Tony Evans - Hope for the Hurting

Copyright 2021 by Tony Evans

All rights reserved.

978-1-0877-3700-3

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 155.9

Subject Heading: PAIN / SUFFERING / JOY AND SORROW

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from New American Standard Bible ( nasb ), copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Also used: English Standard Version ( esv ), ESV Text Edition: 2016. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Also used: King James Version ( kjv ), public domain.

Cover design by B&H Publishing Group. Cover photo by Lauren Guy Photography.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Lifeway Christian Resources and B&H Publishing for their long-standing relationship in publishing, events, and film. It is always a joy to get to work on a project with such Spirit-led servants of the King. I especially want to thank Bill Craig for shepherding this relationship over the years. I also want to thank Taylor Combs and Kim Stanford for their work in reviewing and laying out this manuscript. Lastly, I want to thank Heather Hair for her continued dedication to my written library through her collaboration on this manuscript.

Chapter 1

Coming to the Comforter

L ife can be painful.

Life hurts.

Life can come with unique challenges, difficulties, bumps, and bruises that leave you lost and drowning in their wake.

It could be a financial disaster. It could come by way of a health issue. Relationships sometimes turn sour. Careers can feel more like doing time than living your life. You might lose a loved one, or two, or three, or more due to sickness or accidents.

Life does hurt. And Jesus knew it would. He said, In the world you will have tribulation (John 16:33 esv ). He didnt say you might have troubles and difficulties. Jesus said you, and I, will have pain, hurt, and struggles.

Sin has made its mark on society in such a dominant way that its repercussions and reverberations are felt everywhere. Some are experienced because they have been caused by us. Others because someone else has committed sins against us. Other pain we experience may simply be due to atmospheric sin that leaves an impact on all those within it. No matter the exact cause, all of sins effects in this world bring pain.

Like Christmas presents under a tree, lifes pain also comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. But unlike those gifts, you dont really want to open them. And you never know what is inside until you do. Whats more, one box can often create a domino effect to more of lifes painushering in a Pandoras box of problems to face.

I understand firsthand what this type of compounded pain feels like. I know what it is to face one tragedy after another until you begin to dread the next day, simply because you dont know the bad news it may bring.

In a span of less than two years, I lost my brother, my only sister, my sisters husband, two of my nieces, my father, and my wifeall to health issues of one kind or another. At the same time, both of my daughters received cancer diagnoses and had growing health concernswhich were thankfully treated, and they have since recovered from them.

As you can see, I dont speak from a theological position of platitudes on pain. I am writing to you from my heart.

When I talk to you about pain, Im not telling you solely what is on my mind or what I have studied on the subject. I am telling you what works and what doesnt, addressing it from my experiences. To face lifes difficulties with dignity and come out on the other side with grace is one of our greatest challenges we are given on earth.

As a counselor who has counseled thousands of people in pain, I know that some of us face it well. I also know that others succumb to its crushing weight, which only leads to more pain through the compounding consequences of additional poor personal choices.

In this book, I want to give you some spiritual principles to help you face pain and hurt well. There is love and happiness on the other side of it all, if you will learn how to walk through the hurt with both peace and joy.

To face lifes difficulties with dignity and come out on the other side with grace is one of our greatest challenges we are given on earth.

One man showed us how to do this. His name is Paul. He gave us more than spiritual serendipities celebrating God in the good times. He gave us a strategy for surviving and, even more, for thriving in the midst of lifes pain. He didnt just give us a hope for tomorrow but also a delight for today. He showed us the importance of not checking out through distractions or numbing ourselves by self-medicating, but rather how to maximize the moments of lifes pain for the purposes God has in mind.

The promise of Gods Word has never been a guarantee from pain and trouble. It has always been a promise to be experienced in the hurt itself. God does manifest His victory on our behalf oftentimes by removing the challenge or bringing us through it, but not until He has developed us in it. God will allow us to remain in pain until we are ready to be delivered from it in order that we might learn, grow, and strengthen our spiritual level of maturity.

The great danger in this spiritual adventure called life is that while you and I are passing through the wilderness, we may want to go back to Egypt, like the Israelites who sought to return to slavery rather than face the hardships at hand. Or another danger comes in the desire to loiter in the wilderness and become unproductive. That is often a result of feeling stuck or not knowing where you are going. You may wind up doing nothing in living out your destiny because you are so discouraged by what you are facing and have no energy left to commit to your calling.

Both of these responses to the wilderness of life reflect what most people do. They either long to return to the known trials of the past, or they become ineffective and stagnant in all things spiritual. But God has a greater plan for the pain in your life. He has a purpose in mind.

As a pastor, I wish I could in good faith and in good conscience tell you that if you come to Jesus, it wont rain. You wont have pain. Nothing will hurt and life will be a cakewalk. I wish I could tell you that if you have faith in God and choose to obey Him, serve Him, and love Him, you will have no troubles. I wish I could promise you a life free from difficulty or financial trials. I wish I could say we live in a world of no abuse, no marital discord, no lingering in extended time waiting for a mate who never seems to show up. I wish I could assure you that your life will be free from crises, health issues, and disappointments.

God has a greater plan for the pain in your life.

It would make my job a lot easier as a pastor if I could tell you those things. But it would also make me a liar. Because those things are simply not true. They have never been true, and they never will be true.

My role as a spiritual leader in a world rife with pain is to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The reason I must do this is because only the Truth will set you free (John 8:32).

The apostle Paul took his commitment to telling the truth seriously too. Thats why we read in his own words a pretty stark summation of his life, showing how God has cared for him amidst a mass of suffering, as found in 2 Corinthians 1. Some highlights include:

[God] comforts us in all our affliction (v. 4).

The sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance (v. 5).