Thats an affection, and here the emotion is primarily to do with what is happening in the relationship between parent and child, and how the child experiences their fathers love, rather than on change inside the father. Here are 3 possible reason God is allowing you to go through emotional suffering and pain in your life. Does God feel your pain? In 1 Peter 1:67 it says, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, youve been grieved by various trials. And almost, as if we asked the passage the question why? As believers came to grips with the teaching of Scripture, they concluded that God is immortal so it is impossible for him to die, whether in the incarnation or outside it. Why the turn around? Our faith, in the midst of difficulty and our response to the suffering in our life, actually results in praise, honor, and glory to him. It states: Those who are able to bring the greatest comfort to others are often the ones who have suffered the most themselves. I've served as a missionary, a pastor, and as a pastoral counselor. Impassibility is the ugly duckling in theology today, attacked as a philosophically driven rejection of the Bibles emotional language to describe God. Feeling distant from your children or wishing that youhadthem. Fundamental to the Bibles presentation of the cross is that it has profoundly altered things; that everything is different now that it has occurred. The first is sometimes called a relational or personalist view of God, occasionally the biblical position, and in its extreme form an open view of God. Seeing the great physical and emotional suffering this man has been enduring, Mark writes that Jesus is moved with compassion.. God comforts us in our affliction in order that we may comfort those afflicted after us. People who are grieving dont expect that you are going to say something that will make everything okay. But for earlier eras there were two categories. Such a view empties the cross of its uniqueness. There are a number of factors. Secondly, impassibility upholds the idea that the cross changes everything, and is not the revelation of something that was already true. Over many centuries, God has been affected by his relationship with an uncountable multitude of human beings, experiencing things that wouldnt have been possible otherwise. Then it describes what that good isit tells us in Hebrews 12:11, For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.. The passion of Christ does not mean the emotion of Christ but the death of Christ. And if we never affect God positively it is strange to claim that we affect him negatively, taking away something from God by our refusal to glorify him. He experiences suffering from being rejected by humanity, grief from seeing our terrible fate, and empathic affliction because he does not stand aloof from our afflictions but shares them. God is helping us to grow up. We know its not meaningless. There is nothing unusual about Christs suffering, or even his death, because the cross only reveals to us what is true about God even apart from itthat God suffers and can die. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.. These did not simply happen to a person but were an expression of their settled character and values, and so were naturally partnered with reason and with the fixed qualities of goodness and truth. 3 Signs Spiritual Warfare Is Keeping You from Your Kingdom Spouse. So is it an obvious truth that God feels our pain, and joins in our emotions? Have you been engaging in sinful behavior you know displeases the Lord? God does not save us to deliver himself from sins effects. But, actually, the Bible reveals to us that various kinds of trials are going to come to us, and as we persevere in them, its going to do something in us. He sees your pain, and like any good father, chooses to respond (Psalm 103:13). All of these passages presume that the incarnation created a profound change, so that things that were not possible for Gods glorious Son, such as suffering and death, became possible when Jesus took on our flesh and blood. Nancy Guthrie teaches the Bible at her home church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, as well as at conferences around the country and internationally, including her Biblical Theology Workshop for Women. Loss of a job.
To treat all pain the same would be foolish. Sometimes we have the idea that once we join ourselves to Christ, somehow he is on our team, and hes going to protect us from anything hard happening. Jesus, always busy, crosses over the Sea of Galilee with his disciples, who are very much looking forward to a break. The same thing can be seen with Gods command that we glorify him. There are many other possible reasons for why God might be allowing suffering in your life, but one reason that we often overlook is that our suffering can often result in relief for others. As we change, we experience God differently, and our relationship with him is characterized by his joy, anger, grief, and pity as our actions align us either for or against him and his goodness and light. God is not served by human hands. Or is He actually moved by and responsive to your pain? Yet until relatively recently such a notion was considered not just wrong but heresy. A doctor who just numbed your broken leg so you didnt feel the pain rather than putting a cast on it would not be a very good doctor. Chief among his commands is the requirement that we love, serve and glorify him. God suffers. Those who promote a passible God point to the cross and remind us that it is the revelation of God. They are not changes in his inner world forced upon him by what happens to us, they are constant and fixed expressions of his stance towards good and evil, life and death, the human race that he loves and the enemies ranged against us. Those of us with a high view of Scripture do not generally agree with this kind of theological argument in other areas. If you have a pain in your leg, this means something is wrong with your leg. For as C.S. So theres a purpose: that there would be a fruit developed in the midst of our suffering, this fruit of righteousness.
This occurred so he could die for everyone, and to be perfected through his sufferings. And because he is so completely insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken by anything. 1. Do you want to love and know God better and better every day? Type in your email address and a copy will be sent right to your inbox. However, there was another category of emotions: the affections.
Pauls point that suffering does not produce comfort is not addressed here. What would this passage mean if God experiences suffering and grief from being in a relationship with a sin-ridden world? What we do changes him on the inside. Gods emotional world is in constant flux as it is acted upon by what is happening in every part of creation. Gods role as creator shows he is not the beneficiary of our service, and (implicitly) that creation itself was a free act of grace, not something done because he stood in any need. God will also allow emotional pain when we sin and turn from him so we remember this pain and dont do this again in the future. However, this falls far short of what Christians have historically claimed: that God was not merely good in creating and commanding us to glorify him (although true and important), but that the Bible also teaches that God is love and grace, and so all of Gods actions seek our benefit rather than his. God has suffered, and continues to suffer the pain that arises from this fallen creation; even before the incarnation he is the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isa 53:3) in a way that no human could match. Sometimes God can bring a test and at other times we create the trial through our own poor choices.
gospel-centered, Bible-centered content. It is the experience of suffering and being comforted that gives us the resources to comfort others. Recognition of Gods impassibility makes far better sense of how Scripture links the incarnation and Christs suffering and death in passages such as this one in Hebrews. Similar reasoning followed for suffering (suffering and death are linked, suffering being a foretaste of death); if life cannot die, and God cannot die because he is life, then suffering is also inconceivable for God. Emotions are a single category that includes love, joy, grief, hate, lust, and anger. We see God is without passions, read it as God is without emotions, and think that such nonsense can be repudiated by pointing to any of the many places in Scripture where God is spoken of as having emotions and acting emotionally. It is common to use this as proof that God is affected by our suffering, mourning, and death: that he shares it and does not stand aloof from it. when the Scriptures themselves have lots of answers for us. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world., Pain is often one of Gods most powerful tools in the purifying process. For many of us the question is a bit odd, like asking Is God good? or Does God love? We turn to John 11 and its description of Jesus being moved at Marys weeping, and his own weeping at the site of Lazarus grave. And sometimes we look all over to find an answer to that question why? Suffering gives us the opportunity to find out if the faith that weve given lip service to is the real thing. So one reason God allows us to suffer emotionally is so we will be better equipped to help others in their times of need as well. Actually, the Bible tells us over and over again that we should expect to suffer. They profess impatience with approaches distinguishing between Christs human and divine natures, which attribute certain things only to one nature or the other. He cares.. Oftentimes nothing awakens us and causes us to seek Gods presence more than pain. 
A Guidebook for Every Phase of Christian Singleness. Something similar can be seen in how the issue is treated in verses 14-15, where Christ is said to have shared in flesh and blood in order to be able to deliver us through dying, and verse 17 where Jesus can offer propitiation for sins because he has been made like us in every way. And if he died as God, then God is fundamentally mortal: capable of dying. Its going to make us spiritually mature. Likewise, the person who suffers and has not been comforted also has no comfort to offer. While pain and suffering are never enjoyable, God often allows them in our lives because he loves us so much, he is willing to allow us to experience short term problems so we will reap long-term pleasures in him. But does He only care from a distance?
Those who are able to bring the greatest comfort to others are often the ones who have suffered the most themselves. And since Gods presence is what will produce the most pleasure in us (Psalm 16:11), the pain we experience is actually meant to produce more pleasure since the pain is meant to lead us deeper into Christ. But my favorite act of serving God is revealing his truth in written format. Even more, impassibility upholds two of the most important biblical truths: that God acts in love and grace when he creates, commands, and saves; and that the cross is not merely the revelation of things that were true anyway, but fundamentally changed matters by redeeming us. In the same way that God simply is love, is truth, and is good, so too God simply is mercy and comfort. When you put your hand on a hot surface, the pain you feel causes you to move your hand which prevents further injury. In your moments of struggle, maybe youve felt the same. Impassibility directs our attention to our relationship with God, understanding that only a subset of our emotions are anything like his. Through the prophets, God warns Israel to forsake their idols, care for the poor, and live holy lives. In Romans 5:3-5, we are taught that through seasons of suffering, God will produce in us endurance, character, and hope which will then enhance our ability to enjoy the love of God which the Holy Spirit has placed within our hearts. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. The two views have experienced very different fortunes over the last two thousand years. It states: Blessed be theGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies andGod of all comfort,who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor 1:3-4). God May Be Allowing You to Suffer Emotionally So You Will Admit Your Need for Healing in a Certain Area of Your Heart and to Prevent You from Repeating Past Mistakes. An unexpected doctors report. Here are three things that grieving people wish no one would ever say to them again. The relationship is in one direction onlyGod affects us in his inexhaustible goodness. Theres always a reason for the emotional pain you feel, and you have to figure out what that reason is so you can bring it to the Lord. Gods command that we glorify him is an expression of his great love towards us precisely because he is impassible: always the giver, never the receiver. God wants us to be pure so we will remain intimately close to him, for as Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, Blessed arethe pure in heart, forthey shall see God.. He acts for our sake alone, not his good as well; it is purely an act of grace and love. He is never affected by us, nor receives a gift from us. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say My tooth is aching than to say My heart is broken.. Personal security (part 3): The kingdom promised, Personal security (part 2): The kingdom pattern established and the fall, How the DNA of ministry drives my meetings. God is not affected by anything outside of himself. God can only comfort us because he has suffered; he can offer mercy because he has experienced weakness and need. Practical and down-to-earth, this short guidewillequipyouto come alongside a loved one who is hurting and offer comfort in ways thatreallyhelp. He cannot weep, for he has no tears. The reasons for emotional pain are multi-layered. The idea is that God is the source of all comfort because he has experienced all affliction. Being comforted is the thing that equips us to comfort. If you have asked God to use you greatly and to transform you into a mighty warrior for the Kingdom of God, the training process will often involve many seasons of suffering. It does this with the assurance that how God relates to us is grounded in his own nature and essence. One was passions, things we experience because we are affected by things external to us: death, suffering, romantic obsession, a fit of rage, lust, greed, jealous hatred of a rival and the like. Christians throughout the ages have been clear that such things are incompatible with Gods nature. If God is affected by his relationship with his world, then his experience of life has been profoundly enriched by the act of creation. What can we give as a gift to someone who is going through griefsomething that we can do for them that would be really helpful? Oftentimes nothing awakens us and causes us to seek Gods presence more than pain. The other view is generally called classical theism, the idea that God is impassible, meaning (in the words of Article I of the Thirty Nine Articles, and Chapter Two of the Westminster Confession) without passions.
(Rev 21:4). Or take Gods role as the law-giver for humanity. Has someone hurt you and you know you need to forgive them? God May Be Allowing This Emotional Suffering in Your Life Because He Wants a Deeper Relationship with You.
This means that Gods command to love, serve and glorify him is for our sakes, not his. Pauls second letter to the Corinthians begins by reminding his readers of the great comfort in store for believers. She is the author of numerous books and the host of the Help Me Teach the Bible podcast with the Gospel Coalition. Firstly, it preserves the Bibles teaching that God acts towards us out of love and in grace. From this view, suffering is absolutely necessary to be able to offer comfort. But there is the promise in the midst of this suffering that its never meaningless. A suffering God was, for almost two thousand years, a contradiction in terms, an attempt to make God after our image. Were you abused by someone? 2. Who has ever been Gods comforter? And all of them were spent wondering if God cares about anxiety disorders. He isnt just an example of the qualities, but the source from which these qualities appear in human life. So one reason God allows emotional suffering in our lives is because he knows that sometimes there is nothing that will increase our passion to pursue him more than this pain. Subscribe to the RSS comments feed for this post. Secondly, there is an optimism about humanity that, with the odd interruption, has been building for almost two centuries. The divine emotions primarily move from God to us, not, as in the case of a passible God, from us to God as we change his emotional state by our actions. If you are immune to suffering, then you cannot be involved with people and you cannot love; therefore, only a God who suffers is a God who loves, so obviously God feels our pain. If Christ died, they argue, then he died as God as well as man. For as we share abundantly inChrists sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 
God doesnt save us from experiencing the brokenness of this world. God May Be Allowing You to Suffer Emotionally So You Will Be Better Equipped to Help Others in Their Times of Need. God pronounces judgment upon these nations for their sins including for the suffering inflicted on His people. We needed the glorious Son of God to become man and as a consequence be made the perfect Saviour through his sufferings and death for us. These were, in our terms, rational emotionslove for another person, hatred for evil, grief at anothers suffering, joy arising from something genuinely good. Likewise, the real goal should be to find the root cause of the emotional suffering. Here, the idea is that God does not experience suffering. His salvation is still profoundly good, but it is no longer, in the words of the Nicene Creed, for us men and for our salvation. We comfort them with the same comfort we ourselves received. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! 
But eventually, God brings vengeance for His peoples suffering. Most scholars agree that this is more than just feeling bad for him; it has connotations of feeling it in your gut. Thats the response of Jesus to his suffering a gut-moving, compassionate touch.
Ephesians 1:3-14 is a good example of this, where Gods saving actions are enumerated at length and are all declared to be in love (v.4b). There are two schools of thought. For example, we forgive one another without any need for a sacrifice but, even though God is the model for our forgiveness, he could only forgive us on the basis of Christs shed blood (Heb 9:22, in the context of Christs high priestly ministry in 9:23-28). God determines how human beings should live, and the criteria upon which he will judge our lives and actions.
Almost two millennia of believers concluded that not only has God managed to avoid dying, but that he cannot die, and thats what it means for God to be God, for God to be the only one who has life in himself, who is life itself, and so is able to give life to whoever he chooses. Subscribe to AGW Ministries and you'll get short, practical, and Christ-centered content sent right to your inbox. But this is all fundamentally an expression of his unchanging stance towards us and the things that promote or blight our lives. If you have asked God to use you greatly and to transform you into a mighty warrior for the Kingdom of God, the training process will often involve many seasons of suffering. 
