WEEK 4 ● Day 5
READ PHILIPPIANS 2:25-30
My dear friend Karissa calls herself a Super Survivor. She survived the shooting at Columbine High School as a freshman and becoming a war widow shortly after saying “I do.” She has also survived stage 4 cancer three times and is currently battling it again. From a human perspective, we might think she should do what Job’s wife suggested in the face of unending pain: “curse God and die” (Job 2:9). But you know what? She doesn’t. And what’s more, she’s one of the most light-filled, joyful women I know.
When pain slams into our lives, we can find it so easy to be angry at God. After all, if He really is in control of all things, why didn’t He just prevent the pain? Couldn’t He have saved our spouse from that accident? Or kept our child from addiction? Or intervened before that relationship fell apart?
The problem of pain and suffering is one that we all have to wrestle with. It’s a complex and difficult reality that ultimately comes down to our faith and trust in the God we follow. Sometimes the things that wound us are a result of a broken and sinful world that God is working to make new. Sometimes it’s the result of our sin, or the ways someone else has sinned against us. And sometimes, in ways we can’t even comprehend, God uses the thing that causes us pain for the good of others.
If we try to run out of our hard season and into an easy one too fast, we may miss what God wants to do in the midst of it. God doesn’t waste experiences, and He certainly doesn’t waste time.
If Jesus gives us a task or assigns us to a difficult season, every ounce of our experience is meant for our instruction and completion if only we’ll let Him finish the work. I fear, however, that we are so attention-deficit that we settle for bearable when beauty is just around the corner.[1]
BETH MOORE
1. What do you believe about God’s work in our pain? Be honest—God can handle it.
Today in Philippians, we get to see Paul holding the tension of his honest feelings of sorrow—and the sorrow he would have felt had his dear friend died—and his recognition that his pain and needs came second to God’s greater work. As I read his words in Philippians 2:28, I find myself reminded of what he said earlier in the chapter:
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
2. How does Philippians 2:3-4 connect to Paul’s perspective on Epaphroditus and the Philippian church?
In His mercy, God kept Paul from the added sorrow of losing his dear friend, and in response, Paul lives out his own words from Philippians 2:3-4 (and 2:21-22—placing others above himself). Epaphroditus was a significant person in the work of the gospel and in Paul’s life, particularly during his imprisonment, yet Paul quickly turns to how God can use his friend for the sake of the gospel and the Philippian church.
3. What does Paul say will be the result if his dear friend is sent back to Philippi (Philippians 2:28)?
Why would Epaphroditus being in Philippi make Paul less anxious? Wouldn’t not sending him home be better for Paul? Epaphroditus has been such an immense help to Paul in his imprisonment!
But Paul has spent this whole letter telling the Philippians what it looks like to live a life that really matters. We see the heart of it in Philippians 2:3-8.
4. Flip back to that passage, and rephrase the essence of the passage:
Paul knows that he cannot just tell the Philippians what makes up a life that really matters—he has to live it himself. That means valuing others above himself, looking to the interests of others, choosing to humble himself in obedience to the call of God. Do what I say, not as I do doesn’t work in any part of life—especially in living out the way of Jesus.
5. Where in your life do you struggle to match up your words with your actions? How could you align those things in pursuit of the life that really matters?
I hate goodbyes. One of my favorite people in the world, who lives kitty-corner from me, just put their house up for sale. I’m trying to be excited for their next adventure . . . but I’m feeling myself pushing back, disconnecting, guarding my heart. Goodbyes are painful, and I’ve done too many of them.
I could learn a thing or two from Paul, though. As he faces saying goodbye to a dear friend, his response isn’t grief or detachment or fear. Instead, he looks to the bigger picture, God’s larger purpose, the fact that the thing that may pain him will ultimately be for the good of so many others.
None of us wants to go through pain. None of us wants to say goodbye to the people we love. But let’s take our hearts to God, knowing that He is crafting something beautiful in spite of the ache.
Take some time to pray for those you’ve had to say goodbye to, those who have pursued God’s calling on their lives. Maybe they’ve moved on from where you work, from your community or your city, or even from your country. Perhaps they’ve simply moved into a new season of life. Ask God to settle your heart in the knowledge that He is working great things, even in our goodbyes.
Amen.