Rooted Series Week 3: Where is God in our Suffering

Devotional

Day 1: When the Wind Gets Knocked Out

The breathless moments of life – a tackle to the ribs, a phone call from the hospital – leave us gasping for hope. Suffering crashes into our lives like an unblocked linebacker, exposing our fragility. Yet God does not stand distant from our collapse. He bends low to the grass-stained mess of our pain, close enough to feel the shudder of our silent screams. His nearness becomes our oxygen when the world’s blows leave us raw. [03:35]

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18, ESV)

Reflection: When has suffering left you spiritually breathless? How might God’s nearness in this moment feel different than quick solutions?

Day 2: Thorns That Tether Us to Grace

Paul’s mysterious thorn – a nagging weakness, a relentless pain – became the very cord binding him to Christ’s strength. What we beg God to remove often becomes the gift that roots us in dependency. Suffering strips away the illusion of self-sufficiency, leaving us clinging to the only One who can bear the weight. Like vines wrapped around a trellis, our thorns train us upward. [20:05]

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV)

Reflection: What “thorn” have you resented that might actually be anchoring you to Christ’s strength?

Day 3: Lament’s Unfiltered Honesty

The hospital curtain pulled back reveals our rawest prayers – no eloquence, just tears mixing with antiseptic air. Lamentations gives voice to the unvarnished truth: “God, this feels like your fist against my chest.” Holy groans need no theological polish. Authentic anguish becomes sacred ground where we discover God prefers our messy cries over sanitized platitudes. [29:26]

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed. (Lamentations 3:19-22, ESV)

Reflection: What raw emotion have you hesitated to bring God that He’s strong enough to handle?

Day 4: The God Who Became Suffering

Nails didn’t merely pierce wood but God’s answer to our “Where are you?” The cross transforms suffering from a philosophical question to a blood-streaked declaration: He enters our pain. Every scar Christ carried from Gethsemane to Golgotha whispers, “I chose this to be near you.” Our wounds now meet His wounds in sacred communion. [50:51]

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, ESV)

Reflection: How does Jesus’ physical suffering reshape your view of God’s presence in your pain?

Day 5: Suffering’s Surprising Harvest

Miscarried dreams and buried loved ones feel like barren soil. Yet beneath winter’s frost, God cultivates endurance that roots deeper than grief’s freeze. What seems like life’s crushing weight becomes the pressure that forms diamonds of character. Our tears water the seeds of a harvest we’ll taste in eternity’s dawn. [41:54]

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-4, ESV)

Reflection: What buried pain might God be using to grow something enduring in you?

Sermon Summary

God’s promise begins with the end of the story. Jesus will return, renew this broken world, and make right everything sin has wrecked. Psalm 34:18 gives the anchor for the hard question: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.” God is not far off when life knocks the wind out of somebody. He is near.

Genesis 3 explains where suffering came from. Adam and Eve believed the lie that God was holding back what was good, took what God had forbidden, and sin entered the world. Romans 5 says death came through sin, and Romans 8 says creation itself is groaning, longing to be restored. Suffering is not how God originally designed the world. Suffering is the bitter fruit of a fallen world.

God’s sovereignty means pain is never outside his rule, but God’s goodness means he does not tempt his people with evil or delight in their anguish. Paul’s thorn shows that God may allow, and at times use, hardship to keep hearts from becoming proud and self-sufficient. God’s answer to Paul was not the removal of pain but sufficient grace. Weakness became the place where Christ’s power rested on him.

Lamentations 3 gives honest words for people who feel like God has shut out their prayers. Lament does not fake strength or clean up grief. Lament grabs hold of God’s robe and cries, “How?” Yet Lamentations also calls to mind the truth that creates hope: God’s compassions do not fail, his mercies are new every morning, and no one is cast off by him forever. God’s seeming silence does not mean God’s absence.

God’s presence often comes through his people. A grieving heart does not always need a quick verse, a polished answer, or somebody trying to theologize the pain away. God uses tears, friendship, hospitality, generosity, and the simple courage to sit beside someone and say, “I’m here.” The church carries burdens when it refuses to stand at a safe distance from another person’s sorrow.

Christ gives the deepest answer to suffering. Jesus did not remain in heaven, ignorant of human pain. Isaiah calls him a man of suffering, familiar with pain, pierced for transgressions and crushed for iniquities. The cross proves that God is good in a world full of evil, because Jesus entered suffering, bore sin, and rose again. The empty grave declares that suffering does not get the final word.

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Key Takeaways

1. God stays close to crushed hearts. Psalm 34:18 does not promise an easy escape from every hard thing. It promises God’s nearness when a heart is broken and a spirit is crushed. The person who feels shattered is not abandoned, forgotten, or beyond the reach of God’s saving help. [07:55]
2. Suffering came through humanity’s fall. Genesis 3 shows that pain entered the world through sin, not because God’s original design was cruel. Creation now groans under the weight of what rebellion unleashed. This truth does not make grief less painful, but it keeps suffering from being mistaken for God’s final intention. [14:44]
3. Weakness can drive hearts toward God. Paul’s thorn was painful, unwanted, and persistent, yet God used it to guard Paul from pride. God’s grace became sufficient precisely where Paul had no strength left to lean on himself. Pain can become a severe mercy when it exposes how badly a heart needs Christ. [22:00]
4. Lament clings to God honestly. Lamentations gives permission to tell God exactly how unbearable life feels. Honest cries of “How?” are not faithlessness when they keep reaching for God rather than running from him. Hope grows when a hurting heart calls to mind that God’s compassion and faithfulness have not run dry. [38:32]
5. Jesus bore suffering to its depths. The cross answers the question of whether God sees human anguish. Jesus became the man of suffering, carried pain, bore sin, and endured rejection so that broken people would not be left without hope. The resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing for those who belong to him.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:29] - Where Is God in Suffering?
[04:08] - When Life Knocks the Wind Out
[07:01] - God Is Near to the Brokenhearted
[10:50] - Suffering Is Not the End
[11:22] - Where Does Suffering Come From?
[15:41] - Does God Cause or Allow Pain?
[18:42] - Paul’s Thorn and Sufficient Grace
[24:34] - Do Not Theologize Pain Away
[31:49] - Lamenting Honestly Before God
[38:32] - Hope in God’s Unfailing Compassion
[41:04] - God Gives His People to One Another
[43:43] - Suffering Produces Perseverance and Hope
[49:05] - Jesus, the Man of Suffering
[54:37] - The Empty Grave Has the Final Word

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Psalm 34:18 — “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” [07:55]

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 — “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” [18:42]

Lamentations 3:19-24 — “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’” [38:32]

Observation questions

In Psalm 34:18, what two things does the Lord do for people who are brokenhearted and crushed in spirit? [07:55]
What details in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 show that Paul’s thorn was painful, persistent, and something he genuinely wanted removed? [21:50]
In Lamentations 3:19-24, what changes between verses 19-20 and verses 21-24? What does the writer choose to “call to mind”? [38:30]
What practical forms of care are named for helping a person who is grieving or suffering, besides offering quick answers? [42:43]

Interpretation questions

Psalm 34:18 promises God’s nearness, not an immediate escape from every hardship. What might God’s nearness look like when the painful situation itself has not yet changed? [10:50]
Paul asks three times for his thorn to be taken away, yet God answers with sufficient grace. What does this reveal about the kind of strength God gives when a believer has reached the end of personal strength? [22:00]
Lamentations gives words for someone who feels unheard by God, yet the writer still turns toward God in hope. How can honest questions and deep grief become an act of faith rather than a rejection of faith? [37:37]
Jesus is called a man of suffering who bore sin and pain at the cross. How does the cross answer the fear that God is distant, uncaring, or unaware of human suffering? [50:51]

Application questions

Is there a grief, loss, fear, or ongoing hardship that has left you feeling brokenhearted or crushed in spirit? What would it look like to bring that honestly to the God who is near? [56:32]
When pain comes, what is your usual response: trying harder, withdrawing, distracting yourself, becoming bitter, or asking others for help? How might God be inviting you to depend on his sufficient grace instead of your own strength? [22:06]
What truth about God do you need to “call to mind” this week—his steadfast love, new mercies, faithfulness, or his promise to be your portion? How could you make room to remember that truth each day? [39:00]
Think of someone who is walking through loss, sickness, disappointment, or another deep pain. What is one simple, specific way you could show up for them this week—through a visit, a meal, a message, practical help, or simply sitting with them? [42:53]
Have you ever received words, advice, or Bible verses at a time when what you most needed was someone’s presence? How can that experience shape the way you care for hurting people now? [29:34]
When suffering tempts you to wonder whether God is good, how can you intentionally turn your eyes toward Jesus’ cross and resurrection? What hope does the empty grave give you for what you are facing now? [54:30]

Sermon Clips

47s

#HopeInJesus

“As I said, this is not the end. This is not the finish line. The finish line is yet to come. Jesus will return. He will make all things new. That is the hope. That is the future for all of those who trust in Jesus Christ. But while we are here, our God wants to shape us. He wants to craft us. He wants us to look more and more and more like Jesus for our own joy, but also for the sake of those in this world that have not yet chosen to believe in Jesus as their savior.”

50s

#GraceIsSufficient

“But what we do know is that whatever it was, it drew Paul to his knees to the point where three times he was pleading, begging God. God, please take this away. But God looks at him and he says, no. Learn this lesson, son. My grace in the midst of your pain is sufficient It's made to draw you close. It's made to draw you to a place where you recognize that you need my help, that you need my ultimate power.”

51s

#GodsPresence

“God himself does not remove himself from our suffering. He chooses to give us shoulders to lean on in the midst of it. He will give us his presence as we wait quietly, as we seek his face with a a determined resolve in the midst of our pain. Our god's presence will not be withheld forever. He will show up. He will step in. He will provide. He is a faithful God who is good on his promises, whose purposes, even in the midst of your pain, will ultimately prevail. That is the truth.”

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