Why Did This Happen To Me?

[00:00:18] Greetings and welcome to this latest edition of Become A Competent Biblical Counselor.

[00:00:24] I'm Dr. Dave Jones, and today's episode is entitled Comfort in Affliction.

[00:00:29] Or, why me?

[00:00:31] I'm not going to read something from one letter or one request,

[00:00:35] but I am going to read a sentence that appears in time and time again in all sorts of places.

[00:00:41] You have heard it, perhaps even this week.

[00:00:43] Maybe you even said it in the sentence as this.

[00:00:46] Why did this have to happen to me?

[00:00:50] Well, you know that question, don't you?

[00:00:53] It's so common that you may have said it three or four times this week.

[00:00:58] Maybe a husband died recently, and you asked yourself,

[00:01:02] why did this have to happen to me?

[00:01:04] Perhaps you discovered your child was using drugs, and you said,

[00:01:08] why? Why did this have to happen to me?

[00:01:11] Perhaps your husband was angry with you and said some really nasty words to you.

[00:01:15] You guys left the house this morning.

[00:01:16] You say, why?

[00:01:18] Why did this have to happen to me?

[00:01:20] Well, now I don't believe we really have any right to ask that question.

[00:01:25] God knows why He brings what He brings into our lives.

[00:01:29] God knows why in each individual situation what comes is what we need,

[00:01:35] or what He wants for His honor.

[00:01:38] Ultimately, that question belongs with God, and its answer belongs with Him.

[00:01:43] But God has been very gracious, and in the scriptures He has given to us

[00:01:49] some answers as to why some things do happen to us.

[00:01:53] And often when you're tempted to ask that question, you might consider

[00:01:56] one answer to it.

[00:01:58] It's not the only answer, but it is certainly a vital one,

[00:02:01] which I think that many Christians have missed,

[00:02:05] and yet it comes so prominently to the fore in the book of 2 Corinthians.

[00:02:10] Paul answers the question.

[00:02:12] He says in verse 3 of the last chapter of that second letter to the church at Corinth,

[00:02:18] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

[00:02:22] the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

[00:02:26] who comforts us in all our afflictions so that—now, here's the reason—

[00:02:31] so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction

[00:02:36] with the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

[00:02:42] Did you get that?

[00:02:43] Paul's saying, often Christian people—certainly he himself experienced it as he says here—

[00:02:50] often Christian people undergo trials and afflictions.

[00:02:54] They may be physical illnesses, they may be hardships,

[00:02:59] they may be persecutions.

[00:03:01] Who knows what they may be, but often Christian servants of God—

[00:03:05] choice servants of God such as he was—

[00:03:09] indeed, who in the very process of doing what God has called them to do

[00:03:13] run into afflictions and trials and hardships,

[00:03:17] and the answer to the question, why does this happen to them?

[00:03:21] In such instances, Paul says often—may boil down to this one thing—

[00:03:27] that they may seek God's comfort,

[00:03:30] experience that comfort, and be able to point others to that comfort.

[00:03:36] In other words, God often sends his choices servants—

[00:03:41] great hardships and trials and afflictions—

[00:03:43] to enable them to find his peace, his answers,

[00:03:48] his comfort, his encouragement, his instruction in that situation.

[00:03:54] Why?

[00:03:54] So that they who are in a place of influence among many, many other Christians

[00:04:00] can share it with those Christians who might otherwise in no way know how to find God's comfort.

[00:04:07] Now, Paul is not writing as some green seminarian who's giving a nice pious platitude to us

[00:04:14] when he doesn't even know what the world is like, but this is Paul writing.

[00:04:19] Remember who it is who says that we are reading here.

[00:04:22] This is the same Paul, who just three chapters later in verse 8 of chapter 4 in 2 Corinthians says,

[00:04:30] We are afflicted in every way, but not crust, perplexed, but not despairing,

[00:04:37] persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed,

[00:04:43] always carrying out in the body the dying of Jesus,

[00:04:47] that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

[00:04:52] So, what he says, in effect, is that God is constantly putting him into places of affliction and difficulty,

[00:05:00] hardship, perplexity, persecution.

[00:05:03] Why?

[00:05:04] Well, he says in the next, in a couple of verses later,

[00:05:08] All things are for your sakes.

[00:05:11] Paul was subjected to trouble that he might discover the comfort of God

[00:05:14] and be able to share that comfort with others.

[00:05:19] Now, you may have a ministry just beyond your suffering.

[00:05:23] You may have a ministry in the days or weeks to come

[00:05:25] that you don't know anything about right now.

[00:05:28] There may be a neighbor, a friend, someone in the church.

[00:05:32] There may be someone in your family.

[00:05:34] It may even be someone that you love very deeply

[00:05:37] who needs what you are going to experience yourself

[00:05:40] in this suffering and trial which you are undergoing at the moment.

[00:05:45] Remember, God comforts us, Paul says, and all our affliction

[00:05:49] so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction

[00:05:54] with the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

[00:06:00] Wow! What a concept, huh?

[00:06:03] You may have a ministry that's just around the corner

[00:06:05] and you've got to be prepared for it.

[00:06:07] God has sent you the trial so that you can meet the situation when it comes

[00:06:12] so that you can minister properly, turn the person to the correct verses,

[00:06:17] help him to understand the situation,

[00:06:20] help him to understand how God meets that kind of a problem.

[00:06:25] But you see, if you complain, if you continue to ask,

[00:06:29] why, why, why, why, and refuse to accept God's answer,

[00:06:33] if you refuse to seek the comfort of God and to experience that comfort yourself,

[00:06:39] not only are you going to be miserable as you endure this affliction,

[00:06:43] whatever it may be, but you are going to be without the resources

[00:06:47] that God has for you in his Word to help you

[00:06:50] in that ministry which he has four blocks down the street.

[00:06:55] So instead of complaining, instead of griping,

[00:06:59] instead of whining endlessly and uselessly,

[00:07:03] why did this happen to me?

[00:07:05] Take God's answer and take his comfort.

[00:07:08] Where can you find that comfort?

[00:07:10] Romans 15.4 tells you where that comfort can be found.

[00:07:15] The encouragement and the hope that you need is in the Scriptures.

[00:07:21] Oh Lord help any who are in affliction today

[00:07:24] not to continue to ask that question

[00:07:26] but to listen to what you have said and replied

[00:07:29] and help them, Lord through listening,

[00:07:31] to become prepared to minister to others in their affliction as well.

[00:07:36] We pray for Christ's sake, amen.

[00:07:39] So there it is.

[00:07:41] It's difficult when you get involved in a situation

[00:07:45] in which you're miserable and things are just not what they used to be

[00:07:49] and you wonder why this is happening to me.

[00:07:51] Well, God's got something coming for you.

[00:07:54] And maybe instead of asking why this is happening now,

[00:07:59] maybe there's a way to look at it differently and saying,

[00:08:03] wow, God's got something coming for me.

[00:08:06] I wonder what it is.

[00:08:08] I'm going to go through some difficulties but he's not going to leave me.

[00:08:11] He's not going to forsake me.

[00:08:13] He's going to be right there with me.

[00:08:14] But he's got something coming for me

[00:08:18] and I'm going to use this the way that he wants me to use this

[00:08:22] because he's got something really great coming.

[00:08:27] I wonder what he's going to do.

[00:08:29] I wonder what he's going to lead me into this time.

[00:08:33] I'm ready.

[00:08:34] So get ready and welcome it when it comes.

[00:08:38] I hope this helps into something that you can use in the days to come.

[00:08:43] Make it a blessed day and we'll talk to you later.