Coping with Suffering

 

Coping with Suffering  by Dr. D. James Kennedy

How long, O Sovereign Lord, holy and true …?

— Revelation 6:10

Some years ago, I went through a trial worse than anything I’d ever known. In the midst of that ordeal, many cries went up from my heart: “How long, O God?” In all of that, there was the belief that God is the sovereign Lord, that He is the infinite, all-powerful One who holds the reins of the world in His hand. Even beyond that, He is a loving and merciful God and therefore there was a purpose and a reason for all that happened. Furthermore, I believed that ultimately He would work all things together for my good.

One of the greatest books on suffering from a Christian perspective was first published in 1856 and retranslated into English in 2002. The book is by a Calvinistic French pastor, Adolphe Monod. His book is a series of sermons, which he delivered as he was dying of cancer. The book is Living in the Hope of Glory (translated by Constance K. Walker). Monod said that whatever we need, we have in Christ, even if we’re suffering the pangs of death: 

“He will never deprive me of any good except to give me some other, better one.” He also noted, “Having Christ we have all things …”