in victory, opening the way between God and man.
  • Paul was granted sufficient grace…but not healing.
  • For years God answered Joseph’s prayer for deliverance by granting him favor in the eyes of those in authority over him. Finally, at the perfect time, he was released from prison.
  • Job was vindicated before his “comforters,” but his losses were real.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) Is a prayer really answered if God’s answer to our prayer looks totally different from what we expect?

2) Share experiences where God’s answer to your prayer was very different than you expected. (For example, Habakkuk asked God to judge Israel for their disobedience, never imagining that God’s answer would be in the form of judgment by a nation even more wicked than Israel.)

3) What word could you use to describe how it makes you feel to know that God’s answer to your prayer may be different than you were expecting. (Words such as comforted, frustrated, assured, angry, etc.)

 

Day #10: A Crisis Prayer God Didn’t Forget
Read: Isaiah 49:15; Luke 12:6-7 

God used two things to make me passionate about a ministry in crisis response. The first was studying crisis throughout the pages of Scripture, which has provided most of the source material for these devotionals. The second was an experience I had in the Philippines.

The story actually begins in Africa. In November 2013, I was in Bangui, Central African Republic, trying to recover from being sick. Too weak to do anything else, I listened to BBC radio. A special came on about Tacloban in the Philippines – a name which was new to me. Weeks before, the city had taken a direct hit from Super Typhoon Yolanda, and people were telling their stories, each one ending in tears. I was moved and remember praying something like, “Lord, please help these people! Bring eternal good out of the devastation! Use it to draw people to You.”

Six weeks later I was back in the USA working on helping war-torn CAR with food and seed. I confess my prayers for Tacloban were far from my mind…but not from God’s.

Fast-forward exactly one year later. I had accepted the invitation of a missionary to see the results of his agency’s response to a powerful typhoon that struck a year before in the Philippines. Landing in Cebu City heavily jetlagged, I flipped on the TV in my hotel room and found a one-year-anniversary documentary on “Super Typhoon Yolanda”. It sounded very familiar; I then remembered the BBC story I had heard on the radio a year before in Africa.

Traveling throughout Samar Island, we saw a land still heavily scored and pocked by the typhoon’s strength. But the contrasting beauty of new life, new believers, and new church plants was stunning. I sat worshipping in a church plant, which hadn’t existed a year before. As they sang, it all came back to me. I remembered my prayer from a year before, and realized I was sitting in the midst of God’s answer! These were the people for whom I had prayed!

I had forgotten – but God had not. My prayer, slowly swallowed up by time and the demands of life, sprouted and grew in the soil of God’s faithfulness. He joys in answering the prayers of His children.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1) Has God ever answered a prayer that you had forgotten you prayed? Describe.

2) Have you ever suspected that you experienced an answer to a prayer that was prayed by someone who has probably completely forgotten about that prayer or may even be deceased?

3) How might this fact impact our prayer life, that our loving Heavenly Father stands over space and time and never forgets our prayers?

“[This]…is a hard truth and one I do not want to acknowledge,
but Job stands as merely the most extreme example of what
appears to be a universal law of faith. The kind of faith God
values seems to develop best when everything fuzzes over,
when God stays silent, when the fog rolls in. A flash of light
from a beacon on shore and then a long dreadful time of
silence and darkness – that is the pattern I find not only
in the book of Job, but throughout the Bible.”

Philip Yancey