Overview

“Can I really trust God?” Who has not asked that question when the storms of life (literal and figurative) have approached with threatening power and damaging consequences? Who has not struggled to find satisfying answers to the difficult events and circumstances that have found their way into our lives and robbed us of the life we once had and treasured along with the peace, joy, and hope that may have once been ours in abundance.

A partial list of books on suffering in my library reveals a great deal about how prevalent the need is for us to know just how to walk through the pain and hurt that we experience (sometimes on a daily basis) or see all around us:

1. The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
2. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
3. Shattered Dreams by Larry Crabb
4. Making Sense Out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft
5. Where Is God When It Hurts by Philip Yancey
6. When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper
7. Deserted by God? by Sinclair Ferguson
8. When a Child Dies by Richard Hipps
9. A Grace Disguised (how the soul grows through loss) by Jerry Sittser
10. Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross
11. Is God Really in Control? by Jerry Bridges

Whether you have read any or all of them, whether you believe what they are telling you, whether you have searched the Scriptures to find answers, whether you have pursued personal counseling to find relief for your heartaches – have you come to any conclusions?

Can you really trust God? Do all things really work together for good? Is God really in control? Will God really turn every heartache to lasting joy? Where is He in the midst of personal adversities and losses? As Jerry Sittser insists, “Sooner or later all people suffer loss, in little doses or big ones, suddenly or over time, privately or in public settings.”

There are no easy answers to these difficult questions. And so this series on Trusting God in Adversity will neither trivialize nor avoid the truths we find in Scripture. Rather, we will seek God’s wisdom regarding these matters that keep us up at night and look for comfort, light, relief, stability, and perspective in the midst of the things which have broken our hearts and caused us pain.