A last section of Keller's book

I'm ending the look at Tim Keller's book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering with this final blog on it. I hope it's been helpful, but you owe it to yourself to go get the book.

In Psalm 3 David has peace. He says God is his only glory. We often get our self worth from something else. How does God actually become our glory? The only answer is: through a rediscovery of the gospel of free grace. The Lord can become our shield to protect us. We know God won't forsake us, because he forsook Jesus for our sin.

We should look around our lives to see if our suffering has not been unnecessarily intensified because there are some things that we have set our hearts and hopes upon too much. Suffering can't touch the main thing – God, his love and his salvation. Suffering points out good things that have become too important to us. It is only when suffering comes that you realize who is the true God and what are the false gods of your lives. On the cross Jesus got what we deserved as 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, so we can get what he deserves. When things go wrong, one of the ways you lose your peace is that you think maybe you're being punished. But look at the cross. All the punishment fell on Jesus. Another thing you may think is that maybe God doesn't care. But look at the cross.

In the last chapter, Chapter 16, Keller focuses on hoping. In Revelation John gave people the ultimate hope – a new heavens and new earth. There will be a judgment day when every evil deed and injustice will be redressed. We are headed for a future of endless joy. How can we be sure this future is for us? We can be sure if we believe in Jesus.

Keller added a very useful epilogue. he lists ten things we should do. First, we should recognize the varieties of suffering. Some are caused by wrong behavior, betrayals, death, finances, events. Each brings somewhat different kinds of feelings, and each requires its own specific responses. Second, we need to recognize distinctions and temperament between ourselves and other sufferers. We must not think that the way God helps one other person through the fire will be the exactly the same way he will lead us. Third, there is weeping. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves and God about our pain and sorrow. Fourth, there is trusting. We are summoned to trust God's wisdom and trust his love. Fifth, we must be praying. In suffering we must read the Bible and pray and attend worship even though it is dry or painful. Sixth, we must be disciplined in our thinking. We must meditate on the truth, listening to our heart and reasoning and talking to our heart. Heaven and the resurrection in the future-perfect world are particularly important to meditate on if you're dealing with death. Seventh, we should be willing to do some self-examining. But we don't want to necessarily always look within ourselves for the cause of our suffering. We should ask "How do I need to grow?"  "What weaknesses is this time of trouble revealing?"  Eight, we must be about reordering our loves. We may love God too little or things we love too much. We must recognize God's suffering for us in Jesus Christ, and by praying, thinking, and trusting that love into our souls. Ninth, we should not shirk community. We need to find Christian churches where sufferers are loved and supported. Tenth, some forms of suffering require skill in receiving grace and forgiveness from God, and giving grace and forgiveness to others.

Hope this tour through Keller's book has been helpful. He has many other great reads as well as  audio recordings of his sermons. They are all thoughtful and rich in content.

More from Tim Keller

Tim Keller's book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering is important enough for me to devote several blogs on it. I've also been listening to some of his sermons--outstanding. You might enjoy them too. Just search for his name and church. Many are free for you to download. But here's the next section of his book:

Chapter 15 covers thinking, thanking, and loving. Paul says God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God – 2 Corinthians 1:4. Paul conveys a comfort to others that he received from God in Philippians 4. He talks about a peace of God, which is an inner calm and equilibrium as well as a presence.

The peace of God is not the absence of negative thoughts; it is the presence of God himself. Christian peace does not start with the ousting of negative thinking. You get a living power that comes into your life and enables you to face those realities. People gain a breakthrough to this kind of peace only in tragic situations.

Paul speaks of three types of disciplines to find God's peace – thinking, thanking, loving. First, in Philippians 4:8-9 he refers to the specific teaching of the Bible about God, sin, Christ, salvation, the world, human nature, and God's plans for the world. Paul is saying if you want peace, think hard and long about the core doctrines of the Bible. Christian peace comes not from thinking less but from thinking more, and more intensely, about the big issues of life. See Romans 8:18 where Paul reckons that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory. Is Jesus really the son of God? If so, then there is all the comfort in the world. Paul is saying that if you are Christian today and you have little or no peace, it may be because you're not thinking. Peace comes from a disciplined thinking out of the implications of what you believe. See Romans 8:28, Romans 8:1, and Revelation 22:1.

The second discipline is thanking. In Philippians 4:6 Paul says to make requests with thanksgiving. Thank God--you ask before you know the response to your request. That way we are trusting God's sovereign rule of history and of our lives. We are to thank him for whatever he sends to us, even if we don't understand it.

The third discipline is loving. See Philippians 4:8 where we are told we are to think of things that are lovely. It is not enough just to think the right things. It is also important to love the right things. Stoics said most people are not contented because they love things too much. They said we must set our heart only on our own virtue – you can determine to be courageous, have integrity, and be honest. But it is wrong to think your virtue is under your control. You're a human being; you are frail. Your virtue can let you down. But there is one thing that is immutable. It is God, his presence and his love. The only love that won't disappoint you is one that can't change, that can't be lost, is not based on the ups and downs of life or of how well you live. Keller mentions something very important here, so I highlighted it: You must reorder your loves. Your problem is not so much that you love your career or your family too much, but that you love God too little in proportion to them.

I'll add more in the next blog.

Keller's book

Again, I want us to appreciate all the truths that are in Tim Keller's book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering. So I have been going through it slowly, allowing the message to work on us. Here's the next section:

Keller in chapter 14 covers another way we can walk with God through difficulties--praying. I teach a literature class that focuses on the Bible. The author makes a reference here to the book of Job, which we cover in the class. He points out that the book reveals God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake. . .  the book of Job is a mystery. A mystery satisfies something in us, but not our reason. The rationalist is repelled by Job, as Job's three rationalist friends were repelled by Job. But something deeper in us is satisfied by Job and is nourished. It puts iron in your blood. One of the main messages of the book of Job is that both the religious and irreligious, the moralistic and the nihilistic answers are wrong. We should love God for himself alone, not for the benefits he brings. 

How can we move from loving God in a mercenary way toward loving God himself? Keller says he's afraid the primary way is to have hardship come into your life. Job's friends have a view of God that is very domesticated – he rewards you if you're doing the right thing. They're saying God can be managed with morality. God comes at the end and enters into a dialogue – he does not come to simply denounce. God comes both as a gracious, personal God and as an infinite, overwhelming force – at the very same time. The Gospel explains how God can be both the God of love and of fury that Job meets. Job is brought to contentment without ever knowing all the facts of his case. To withhold the full story from Job even after the test was over keeps him walking by faith, not by sight. 

The story of Job is a smaller version of what God is doing in your life and in the history of the world. This is the way of wisdom – to willingly admit that God alone is God. There is a rebuke in the story for any person who, by complaining about particular events in his life, implies that he could propose to God better ways of running the universe than those God currently uses. Throughout the book Job never stopped praying. Yes, he complained, but he complained to God. He kept seeking him. In the end, God said Job triumphed. 

Even if we cannot feel God in our darkest and most dry times, he is still there. Like Job, we must see him, go to him. Pray even when you're  dry. Read the Scriptures even if it is agony. See Psalm 42. The psalmist is talking to his heart, telling it to go to God, look to God. Many people have especially used the psalms to great profit. The prayers cover almost the entire range of human experience. At the end Job gives up trying to control God. When you suffer without relief, when you feel absolutely alone, you can know that, because he bore your sin, he will be with you.

More to follow. But this is a good place to stop.

Keller's book--more good insights

Tim Keller's book was important enough for me to summarize it in detail. I'm now near the end, but I hope to go back over his main points to really make this part of my life. Here's the next part of his account of pain and suffering:

He talks about ways to walk with God. Remember in the last blog I ended with his comment that we must learn to walk with God through our difficulties.  Keller says walking is nondramatic, rhythmic – it consists of steady, repeated actions. Walk is day in and day out praying, day in and day out Bible and Psalms reading, day in and day out obeying, talking to Christian friends, and going to corporate worship, committing yourself to  fully participating in the life of the church. It will be slow and steady progress. We are called to walk, to grieve and weep, to trust and pray, to think, thank, and love, and to hope. Each of these will be explored later in the book.

Keller's previous chapter covered walking with God. This chapter (12) covers weeping--one of the ways we walk with God. Many psalms are expressions of frustration with God himself. We should not assume that if we are trusting in God we won't weep, or feel anger, or feel hopeless. Suffering people need to be able to weep and pour out their hearts, not immediately be shut down by being told what to do. Nor should we do that to ourselves, if we are grieving. Believers may stay in darkness for a long time. God is patient and gracious with us – he is present with us and all our mixed motives. It is perhaps when we are still in unrelenting darkness that we have the greatest opportunity to defeat the forces of evil. Our darkness can be relativised by Jesus's darkness. Because he was truly abandoned by God, we only seem to be or feel to be abandoned by him. But we aren't, despite our failures. Suffering creates inner sorrow; it does make you weak. To deny your hurt means you will likely pay a price later. You may find yourself blowing up, or breaking down, or falling apart suddenly. See 1 Peter 1:6-7 where Peter says we can rejoice in Christ and wail in pain; we must do both if we are to grow through our suffering rather than be wrecked by it. To rejoice in God means to dwell on reminders of who God is, who we are, and what he has done for us. Sometimes our emotions respond when we do this, and sometimes they do not.

Similarly, the sorrow and grief drive you to God to show you the resources you never had. The weeping drives you into the joy. Rather than expecting God to remove the sorrow and replace it with happiness, we should look for a glory – a taste and conviction and increasing sense of God's presence – that helps us rise above the darkness.

In Chapter 13 Keller focuses on another way we walk with God – through trusting. Keller tells the story of Joseph and all his suffering and how God was in control the whole time. Joseph did not turn from God. We must do the same thing. Again, Keller makes a point I want to emphasize, so I'm stressing it: The Joseph story tells us that very often God does not give us exactly what we asked for. Instead he gives us what we would have asked for if we had known everything he knows. If the story of Joseph and the whole of the Bible is true, then anything that comes into your life is something that, as painful as it is, you need in some way.

Plenty here to think about. I'll stop at this point. We need to go through his ideas slowly in order to have them become part of us.

Keller again

I'm continuing my coverage of Tim Keller's book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering. It's important we think about this topic before we are in the middle of a huge mess. It's too difficult to come up with a plan and a firm basis to deal with suffering while we are in the middle of it.

Keller starts Part Three by asking  how we can actually, practically face getting through the suffering that has come upon us. The Bible often talks about walking through affliction. This points to the idea of progress. We are not to lose our footing and just let the suffering have its way with us. But we are also not to think we can somehow avoid it or be completely impervious to it either. We are to meet and move through suffering without shock and surprise, without denial of our sorrow and weakness, without resentment or paralyzing fear, and also without acquiescence or capitulation, without surrender or despair. See Isaiah 43:2-3, 5. God does not say if you go through the fire but when you go. 1 Peter depicts suffering not just as fire but as a forge or furnace which can obliterate or improve. Suffering can destroy some things within us and can purify and strengthen other things – it depends on our response. We must recognize, depend on, speak with, and believe in God while in the fire. God will not always rescue us – the idea God will rescue us may seem confident, but it is filled with anxiety and insecurity. We are scared that maybe he won't answer the prayer for deliverance. Our greatest joy would be to honor God, not to use God to get what we want in life.

I really like what Keller says next, so I underlined it: Think of four things that we want. Do you want to know who you are, your strengths and weaknesses? Do you want to be a compassionate person who skillfully helps people who are hurting? Do you want to have such profound trust in God that you are fortified against the disappointments of life? Do you want simply to be wise about how life goes? None of these are readily achievable without suffering. OK, I'm not saying this statement is wonderful news. But it is realistic. No pain, no gain, as the saying goes.

We must walk with God to grow during suffering. The author says that means we must treat God as God and as really there. We must see with the eyes of our heart how Jesus plunged into the fire for us when he went to the cross. If you remember with grateful amazement that Jesus was thrown into the ultimate furnace for you, you can begin to sense him in your smaller furnaces with you. This means remembering the gospel. We need to say, "This is my furnace. I'm not being punished for my sins, because Jesus was thrown into the ultimate fire for me. And so if he went through the greatest fire steadfastly for me, I can go through the smaller furnace steadfastly for him. And I also know it means that if I trust in him, this furnace will only make me better."

Again, this is enough to think over. I'll stop here. More to come next time.