Why did God do this to me? Almost everyone asks it eventually. This past Sunday, Pastor Chip opened a brand new three-week series called The Struggle is Real with a message from the book of Job, and he started by admitting he does not have the answer you might be looking for.
Everyone Has a “This”
Pastor Chip opened by reading a text message he received from a church member a little over a year ago. The man had just been diagnosed with early Parkinson’s. He went home, reflected, and asked God why.
What he wrote back was not what most people would write. He called the diagnosis a gift. He said if it had to land on someone in his family, he would have begged God to let it be him instead, so God simply skipped a step and chose him. He said God knew he could handle it.
Pastor Chip said he has never sent a text like that in his life. He read it and felt encouraged and convicted at the same time.
Then he turned the question around on the room. What is your “this”? What is your greatest suffering, your deepest hurt, the thing you keep asking God about? Because suffering is not a question of if. It is only a question of when. You are either coming out of it, sitting in it, or headed toward it.
Who Job Actually Was
Job 1:1 describes a real man in a real place. Blameless, upright, feared God, turned away from evil.
Pastor Chip made a point to clarify what blameless means. It does not mean perfect. The Christian life is not about perfection, it is about direction. It is a life of confession, forgiveness, and repentance. So give yourself a break, and give the people around you one too.
Job was a godly man, a wealthy man, and a loving dad. In today’s dollars his holdings would land somewhere between fifty and a hundred million. He had seven sons and three daughters, and the family clearly loved being together.
He also prayed for his kids constantly. Job 1:5 says he rose early and offered sacrifices on their behalf, in case they had sinned in their hearts. His prayer was essentially this. God, may my kids not be about money or success or greatness. May my kids be about You.
Pastor Chip paused here for the parents in the room. The reason you work hard is to spend more time with your family, not less. The best parenting advice he ever got was four words. Must be present to win.
So here is a man who, on paper, deserved suffering less than anyone alive. And he went through some of the worst suffering in the entire Bible.
The Strategy Behind Your Suffering
Job 1 pulls back a curtain most of us never get to see.
Satan appears before God, and God asks whether he has considered Job. Satan’s accusation is sharp. Job does not actually love You. He is using You. Take it all away and watch him curse You to Your face.
Pastor Chip drew the distinction carefully. God is not the author of the suffering in your life. But God is sovereign, so He permits it. The one striking is the enemy, the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
1 Peter 5:8-9 says to be sober-minded and watchful, because your adversary prowls like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He looks for the weak and the disconnected. Then it says to resist him. Pastor Chip pointed out that God would not tell you to resist if resisting were impossible.
So why do you suffer? Every bit of it is the enemy trying to pull your heart, your mind, and your eyes off of God. He wants you so fixed on your misery that you stop looking at Jesus.
The counterweight is 1 Corinthians 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tested beyond your ability, but will provide a way of escape. God is not just present in your suffering. He is supplying power in it.
Jesus powerfully suffered for you so that you can faithfully suffer for Him.
When Everything Was Taken
Job 1:14 begins the worst day of a man’s life, and it arrives in waves. One messenger is still speaking when the next one runs in.
The oxen and donkeys, raided and the servants killed. The sheep and more servants, burned. The camels, stolen in a three-pronged raid. Then the last messenger. A great wind struck the house where all ten of his children were eating together. They are gone.
Pastor Chip warned against doing what we are tempted to do here, which is skim. The Bible is full of stories because God wants you inside them, feeling what they felt, not just reading past them.
He got personal at this point. A month before he and Michelle married, her mother passed away. Then nine years of infertility, followed by two years of an adoption process that brought them Brooklyn. Then Cruz, their fifth and final fertility attempt, who has been in and out of emergency rooms ten times with severe croup. One Tuesday he announced to the staff that they were pregnant with Elliana, and by the end of that same meeting Michelle called to say her brother had died. Then a skin cancer diagnosis a year ago.
He named what is likely sitting in the room. Spouses, children, and parents lost. Terminal diagnoses. Mental and emotional illness people wish they could shake. Children who have walked away. Job loss. Divorce. Marriages people are staying faithful in while it hurts. Seasons of depression and darkness that show up every single day.
His word to all of it was short. You are not alone. You are loved. You are seen. God knows.
He shared one more story from the church. A woman whose baby boy was born with severe blood cell failure. The deacons laid hands on him and his bone marrow started producing blood. He still died before his second birthday. Years later her husband died suddenly of a heart attack. Her father-in-law died the next day. Eighteen months after that she lost her brother, and she raised three daughters on a single teacher’s income.
People love to tell her God will not give you more than you can handle. She corrects them. He absolutely gives you more than you can handle on your own. That is the point. He will not give you more than you can handle with Him.
Job Worshiped
Job 1:20-21 is the verse that turns the whole chapter.
Job got up. He tore his robe. He shaved his head. He fell to the ground. And he worshiped.
He did not curse God. That was the entire accusation, and Job answered it without saying a word about it. Pastor Chip said this is the test of every Christian life. Will you worship God no matter what happens?
What makes that possible is hope. Revelation 21:4 says He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, and there will be no more mourning or crying or pain, because the former things have passed away.
Not every life gets a happy ending in this world. Pastor Chip was honest about that. But if you follow Jesus, your life has a happy ending in the next one. Everything you walked through will have been worth it.
He also named why this matters for the people around you. Your lost friends and coworkers are suffering too. The difference is not that you suffer less. The difference is that you have hope and they do not. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 says we grieve, but not as those who have no hope.
God’s Purposes in Your Suffering
Pastor Chip gave three.
Suffering takes you closer to Jesus. You would expect pain to push people away from God, but that is not how it is designed to work in a believer’s life.
Suffering makes you more like Jesus. The enemy designs it to strip you from God. God redeems it to shape you into His Son.
Suffering wakes others up to Jesus. When people see your hurt and your hope in the same frame, it is not the suffering that draws them. It is the Savior.
Five Things to Do in Your Suffering
He landed the message in 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul describes a thorn in the flesh and says he pleaded with God three times to remove it. God’s answer was not removal. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says His grace is sufficient, and His power is made perfect in weakness.
Pastor Chip put it this way. An imperfect life with Jesus is better than a perfect life without Him.
Then five things to actually do.
Worship God in your suffering. Do not just trust Him and pray to Him. Worship Him.
Resist the devil in your suffering. God designs it to strengthen you. The enemy designs it to strip you. Resist.
Study the Word in your suffering. That is where the hope, the truth, and the joy come from.
Become more like Jesus in your suffering. That is what God is doing in it.
Preach the Gospel in your suffering. Preach it to yourself first, then to everyone else. Jesus suffered for me so I can suffer for Him.
Live It Out
This week, get real with God about your “this.”
Pastor Chip’s closing instruction was simple. Tell Him how you actually feel. He already knows, so you might as well say it out loud. When you get real with God is when God becomes more real to you.
Then pick one of the five. If you have been angry, start with worship. If you have been isolating, start with the Word. If you have been carrying it alone, tell one person at church this week and let them pray with you.
If you are in a season where the weight feels like more than you can carry, please do not sit in it by yourself. Reach out to our staff. We would consider it an honor to pray with you and help you find real support.
There’s a Seat for You
If you are hurting right now, you do not need to have it together to walk through our doors. This is a church full of people who have asked God why and are still here, still worshiping, still waiting on answers.
Plan Your Visit and come as you are. Or take your next step and Get Connected with our church family. We would love to walk alongside you.