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How Should I Approach Suffering?
Why do I have to suffer in this way?
In this broken world, we’re often threatened by deep heartache and enduring pain. Even if we’re prepared, suffering can catch us by surprise. But Christians can be certain of Our pain has a purpose in God’s good plan, and the Savior who suffered is still with us when we hurt.
In this booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul offers pastoral counsel to help us trust God in our darkest days. As we learn from biblical examples of those who looked to the Lord in their distress, we can be equipped to face suffering without losing sight of the goodness and sovereignty of God.
The Crucial Questions booklet series by Dr. R.C. Sproul offers succinct answers to important questions often asked by Christians and thoughtful inquirers.
In this broken world, we’re often threatened by deep heartache and enduring pain. Even if we’re prepared, suffering can catch us by surprise. But Christians can be certain of Our pain has a purpose in God’s good plan, and the Savior who suffered is still with us when we hurt.
In this booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul offers pastoral counsel to help us trust God in our darkest days. As we learn from biblical examples of those who looked to the Lord in their distress, we can be equipped to face suffering without losing sight of the goodness and sovereignty of God.
The Crucial Questions booklet series by Dr. R.C. Sproul offers succinct answers to important questions often asked by Christians and thoughtful inquirers.
87 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 25, 2025
5 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
R.C. Sproul
672 books1,931 followersDr. R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, an international Christian discipleship organization located near Orlando, Fla. He was founding pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla., first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Ligonier Ministries began in 1971 as the Ligonier Valley Study Center in Ligonier, Pa. In an effort to respond more effectively to the growing demand for Dr. Sproul’s teachings and the ministry’s other educational resources, the general offices were moved to Orlando in 1984, and the ministry was renamed.
Dr. Sproul’s radio program, Renewing Your Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio stations around the world and can also be heard online. Dr. Sproul produced hundreds of lecture series and recorded numerous video series on subjects such as the history of philosophy, theology, Bible study, apologetics, and Christian living.
He contributed dozens of articles to national evangelical publications, spoke at conferences, churches, and academic institutions around the world, and wrote more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God, Chosen by God, and Everyone’s a Theologian. He signed the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and wrote a commentary on that document. He also served as general editor of the Reformation Study Bible, previously known as the New Geneva Study Bible.
Dr. Sproul had a distinguished academic teaching career at various colleges and seminaries, including Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and Jackson, Miss. He was ordained as a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 6, 2025
The Crucial Questions booklets by R.C. Sproul provide a quick introduction to definitive Christian truths. These booklets are adapted from previous writings and teachings by Sproul. All of the Crucial Questions booklets are free in the Kindle edition, and available for a small amount in the print edition.
Sproul tells us that suffering is one of the most significant challenges to any believer’s faith. He tells us that the promise of God is that He will never put more on us than we can bear. What is difficult to bear without Christ is made far more bearable with Christ.
Scripture admonishes us not to think that it is a strange or unusual thing that we should suffer. Our suffering has a purpose. For the Christian, suffering is never an exercise in futility.
Jesus Himself promises His people that they will have tribulation. They will have afflictions. Sproul tells us that God uses tribulation, He uses our pain, not simply to punish us but to polish us, to sanctify us. God doesn’t promise that we will never go through the valley of the shadow of death. What He does promise us is that He will go with us. Whatever God summons us to endure, will fall far short of what Jesus experienced.
Sproul writes that we are given both the duty and the privilege to participate in the suffering of Christ. Because we suffer with Him, we will also be raised with Him. Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.
God has promised that all things that happen in this world—all pain, all suffering, all tragedies—are but for a moment, and that He works in and through these events for the good of those who love Him. Those who understand God’s sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose.
Sproul tells us that God does not always will healing, and that ultimate healing comes through death and after death. His promise is not only that He will go with us into the valley. Even more important is His promise of what lies on the other side of the valley.
The book ends with a look at dying in faith and the final judgment. Sproul tells us that according to Christ, the worst possible thing that can befall us is to die in our sins. And the only possible way for an unjust person to stand in the presence of a just and holy God is to be justified. If we remain unjustified, we die in our sins. The only way that we can be justified is by the righteousness of Christ, and that righteousness is received by faith.
Sproul tells us that there are only two ways of dying. We can die in faith or we can die in our sins. There are no second chances after death, and the urgent focus of Scripture is on the necessity of repentance before we die.
I recommend the Crucial Questions booklets for a quick (two hours of less) look at many important topics from R.C. Sproul, who was known for communicating in a clear and easy to understand manner.
Sproul tells us that suffering is one of the most significant challenges to any believer’s faith. He tells us that the promise of God is that He will never put more on us than we can bear. What is difficult to bear without Christ is made far more bearable with Christ.
Scripture admonishes us not to think that it is a strange or unusual thing that we should suffer. Our suffering has a purpose. For the Christian, suffering is never an exercise in futility.
Jesus Himself promises His people that they will have tribulation. They will have afflictions. Sproul tells us that God uses tribulation, He uses our pain, not simply to punish us but to polish us, to sanctify us. God doesn’t promise that we will never go through the valley of the shadow of death. What He does promise us is that He will go with us. Whatever God summons us to endure, will fall far short of what Jesus experienced.
Sproul writes that we are given both the duty and the privilege to participate in the suffering of Christ. Because we suffer with Him, we will also be raised with Him. Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.
God has promised that all things that happen in this world—all pain, all suffering, all tragedies—are but for a moment, and that He works in and through these events for the good of those who love Him. Those who understand God’s sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose.
Sproul tells us that God does not always will healing, and that ultimate healing comes through death and after death. His promise is not only that He will go with us into the valley. Even more important is His promise of what lies on the other side of the valley.
The book ends with a look at dying in faith and the final judgment. Sproul tells us that according to Christ, the worst possible thing that can befall us is to die in our sins. And the only possible way for an unjust person to stand in the presence of a just and holy God is to be justified. If we remain unjustified, we die in our sins. The only way that we can be justified is by the righteousness of Christ, and that righteousness is received by faith.
Sproul tells us that there are only two ways of dying. We can die in faith or we can die in our sins. There are no second chances after death, and the urgent focus of Scripture is on the necessity of repentance before we die.
I recommend the Crucial Questions booklets for a quick (two hours of less) look at many important topics from R.C. Sproul, who was known for communicating in a clear and easy to understand manner.
Displaying 1 of 1 review