Speak to Your Suffering

Reflection

Do you talk to yourself? How about talking to inanimate objects? Oddly enough, talking to objects seems to be what the apostle Paul asks us to do in Romans 8:31: “What then shall we say to these things?”

Paul calls attention to the voices that speak to us in sickness, accident, insecurity, death, disconnection, and inner turmoil and say, “Surely God does not love you! Surely you are condemned! Surely this is your fault! Surely you are cut off, alone, uncared for, abandoned, rejected, despised!”

Hearing these derisive taunts, what are we to do? Shall we be silent? “By no means!” (Romans 6:2). Rather, we must train ourselves to speak to our suffering. We must say, both personally and corporately:

“Depression, God is for me; you cannot successfully be against me.”

“Cancer, because God did not spare his own Son one lash, one thorn, one minute of wrath, but rather delivered him to death on my behalf, God will surely and graciously give me everything I need.”

“Addiction, you shall not bring a charge against me, God’s elect, because God justifies.”

“Injustice, you shall not condemn me, because Christ Jesus died for me, was raised for me, and intercedes for me.”

“We may experience tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, demonic attack, cancer, depression, anxiety, injustice, addiction, infidelity, divorce, abuse, trauma, death of a parent, spouse, or child, and yet because Christ loves us, we will not be conquered by suffering. No, we will be more than conquerors in and through this suffering.”

“Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Quotation from Jerome Miller

The deepest lessons the heart has to deliver us become accessible only when it is ruptured.

Question

What can you say to suffering you are facing today? Can you share that with a friend?

Praying for and laboring with you,

Aaron Hann