MY LIFE: #69 | My Reflections with Sufferings

Dr. Stephen Phinney: I have suffered my measurement of troubles – the type of troubles that bring heart ache, physical challenges, and emotional ramifications.

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REFLECTING ON MY LESSONS IN THE BOOK OF JOB

“In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:26-28

Humanly speaking, suffocation is my greatest dread in life. The following essay will take you on a journey through my experience dealing with this fear. God uses the lesson of Job from the Bible. We all face our “worst nightmare” in some shape or form. I hope the outcome of my journey blesses you.”

-Dr. Stephen Phinney

Permissible Suffocation

God, the Father of the Son to be “betrothed,” had to negotiate with the “father of lies” to retain the bride for His Son. The price was His Son! Like Hosea, He had to come and take on the sins of the “bride to be,” take the punishment for those sins, and then open His arms for “betrothal.” He, again like Hosea, had to “put up with” the “betrothed bride” going back to her sins of preference until the day of sanctification. God required Hosea and Christ to be the ones responsible for the “cost” of “betrothal,” not the “betrothed” bride.

To derail the temptation for readers to use this series as some spiritual formula to deliver them from potentially assigned circumstances of our Lord, I implore you to read this series before using the prayers and content within this series. The essays you are about to read was birthed through the lessons contained within this series.

My wife has said for years, “I am certain that the older I get – the less I know.”  I cannot tell you how often those words have rung my bell! I have been a born-again indwelt Christian since I was 16. I have fought my way through the jungle of deception and worldly fables for over 50 years, and I still ask questions like:

• How could a righteous God allow such an evil world? 

• How could a loving God allow the enemy to torture His children with despair and emotional suffocation? 

• Why do righteous people suffer when they diligently work to seek His divine will? 

• Why does God allow the ungodly to prosper? 

• My utmost favorite is: are adversity and affliction signs that a suffering Christian has unconfessed sin?

After discipling others in the message of the Exchanged Life (Not I, but Christ: Galatians 2:20) for 30+ years, I have discovered something rather simple but profound. Knowing the exchanged life does not rid us of suffering but could invite it all the more. That leaves us with a question; ”Why should we appeal to God to relieve us of suffering?”  That is why I believe this booklet needs to be read.

MY SUFFERING

Like many (if not most) Christians, I have suffered my measurement of troubles – the type of troubles that bring heartache, physical challenges, and emotional ramifications. The most difficult suffering has been the constant unmerciful criticism from fellow Body members. When fronted with a near-terminal ailment, some Christians dared to conclude that there must be some sin in my life. They pushed and peddled the worldly thought that all suffering is always the result of sin, simplistically touting that if I (we) repent of this “unknown sin,” the momentary light affliction would somehow disappear. Even though we know the error of this dogmatism, we fall into this dark place of treating repentance like “a pill” – “a pill” that will somehow deliver us from our moments of despair and emotional suffocation. 

When was the last time you had a mounting of perpetual circumstances thrown in your face at such a rate that you frequently felt you couldn’t surface long enough to take a deep breath? The feeling of suffocation, in my opinion, is one of the worst kinds of suffering. Several years ago, when I first contracted an infection in my heart that ultimately led to heart failure, I had severe problems with my breathing. At first, we thought it was from a head cold. The doctor gave me medication to fight the viral infection. It only made things worse. Next in line was the thought my “childhood asthma” was returning. Treatment was applied, which, of course, made it worse. It was adding to the liquid building up in my lungs. Then it got to the point that I could only lay back, forget laying down, for several minutes at a time. Due to only getting minimal sleep a day, they thought I was developing sleep apnea. In reality, I was suffocating. When I was admitted to the ER, one lung was filled, and the second was at its “half full” mark. I cannot tell you the horrid feelings this suffocation brought on. In fact, at one point in the ER, they were frantically working to “bring me back.”

Once arresting the crisis, I was placed in a care unit to begin my healing process. While there, I was visited by an array of “friends” and family. Some visitors came to confess their sins of offense against me, and they left, but I never heard from them again. Others came to visit to offer true and respectable comfort. Then, some came as representatives of a “group of friends” to confront me about the “sin” in my life. One “old friend” in particular asked if I thought God was putting this on me due to some sin in my life.

Now, I am a firm believer in declaring that afflictions sometimes come from God to purify us and that this, in no way, indicates that God is unloving. It is only His way of leading us back to a dependent “talk and walk” relationship with Himself - like a father would discipline a child. Even though I know that suffering instructs us in righteousness and prevents us from sinning, it doesn’t make the journey easier. It puts us in the position of determining if we will question God’s sovereignty or accuse Him of hurting His children. This leads to the biggest question: Will we humbly submit ourselves to God’s will? 

I don’t know about you, but I find God’s will sometimes quite painful. I am NOT saying He doesn’t provide comfort, healing, and guidance, but I am saying that the walk is sometimes daunting for the most part. To be straightforward, I find that God does not choose to answer most of my penetrating questions. Instead, He overwhelms me with a panoramic view of His creative power and perfect Divine wisdom. I usually get reprimanded for attempting to figure out why my pain and suffering. If you want to talk about sin, this is the sin that gets me in trouble the most. I can’t tell you how many times I have walked away from a conversation with God where I felt humbled and foolish for implying that God owes me some explanation. Since I will never be big enough to canvas my world, how would I presume to tell God how to manage His sovereignty?

I think most indwelt Christians have embraced the fact that Jesus shed His blood to deliver us from our sins, but how many of us have embraced the fullness of His Holy plan? Now, think about it—if we exchange our lives for Him, doesn’t it mean that in the Exchange comes the commission to be willing to share in His sufferings? 

“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”  (2 Timothy 2:3)

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:16-17).

“For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29).

If you are like most of us fair-weathered Christians, you don’t mind Christ's positive attributes in the great Exchange; but elements that are not so positive, like the “fellowship of His sufferings,” well—that is a different story.

“More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God based on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11).

Next is #70, “Pain & Suffering.”

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