TLP 343: Parenting Suffering Children, Part 2 | the God of suffering

Men will never become great in theology until they become great in suffering, and I believe those who are great in theology will be great in suffering.

The Ministry’s Opening and the Call to Redeem Your Feed

Welcome to Truth. Love. Parents. Where we use God's Word to become intentional premeditated parents.

Here's your host, A .M. Brewster. Hey everyone, recently I was talking to Hilary Morgan Ferrer from Mama Bear Apologetics and she said your Instagram is really top-notch. I really appreciated her encouragement, and I'm sharing that with you because Team TLP and I work super hard to curate exceptional parenting quotes, articles, and videos on social media.

We do this because we believe that God is worth it, and there's nothing we need to be good parents more than Him and His Word. We challenge you to redeem your feed. What's redeeming your feed? It's when you follow and like and share Christ-honoring content on your social media platforms.

You have the power to teach the algorithms what you want to see. You can unfollow destructive individuals who do nothing more than share failure philosophies. Throw out the unhelpful and invite Christ-honoring content into your social media scrolling.

That's how you can redeem your feed. So follow and like and share TLP on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, and continue growing as biblical parents. And don't forget to take advantage of our free episode notes and transcripts at TakingBackTheFamily .com.

Parenting Suffering Children in Light of Last Week’s Study

Okay, so last time we started a study in parenting suffering children, but before we get back into that, I need to make an important observation. TLP has many listeners who don't have children. I've asked a number of them why they even listen, and they've all said the same thing.

Please allow me to paraphrase. What you talk about is Bible. The illustrations may be parenting related, but the content is true for all of us. I share this with you because I could have easily called this study Husbanding Suffering Wives or Wifing Suffering Husbands or God's Will for Your Suffering.

The truth is applicable to all. I hope even if your child is a newborn that you can grow because of this study and that you can know God better because of the suffering you've experienced and that your growth will be a blessing to your own family.

Last time we looked at the nature of suffering. We saw that suffering is subjective. It's broad and can refer to various experiences. We also learned that suffering is inevitable and contagious. But lastly, we learned that Christians suffer differently.

We learned that they shouldn't be suffering because of the consequences of their sin, also that they understand the purpose of suffering and they don't make their suffering about themselves. And that set us up for discussing the God of suffering today.

Why Christians Can Suffer Well

So let's dive in. If Christians are the only ones who can genuinely suffer well, then it follows that the one thing that makes us different from everyone else is the one thing that makes it possible for us to suffer well.

Simply put, God is the reason Christians can suffer well. And some have argued that it is the process of suffering that helps us to better understand God. Charles Spurgeon once said that men will never become great in theology until they become great in suffering.

And I believe the inverse is also true. Those who are great in theology are great in suffering. My hope is that by the end of this study, we will better understand what Spurgeon meant and that suffering will be a completely new experience for us and our homes.

God’s Holy, Good, Loving, and Omnipotent Character

Who is God? Who is he really? Let's forget about suffering for a moment and consider some key attributes of God. In a very particular order, number one, God is holy. In Leviticus 1144, God pronounces, Holiness refers to being set apart.

So all that God is is set apart to a very specific purpose. He never transgresses his own character. Therefore, when we know his character, we know exactly what God will and will not do. However, this doesn't provide us any comfort if God is set apart to evil.

So, number two, God is also good. In Luke 18 -19, Jesus says,. Therefore, since God is holy, he will never not be good. God is entirely set apart to goodness in such a way that no one else is. He cannot be bad.

He cannot be evil. Still, this might not comfort us if his goodness somehow alienated him from us, if he simply rejected us because we're not good like he is. And that's where his next character trait comes into play.

Number three, God is love. 1 John 4, 7 -8 reads, God wants our absolute best, and since he's holy, he will never not want our absolute best. But this won't comfort us if God merely wants what's best for us, but is incapable of actually giving us what's best.

So, praise the Lord that. Number four, God is omnipotent. Omnipotent means all-powerful. Now, I don't have time to read it. It would take about 10 minutes to read the whole passage, but in Job 38 -41, God shows Job how absolutely powerful he is.

Chapter 38 starts out with God challenging Job. God shows up in a whirlwind and says,. Partway through God's dialogue, Job cries out,. But God continues. And by chapter 42, all Job can utter is,. The Bible, from creation through the eternal heaven, earth, and lake of fire, is a testament to the fact that God can do whatever he wants.

We need never fear that he's too impotent to accomplish our best. Of course, this is not encouraging, but it's a testament to the fact that God can do whatever he wants. It's not encouraging if God doesn't know what's best.

God’s Omniscience and Omnipresence

So, at number five, God is omniscient. Omniscient means that he knows everything. Psalm 147 -5 proclaims the Lord's understanding as infinite. In 1 John 3 -20, we learn that God knows all things. And Hebrews 4 -13 says,.

The scriptures are overflowing with the infinite knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of God. Yeah, but what if he misses something? Consider this. Number six, God is omnipresent. Proverbs 15 -3 teaches us that God sees all things, both good and evil.

In Psalm 139, David poetically portrays that there is nowhere you can run in the whole of the created and uncreated realms where God is not present. He won't miss something. He won't be caught off guard.

God’s Sovereignty, Wisdom, and Truth

Now, all of this would be the most comforting truth in the universe. If only God were in control of the circumstances of my life. Number seven, God is sovereign. Psalm 115 -3, Proverbs 16 -9, Daniel 4 -35, Ephesians 1 -11, God is completely separate from everything that is evil and unloving.

He has all strength and all knowledge and sees all things, and he is completely sovereign over the events of this life. And, as we noticed before, he is not capricious or foolish in his oversight. Number eight, God is wise.

Romans 16 -27,. And because he loves us, James 1 -5 says,. But how does God give us the wisdom we need to respond correctly to the suffering in our lives? Number nine, God's word is truth. In Psalm 119 -160, David proclaims to God,.

And Jesus echoes this in John 17 -17 as he prays to his Father,. And because of all of this, his holiness and goodness and love and omnipotence and omniscience and omnipresence and sovereignty and wisdom and truth.

Number ten, God is trustworthy. He is the best. He wants the best. He's capable of knowing what the best is. He's capable of accomplishing the best. He promises that he is actively accomplishing the best.

Suffering, Doubt, and a Biblical Theology for Parents

The God of the Christian is this God. The God who is sovereign over suffering is this God. Now, for some of you, that last sentence confuses you. Atheists and agnostics alike in chorus constantly proclaim that God can't be good and he can't exist because suffering exists in this world.

A truly loving and all-powerful and sovereign and good God would never allow suffering. It's a fair question, I guess. A question that hundreds of thousands of theologians and millions and millions of Christians have answered.

And it's a question we plan to address and deal with next time. But I will say this. The westernized world has lost a biblical theology of suffering because we haven't experienced that much deep suffering in the first place.

And then we've bought into the American dream that suffering is bad and it shouldn't happen to us. We view it as some divine punishment or proof of God's nonexistence. I'm going to argue that the confusion does not live in the character of God in the experience of life.

The confusion comes from the fact that we're trying to squeeze God into our tiny little boxes. Now your kids, they're going to do this. They're going to question and doubt and eventually wonder if they ever try to understand God in light of their own experiences.

So in order to parent our children through suffering, we need to start with a biblical understanding of who God is. His character and glory need to fill our eyes. Only then can we hope to enter into a season of suffering with the right understanding of suffering and a knowledge of the response we're to have to our suffering.

Now, please understand that questions and doubts and the struggling of a finite mind to comprehend the infinite are not wicked and terrible. I'm so pleased that the apologetics movement is helping parents understand that we shouldn't be afraid of questions.

We should embrace the questions and doubts because we know that God has the answer. I'm really excited because in a short period of time I'll be talking both to Natasha Crane and to Hilary Morgan Ferrer.

And they are totally in this apologetics movement. They are amazing at it. They write fantastic resources and they would applaud what I'm just saying here because it's not about the questions and the difficulties.

It's about the fact that God has the answers to it. We don't need to be afraid if our kids are struggling. We just need to point them to the truth. So in conclusion, to parent well in suffering, we need to precede it with good theology.

Only then will the suffering deepen and then prove our theology. When we enter suffering with nothing more than empty secular platitudes and failure philosophies, suffering will challenge what little theology we have left.

Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6 for Suffering Well

As God's ambassadors to your home, I promise you that fulfilling Deuteronomy 6 will prepare your children to suffer well. To keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged.

The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Ephesians 6, 4. Fathers, bring your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. If you and your family know the God of suffering, you and your family can suffer well.

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets. Help others redeem their feeds by confronting them with biblical parenting truth as they scroll through their political posts and worldly anthems.

And if you need help for your time of suffering, please contact us at counselor at truthloveparent .com. Remember, if we want our children to grow up into Christ, we must parent in truth and love. This is going to include knowing the God of suffering and why He brings suffering into our lives.

To that end, join us next time as we look at the purpose of suffering.

Truth. Love. Parents is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional premeditated parent. Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.