Monday, April 27, 2009

Clinging to Christ


God’s Healing for Life’s Losses:
How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting

Post 40: Clinging to Christ

How do you help others to worship God in the midst of suffering? There are many effective ways to journey with people toward wanting God more than wanting relief. We’ll focus again on trialogues: three-way conversations between us, our friend, and the ultimate Spiritual Friend: Christ.

Sample Worship Trialogues

Consider some sample biblical trialogues to assist people to find God even when they don’t find answers. Let’s explore some biblical trialogues that lead to worship in the midst of suffering—to suffering face-to-face with God.

“Satan wants to use suffering to cause us to doubt God and turn to false idols of the heart. In what ways have you faced such temptation? How are you overcoming them?”

“As difficult as your suffering is, what lessons are you learning about your desire for God?”

“Facing his suffering, Asaph said, ‘Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you’ (Psalm 73:25). In what ways are you responding to suffering like Asaph?”

“Paul’s suffering drove him to want to know Christ. What is your suffering driving you to want?”

“How have you been able to worship God in the middle of this?”

“What would it be like to worship God as you go through this?”

“In what ways is God drawing you nearer to Himself through your suffering?”

“What would it be like for you to turn to Christ in the middle of this?”

“How is all of this helping you to cling to Christ, to depend on Him, to thirst for Him?”

“Who do you suppose is watching you and wondering, ‘How’s she/he doing this? Why does she/he still cling to Christ?’ What would you tell them?”

What About You?

Join the journey against next time as we apply worship to your life.

1 comment:

Debra Lake-Roberts said...

I suffered tremendous heartaches in my life time and I now cling to Christ because of His saving grace for me. I was forgiven for much and therefore love much (Luke 7) and proudly share that love with all. When 35 years of living hell is removed one can't help but fall in love with the amazing Savior who provided the freedom from the bondage. We learn the most from our pain so we can comfort others with the same comfort we have been given. Thanks for this great post!
Debra Roberts