God understands the full range of struggles people face in life, from burdens and hardships to joys and opportunities, as reflected in passages like Psalm 88 and James 1 which describe trials and temptations. While the world surprises us with suffering, the Bible comforts us that God is aware of our deepest struggles and offers help tailored to our individual needs and situations. Christians should help others find solace in knowing God understands what they experience so they can turn to him for genuine help.
4. CPR Preview
• Central Point: God understands the full range of
joys and sorrows that make up our lives.
• Personal Application: Personal comfort and
direction result from knowing that God
understands my world and provides help that fits
my need.
• Relational Application: I want to help people
understand that because God understands their
struggles, he can offer help that is genuinely
helpful.
5. The Big Question
What is your situation? What are
your burdens, pressures, joys,
hardships, temptations,
responsibilities, opportunities, and
pains – both actual and potential?
6. Scriptural Background:
God understands our deepest struggles of life in a
fallen world
• Psalm 88:
O LORD, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!
For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
7. Scriptural Background:
God understands our deepest struggles of life in a
fallen world
• Psalm 88: (cont.)
You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
8. Scriptural Background:
God understands our deepest struggles of life in a
fallen world
• Psalm 88: (cont.)
Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you?
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
9. Scriptural Background:
God understands our deepest struggles of life in a
fallen world
• Psalm 88: (cont.)
Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
You have caused my beloved and my friend to
shun me;
my companions have become darkness.
10. Scriptural Background:
Pastoral realism in the face of trial
• James 1:1-18:
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials
of various kinds, for you know that the testing of
your faith produces steadfastness. And let
steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
11. Scriptural Background:
Pastoral realism in the face of trial
• James 1:1-18: (cont.)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who
gives generously to all without reproach, and it
will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no
doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave
of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
For that person must not suppose that he will
receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-
minded man, unstable in all his ways.
12. Scriptural Background:
Pastoral realism in the face of trial
• James 1:1-18: (cont.)
Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
and the rich in his humiliation, because like a
flower of the grass he will pass away. For the
sun rises with its scorching heat and withers
the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty
perishes. So also will the rich man fade away
in the midst of his pursuits.
13. Scriptural Background:
Pastoral realism in the face of trial
• James 1:1-18: (cont.)
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial,
for when he has stood the test he will receive the
crown of life, which God has promised to those who
love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am
being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted
with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each
person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his
own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives
birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth
death.
14. Scriptural Background:
Pastoral realism in the face of trial
• James 1:1-18: (cont.)
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of lights
with whom there is no variation or shadow
due to change. Of his own will he brought us
forth by the word of truth, that we should be
a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
15. Illustrations
• Provide an illustration of the comfort that
comes when someone knows your story.
Compare this to the confusion we experience
when we think we must live a double life
because no one knows what we are going
through.
16. Group Discussions
• Group reflections about times they felt alone.
• Use James 1:1-18 to reflect on a past and
present trial.
• Why does suffering surprise us? What
assumptions do we make about suffering?
How can these assumptions increase our
pain?
17. Central Point, Personal Application,
and Relational Application (CPR)
Central Point:
• God understands the full range of joys and
sorrows that make up our lives.
• The Christian life is not about finding shelter
from the real world as much as it is about God
meeting us in the midst of it.
• The Bible comforts us with the knowledge that
nothing we experience is a surprise to God.
18. CPR
Personal Application:
• Personal comfort and direction result from
knowing that God understands my world and
offers help that fits the struggles I face daily.
• I must identify where I run from trouble rather
than run to God.
• I need to recognize the places where I miss
God’s comfort because I am embarrassed to
admit my struggles to him.
19. CPR
Relational Application:
• I want to help people understand that God
understands what they face in a fallen world, and
that he offers help that is genuinely helpful.
• I want to help people to identify the false shelters
that keep them from turning to God in their
difficulties.
• I can demonstrate the fact that God understands
our struggles by modeling that understanding in
the way I comfort others.
20. Make it Real (Homework)
1. Take some time to think about your life. What is
the HEAT in your current situation? Use the
questions below to make your responses concrete
and detailed.
a) What pressures do you regularly face?
b) What are your God-given opportunities?
c) What are your normal, everyday responsibilities?
d) Are you facing difficult circumstances?
e) What temptations are you facing?
f) Who are the difficult people in your life?
21. Make it Real (Homework)
g) What unexpected blessings have you received?
h) In what situations do you feel alone or misunderstood?
i) What challenges does the value system of modern
culture present to you?
j) In what areas do you feel overwhelmed by the things
that have been “assigned” to you (blessing or
difficulty)?
k) Are there places where you are tempted to avoid, hide
or quit?
l) What situations tempt you to say you are okay when
you are not?
22. Make it Real (Homework)
2. Do you see any themes or patterns in your
answers regarding relational struggles,
responsibilities, certain temptations,
finances, physical suffering, etc.? In other
words, what part of the HEAT of real life
tends to get to you? All the categories
listed in Question 1 are part of every life,
but what things, specifically, tend to hook
you?
