Good news in the midst of my suffering

We ache for good news in medical challenges. We pray for good outcomes to the hardships our kids and grandkids are experiencing. We grieve when good things disappear. We live in a fallen and fearful world in which sin and resulting suffering affect everything. 

We need good news, don’t we?

When the enemy tempts us to doubt that “God is good, all the time,” we need the goodness of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. When everything around us is falling apart, we have to cling to what’s true about Him. 

Because we know our good and loving Father revealed Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior. 

Yet when we’re battered down and weary, it’s so easy to believe the enemy’s lies that tempt us to think God is still angry with us or that He’s punishing us. Or worse? That we aren’t believers at all because we’re suffering, just as Job’s innermost agony reveals.

Then, we can think of God as a tyrant. It makes us doubt our relationship with our loving Father, and we can sink into worsened agony of anger and shame. In the midst of our fears, tears, and anger, let’s cling to the goodness of His grace toward us and ask Him to tenderly melt and soothe our hearts with the good news of the gospel once again. 

Oh, taste and see that He is good (Ps. 34:8 ESV).

Taste the goodness of the Lord:
welcomed home to his embrace,
all his love, as blood outpoured,
seals the pardon of his grace.

(“I am His, and He is mine,” Robinson, W., 1890)

Good news! God is not angry with me as a believer in Christ

Job’s cries can echo our lament. “God will not turn back his anger” (Job 9:13 ESV). “Are you angry with me because I’m not good enough?”  

None is righteous, no, not one…no one does good, not even one (Rom. 3:10, 12 ESV).

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23 ESV).

But God,

being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 

even when we were dead in our trespasses, 

made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-6 ESV).

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1 ESV)!

Can I doubt his love for me,
when I trace that love’s design?
By the cross of Calvary
I am his and he is mine.

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I know my own and my own know me” (Jn. 10:11, 13 ESV).

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:9 ESV)!

Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:14 ESV).

Good news! I have peace with God, now and forever, in Christ

Job’s cries reveal his greatest fear: 

There is no arbiter between us. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me (Job 9:33-35 ESV).

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5 ESV). 

He is the mediator of a new covenant, 

so that those who are called 

may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant (Heb. 9:15 ESV).

His forever, only his—
who the Lord and me shall part?

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God (1 Jn. 4:15 ESV). 

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit (1 Jn. 4:13 ESV). 

Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart.

Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (Jn. 15:9 ESV). 

O this full and precious peace
from his presence all divine;
in a love that cannot cease,
I am his and he is mine.

Good news! By God’s grace, He is helping me trust Him, in this suffering

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6 ESV).

The tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him (1 Pet. 1:7-8 ESV).

Loved with everlasting love,
drawn by grace that love to know,
Spirit sent from Christ above,
thou dost witness it is so.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know 

the love of Christ 

that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14, 16-19 ESV).

Heav’n and earth may fade and flee,
firstborn light in gloom decline,
but while God and I shall be,
I am his and he is mine.

Material adapted from Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle, Copyright © 2022

Resources to remember this good news in the midst of my suffering

If I forget the gospel in the midst of my suffering, the accuser’s lies easily take over. Emotions usurp my thoughts, especially when my body is suffering. Singing songs that focus me on the gospel helps me “taste and see that the Lord is good!” He graciously takes this from thoughts into emotions as I pray-sing about what He has done for me in the person and work of Christ for me! No matter what happens on earth, “I am His and He is mine!”  

Sister in Christ, sometimes this need is hourly! So, below are some resources I’m creating to help us endure this suffering with the gospel hope of Christ. May our loving Lord carry and sustain you as we both cling to our gospel good news today.