By: Bill Haywood
Text: James 1:1–12
Introduction
I. James said in the midst of trials to “count it all joy.” How can we say, “it is well” in the midst of chronic pain and illness?
II. What do you do when the doctor says that you or a loved one has cancer or some other dreaded illness? How do you go on when you are constantly in pain or when you can’t enjoy any of the things that you used to enjoy?
III. Paul was familiar with trials, yet he would write, “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). Is that just a good suggestion? The Holy Spirit makes a clear declaration; we are to “Rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). How do we face the realities of a chronic illness without falling into hopelessness?
IV. Paul, speaking of his work as a minister of God, said he was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Likewise, in the midst of chronic pain, we can be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”
Discussion
I. In the midst of chronic sickness, we can say, “It is well with my soul” because God is faithful (James 1:5f; 1 John 1:4; Hebrews 10:23; 2 Timothy 2:13; 1 Peter 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 1:3–4).
A. In James 1:5 we are assured that God is there for us.
B. C.S. Lewis spoke of the emptiness and confusion that accompanies great suffering. Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.
C. Harold Kushner wrote a book titled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. The book deals with the problem of suffering and he arrives at a flawed and inaccurate conclusion.
Kushner explains that he learned to accept God’s love but question God’s power. He came to believe that God is good, and hates to see us suffer, but simply is not powerful enough to straighten out the problems of this world—problems such as children with progeria. Suffering exists on this planet because “even God has a hard time keeping chaos in check,” and God is “a God of justice and not of power.” In other words, God is as outraged by the suffering on this planet as anyone, but his hands are tied.
D. We live in age when we know EVERYTHING. Regarding our health, we can google all of our symptoms and find the diagnosis and treatment that suits us best. Spiritually, we can do the same, or so we think. We forget that we are limited and that God is unlimited.
E. Psalm 103:14 – “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”
F. C.S. Lewis asked,
“Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask—half our great theological and metaphysical problems—are like that.”
G. Job’s friends were certain that Job’s suffering was the just recompense for sin. Job was certain that he was getting a bad deal. In Job 38–41 God sets the record straight. While God welcomes our questions, our limitedness, disqualifies us from judging God.
II. In the midst of chronic sickness, we can say, “It is well with my soul” because we can be matured by chronic suffering (James 1:3).
A. In James 1:3 we read of the testing of our faith.
B. Pain can serve a noble purpose. Lewis wrote,
We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shovelling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not ‘answer’, that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe.
C. A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted. Elijah’s faith was tested in emotional despair and deepened in suffering (1 Kings 18–19). C.S. Lewis addressed the problem of broken heartedness.
Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say ‘My tooth is aching’ than to say ‘My heart is broken’. Yet if the cause is accepted and faced, the conflict will strengthen and purify the character and in time the pain will usually pass. Sometimes, however, it persists and the effect is devastating; if the cause is not faced or not recognised, it produces the dreary state of the chronic neurotic.
III. In the midst of chronic sickness, we can say, “It is well with my soul” because we are in the best possible world to produce the desired result (James 1:3–4).
A. The nagging question in any suffering is, “Why am I in this situation?”
B. In Matthew 22:34–40 the Lord revealed the great purpose of humanity.
C. 2 Corinthians 12:7–10
IV. In the midst of chronic sickness, we can say, “It is well with my soul” because chronic suffering is temporary (James 1:9–11).
A. James 4.13-14 – “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit;’ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
B. 2 Corinthians 11.22-28
C. 2 Corinthians 4.8-18
D. Our perspective on suffering changes everything. Again C.S. Lewis addressed the importance of having an appropriate view of life.
Christ said it was difficult for “the rich” to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, referring, no doubt, to “riches” in the ordinary sense. But I think it really covers riches in every sense—good fortune, health, popularity and all the things one wants to have. All these things tend—just as money tends—to make you feel independent of God, because if you have them you are happy already and contented in this life. You don’t want to turn away to anything more, and so you try to rest in a shadowy happiness as if it could last for ever.
But God wants to give you a real and eternal happiness. Consequently He may have to take all these “riches” away from you: if He doesn’t, you will go on relying on them. It sounds cruel, doesn’t it? But I am beginning to find out that what people call the cruel doctrines are really the kindest ones in the long run. I used to think it was a “cruel” doctrine to say that troubles and sorrows were “punishments.” But I find in practice that when you are in trouble, the moment you regard it as a “punishment,” it becomes easier to bear. If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.
Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic.
V. In the midst of chronic sickness, we can say, “It is well with my soul” because we serve a compassionate master (James 1:5b).
A. James 1:5 - “…without reproach…”
B. There is suffering in this life, but for the child of God there is much assistance available (Hebrews 4:14–16).
C. There is suffering in this life, but for the child of God there is much comfort available. (Romans 8:28).
Conclusion
I. My Jesus knows when I am lonely He knows each pain; He sees each tear He understands each lonely heartache He understands and always cares. My Jesus knows just what I need O yes, He knows just what I need.
II. James 1:12 – “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”