God’s Healing for Life’s Losses:
How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Post 11: With Christ in the School of Suffering
How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Post 11: With Christ in the School of Suffering
Biblical complaint counters unbiblical anger. Unproductive and unrighteous anger pushes us away from God, others, and personal healing. Productive and righteous complaint/lament draws us toward God, others, and personal healing.
It is reminiscent of what Philip Yancey says, “We can either be disappointed with God or without God.” I would say it like this. “We can either complain with and to God or we can complain without and about God.”
So how do we help others to move from anger to complaint? As we said with candor, there are many effective ways to move with others along the healing path. We’ll focus again on trialogues: three-way conversations between us, our friend, and the Ultimate Spiritual Friend: Christ.
Sample Candor Trialogues
Consider some sample biblical trialogues to assist people to move toward biblical complaint.
“You’ve shared a lot. There’s obviously so much going on inside. Rightly so. Yet, so far we’ve not talked much about where Christ fits into your picture.”
“What are you doing with Christ in your suffering?”
“Have you been able to share your heart with God? If so, what have you said?”
“What do you think the Bible teaches about feeling anger or disappointment toward God?”
“What verses might we ponder to illustrate how God’s people have talked to God when they experienced loss?”
“What does Psalm 88 suggest about expressing your anger, disappointment, or complaint toward God? How could you relate this to your response to God?”
“If you were to write a Psalm 13 or a Psalm 88 to God (Psalms of lament and complaint), how would it sound? What would you write?”
It is reminiscent of what Philip Yancey says, “We can either be disappointed with God or without God.” I would say it like this. “We can either complain with and to God or we can complain without and about God.”
So how do we help others to move from anger to complaint? As we said with candor, there are many effective ways to move with others along the healing path. We’ll focus again on trialogues: three-way conversations between us, our friend, and the Ultimate Spiritual Friend: Christ.
Sample Candor Trialogues
Consider some sample biblical trialogues to assist people to move toward biblical complaint.
“You’ve shared a lot. There’s obviously so much going on inside. Rightly so. Yet, so far we’ve not talked much about where Christ fits into your picture.”
“What are you doing with Christ in your suffering?”
“Have you been able to share your heart with God? If so, what have you said?”
“What do you think the Bible teaches about feeling anger or disappointment toward God?”
“What verses might we ponder to illustrate how God’s people have talked to God when they experienced loss?”
“What does Psalm 88 suggest about expressing your anger, disappointment, or complaint toward God? How could you relate this to your response to God?”
“If you were to write a Psalm 13 or a Psalm 88 to God (Psalms of lament and complaint), how would it sound? What would you write?”
“How would you compare your response to your suffering to Job’s? Jeremiah’s? Jacob’s? David’s? Paul’s? Jesus in the Garden?”
“Job and Jeremiah got pretty raw and real with God. Let’s look at some examples . . .”
“We’ve talked about Job’s story. Suppose Satan sent someone to you to say, ‘Curse God and die.’ How would you respond?”
And For Ourselves
Tomorrow we turn our focus to personal complaint. How can we move along the path from anger to complaint? See ya’ then.
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