Grace and peace are yours through Jesus Christ who has the answer to all our questions. Amen.

O Lord, you promise that in all things you work for the good of those who love you. Help us to see your loving hand in our times of trouble. Same us from doubt, relieve our anguish, and lead us through these dark days with the light of your presence. Amen.

While I was working on my sermon this week, I tried to think of illustrations of suffering. I didn’t have to think too hard. I immediately thought of spending 6 days with 70 boys and girls at Training Camp next week. There will be whining, complaining, soreness, crankiness and homesickness. And that’s just from the counselors. Of course, this isn’t real suffering.

Real suffering was what the psalmist expressed: "I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?’ My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’" (Psalm 42:9-10)

The psalmist wrote those words over 3000 years ago, but they could have been spoken by any of the people in the hospital this past week. Where is God when I am suffering? If God loves me, why does the pain continue day after day? Why is there no improvement in my condition? Why doesn’t God help me?

Even the strongest of Christians sometimes will ask these questions during periods of suffering. If you haven’t asked these questions yet, then you probably will. These are the honest doubts and truthful concerns of true children of God, and they deserve an answer. Today we will answer the question of "where is God when I suffer?"

The answer to our question is based on this fact: "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 is a very familiar verse to many followers of Christ. This verse has brought great comfort to Christians for generations as they have struggled with a life is often painful and perilous.

But this verse isn’t simply telling us, "Don’t worry, be happy." This is not the Bobby Mcferrin verse of the New Testament. This verse is also not telling us, "Everything will turn out okay in this life." Nor is it telling us that bad things that come into our lives are really good things in disguise.

The point of this verse is that God is able to take everything that comes into our lives – the good, the bad, and the ugly, the exciting and the dull, the pleasurable and the painful; the joyful and the tragic – and he is able to use those things to work for our ultimate good.

Think of baking a cake. If you were to take some of the ingredients and taste them alone, they’d be pretty gross. Ingredients like flower, raw eggs, baking powder, and salt don’t taste very good alone. Other ingredients like sugar, frosting, and vanilla do taste pretty good alone. But when you bake a cake, you mix all the ingredients together, the end result tastes great. God takes the good and the bad that come into our lives and mixes them together in such a way that the end result is good.

"Good" here doesn’t mean fun or enjoyable or painless or happy. It means the completion of God’s work in our lives.

One of my pet peeves is when people tell me: "God wants me to be happy." For example, I had someone tell me once, "Pastor, I’m getting a divorce because I’m not happy. And God wants me to be happy." "Whoa. Wait a minute," I told her. "Where in the Bible does it say that?" Where does God say that as Christians we have the automatic right to be happy. Was Joseph happy as a slave in Egypt? Was Job happy as he scraped his boils and mourned the loss of his children? Were the early Christians happy to be fed to the lions and burned alive? Did Jesus make it sound like it is going to be easy and fun to be one of his disciples: "They will lay hands on you and persecute you. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me." (Luke 21:12-17)

The Bible doesn’t promise happiness for us. In fact, it promises just the opposite – suffering. There are many reasons why God allows suffering in our lives. Sometimes we misinterpret hard circumstances and trials as a sign that God hates us. This is a totally wrong view of God. God is not like a warden walking around with a stick ready to smack you on the knuckles when you do wrong. The writer to the Hebrews reveals that when God disciplines us, he does so like a loving father disciplining his children. (Hebrews 12) Sometimes human parents discipline too much or too little, and the results are not what the parents wanted. But God is the perfect Disciplinarian. He knows exactly what we need and how much we need. God disciplines us with suffering so that we might turn to him as our refuge, strength, wisdom, provider, and healer.

Perhaps the Lord allows some people to suffer because this is the only time they will think of him. Perhaps the Lord allows trouble because trouble will drive you to prayer, then prayer will drive away your trouble. Perhaps the Lord allows the Christian to see the dark clouds of trouble so you may realize that darkness is really the shadow of God’s wing. The psalmist declares: "Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. (Psalm 57:1)

Sometimes God uses suffering to remove sins – pride, arrogance, or idolatrous trust in ourselves. Just as a surgeon removes the cancerous parts to save the body, so our Divine Physician cuts off anything that would destroy our soul. Just as a forester saves a diseased tree by sawing off the dead branches and hacking out the rotten portions, so the heavenly Gardener prunes the tree of our life to preserve our souls from rot and decay. Don’t charge God with cruelty when he seeks to save you from yourself. Is the lifeguard cruel when he strikes a frantic, struggling swimmer into unconscious submission. Sometimes it hurts as God is working on saving us.

There are many reasons why God allows us to suffer. Our Lord answers our many questions by replying, "What I am doing you don’t understand now, but you will understand later." He wants us to know that he has a solution planned even before we know we have a problem. One day we will be able to look back on our lives and see how God used suffering to discipline, remind, and refocus us. "Where is God when I suffer?" He is right there with me, working everything out for my eternal good.

In the midst of our suffering God is also dealing with us in love. A few years ago I was on an early morning flight into Chicago – the kind where most of the passengers are business people. And wouldn’t you know - the airline gave us one of those two-for-the-price of one landings. That’s the kind where you get the extra thrill of a bouncy, bumpy ride along the runway as you land. I’ll tell you, even with these seasoned flyers aboard, that landing got everyone’s heads out of their papers and their briefcases. I couldn’t wait to hear what the flight attendant was going to say. Fortunately, he had a sense of humor. He came on and he simply said, "Ladies and gentlemen - now that I have your attention . . . I’d like to make a few announcements!" Well, believe me, after a landing like that, he had our attention!

You may have been experiencing a few bumpy landings lately – medically, martially, economically, romantically, or parentally. And you’re wondering why things have been so rocky. There could be many reasons, of course. But we know that ultimately God is in charge of things. So, why has he sent or allowed your bumpy landings? Could it be he’s trying to get your attention? Maybe if you could hear God’s voice audibly right now, you’d hear him saying, "Now that I have your attention, I’d like to make a few announcements."

What are his announcements? Well, things you might otherwise not have listened to or considered. He’s using the trouble to say to you things like - "You are not enough … you need something lasting … you’ve tried it long enough without me ... I love you so much … it’s time you go through life closer to me instead of apart from me."

Jesus can do all that because he absorbed all the guilt, all the hell of all your sin when he paid for it on the cross. Your bumpy landings are meant to bring you to the place you have missed all these years - the cross where he loved you enough to die for you. All the journey of your life has been to bring you to this moment where you could finally commit yourself to the Savior you were made by, the Savior you were made for, the Savior who loves you so much. Then you can place your problems at the foot of the cross. You can bury your troubles in the open tomb. You can give your burdens to Christ. Then you can look at your blessings with both eyes and your troubles with only one.

Your bumpy landings may have shaken up your life - but only so you would turn your attention to the Son of God … so he could finally bring you safely home. He allows suffering out of love for your soul. He wants you to refocus on what is really important – him. When there is death, focus on the resurrection. When you meet health problems, meet the Divine Physician who healed the blind, the lame, and the lepers. When sin is making you feel unworthy to be called Christ’s disciple, remember that Jesus reached out to prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners. When your bank balance is low, remember that your treasures stored in heaven are high.

When storms appear on the horizon, realize that it takes rough seas to make good sailors and great captains. God sends trials not to impair us, but to improve us. God’s love for us is not a love that exempts us from trials, but rather a love that sees us through our trials.

Few people realize just how close President Ronald Reagan came to dying when he was shot on March 30, 1981. Even though he was shot, so many things went miraculously right that day: the explosive-tipped bullet failed to explode; doctors happened to be attending a staff meeting at the hospital when he was brought in – so all the institution’s finest medical minds were on hand; and the bullet stopped a quarter of an inch from his heart. President Reagan’s survival was a genuine miracle.

President Reagan was always a strong Christian, but shortly after the assassination attempt, he talked to his son, Michael, about the profound change he had undergone – and the profound commitment he had made. He said, "I look at all the things that could have gone wrong that day – yet God controlled every circumstance. I believe he spared me for a purpose. I want you to know, Michael, that I’ve made a decision to recommit the rest of my life, and the rest of my presidency, to God." And he did. And I believe God blessed our country through his presidency: the fall of communism, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the freeing of the Iranian hostages, a robust economy and a renewed American optimism, just to name a few. God turned what could have been a tragedy into a triumph for an entire nation, maybe the world. And he does the same thing every day with every single one of us.

"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." What an incredible verse of comfort! It literally takes our breath away when we stop to reflect on what it is telling us. No matter the heartbreak, no matter the failure, no matter the pain or tragedy, we know the answer to our question: "Where is God when I suffer?" He is right there with us – working everything out for our good and dealing with us in love. Amen.

And now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.