Suffering and Pain You Are Not Alone

By Tom Mushinge

Ever since the ancient revolt, suffering has been woven, with perplexity and pain, into the fabric of human experience. We all live and move and have our being amid Eden’s wreckage. Affliction and evil universal as they are real, haunt us, stalk us, and plague us.

Suffering tends to produce loneliness. We feel lonely, isolated, sealed off, and detached from others. It is common for us to believe that no one understands our pain.

We can be deceived into thinking that God is distant and uncaring. While I do not wish to invalidate these emotions, I do want to extinguish the lie that the sufferer is ever alone. We are never alone in suffering because in it we join other saints in the pattern of righteous suffering that has been going on from the inception of salvation history.

Are you or other believers around you facing rejection for your faith? Do you feel lonely in your suffering? Does it seem that God is distant and has detached himself from your pain? Do you feel disappointment, bewilderment, or dismay? Are you sitting in darkness, searching for answers and grasping for hope?

Then this is the right book for you. It will help you to understand that you are not alone in your suffering! God bless you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom Mushinge
• Release date: May 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463920299

Book preview

SUFFERING AND PAIN

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

SUFFERING AND PAIN

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Dr. Tom Nyembo Mushinge

DcS D.D.PhD.

Copyright © 2018 Dr. Tom Nyembo Mushinge

Published by Dr. Tom Nyembo Mushinge Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Dr. Tom Nyembo Mushinge using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Colleen Figg for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my God for giving me this book ministry. Also, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to all who were a source of information, that I used and read in making this book a reality; though too numerous to mention individually.

To every one of you, a big thank you for your labour of love! God bless you.

Dedication

I have dedicated this book to my friend and brother, the late Teza Kazumba, who went to be with the Lord on 6th February 2014. He died of renal failure.

2 Samuel 1:25-27 says, How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan was slain in your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you have been very pleasant to me; your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women. How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished.

Indeed, I must say, I am distressed for you my brother, Teza. You were a mighty man, very intelligent, wise and focused. A weapon of war in the hands of the Lord you were. So sincere, straightforward and honest in your interactions with people. I remember you as being a man of great compassion and full of love for others.

Farewell, mighty man!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

1. Suffering as the Consequence of the Flawed Nature of Creation

2. The Books of Job and Ecclesiastes

3. The Nature of Suffering

4. Purposes and Reasons for Suffering

5. The Possible Benefits From Suffering

6. Can We Explain All Suffering?

7. Satan’s Role in Suffering

8. Pain’s Important Purpose

9. Man’s Reaction to God’s Messengers

10. Losing Faith in Times of Suffering

11. Why Do the Righteous Suffer?

12. What We Can Learn About Suffering in the Story of Joseph, the Patriarch

13. Things We Can Learn from Suffering.

14. The Temptations of Christ

15. Dried Up Brooks

16. What Death Means for the Believer in Christ

17. Conclusion

About the Author

Preface

Through my conversation with him as he lay sick at his home, he piped up and said to me, Rev, are you telling me that I am not alone in this situation?

I said, Exactly Biggie! You are not alone. We all have different issues in our lives that we suffer from.

After my visit, as I was travelling back home to Solwezi, the Holy Spirit whispered to me that this would be a good subject to write about; to encourage the many people who are going through pain and suffering and to let them know that they are not alone in that painful situation.

My heart goes out to my spiritual daughter, Pastor Sophie Kazumba, who is wife to the late Teza, and to the family. My words of encouragement to them are that, You are not alone, in that situation. There are many who have gone through the pain that you are experiencing now and others yet to go through it, but above all worldly aid and succour, God Almighty is with you.

However, bad the situation may be, there is a very bright and hopeful one: namely, God is at work for good. The one and only God who created the universe and knows fully the essence of good and evil is, in fact, an ingenious Alchemist, capable of taking what looks for all the world like lead and bringing forth from it astonishing gold. This one and only God is rarely obvious or predictable in how He works, but again and again in history, He takes the worst of times and does the best of things with them—as He did with the runaway horse and the broken leg. His miracles are also evident in what He is doing in my life.

Dr. Tom Nyembo Mushinge; DcS, D.D. PhD

The late Teza Kazumba

The late Teza Kazumba and his beautiful wife Pst. Sophie

The late Teza Kazumba with his two beautiful daughters, Masizo and Mapalo at their home in Parklands, Kitwe.

Introduction

Why do we go through suffering and pain? There are many people suffering in our world today and they seem not to understand why they go through suffering and pain.

Others have done everything right, but they still find themselves suffering. ‘Why’ seems to be the most important question here that needs to be answered.

Why do the innocent suffer? Why does a seemingly innocent, newborn baby have to suffer and die prematurely for a cause not of its own making? Why does a seemingly healthy man or woman just collapse and die? Why does a husband suddenly die of a stroke? Why are there so many other misfortunes befalling families? These are but a few examples of the many such questions that are asked when people suffer.

Why do we still lose our beloved one despite praying for their healing and recovery? Why, God, have you allowed this tragedy to happen to me? Couldn’t it have waited for some other time? Why did it have to be now? Why has my wife died? Why my husband? The list is endless.

The unavoidable truth is all of us go through many times of hardship in our lives and I really want to encourage you to take God’s Holy Word as your comfort.

Let it be your consolation and reassurance when you are faced with huge tests. There are certain trials in our lives that we never get over, but I can testify that as time moves on, those tidal waves start becoming smaller, and the pain less sharp.

Father God, through His word, soothes our wounds and heals them. In fact, I have never met a man or woman worth their salt who have not been through fiery tests in life; it is unfortunately the only thing that builds character.

Show me a person who has never been through difficulties and I will show you a person who has got nothing to say, has no convictions and is not prepared to stand up for righteousness and truth.

Some of the closest encounters I have ever had with God were during my darkest days, when the storm was at its absolute worst. He was there, telling me (almost audibly) that He would never leave me or forsake me.

As we all know, that the darker the clouds, the more life giving is the rain those clouds carry. So never be afraid of what the future holds in store for you. So long as you are spending time in the word with Jesus every day, you will be able to cope with anything that comes across your path.

But is there an answer to the problem of suffering and pain? Most certainly, the answer is there, and we can only find it in the word of God.

Let us first begin by defining what suffering is, so that we may understand our subject. Suffering can be defined as the experience of physical pain and/or mental distress. The words and phrases in the Bible expressing this concept are too numerous to list.

The Old Testament, inter-testamental literature, and the New Testament present two perspectives on human suffering. On the one hand, suffering is the consequence of the flawed nature of creation. In this view, human beings – except the first man and woman – are victims, exposed constantly to the perils of a created order gone awry.

On the other hand, a person’s suffering is the direct consequence of his or her violation of God’s laws; a collective of people violating God’s laws like the children of Israel in the wilderness.

1

Suffering as the Consequence of the Flawed Nature of Creation

Consequent to the disobedience of Eve and then Adam, a wretched legacy has been bequeathed to humans. God cursed the ground, so that human beings can stay alive only through much toil; the pain of childbirth is greatly increased for all women (Gen 3:16-19); death and the entire suffering attendant upon dying have entered the world (Gen 2:17). Isaiah 65:17 actually speaks of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth.

In line with the eschatological promises of the prophets, many inter-testamental sources anticipate a time in the future when Israel will be restored to the land in a state of prosperity, sometimes with the help of a messianic figure. Some texts call this the kingdom of God.

Often there is a differentiation made between this age/world and the age/world to come; the latter follows the resurrection and judgement and is the domain of the righteous alone. The age/world to come for the righteous is to be an existence of blessedness without suffering.

The New Testament continues what is found in the Old Testament and Paul writes that the creation – subject to futility – awaits its liberation from its bondage to destruction, groaning as if labouring in the pangs of childbirth (Rom 8:19-22). Similarly, in 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1, the Isaiahan concept of the new heaven and new earth finds expression.

Paul attributes the tyranny of death, the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26), to the sin of Adam, the effects of which reach to all human beings and are nullified by the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom 5:12-17 ; 1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

The New Testament also assumes that creation is flawed as a result of the activity of Satan and allied spirits, who wreak havoc on human existence (Mark 9:14-27;  Luke 9:37-43).

Unlike the Old Testament, however, the New Testament understands the flawed nature of creation to have been at least partially rectified, inasmuch as the influence of Satan and allied spirits on it has been curtailed through the appearance, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.

Jesus understands His healings and exorcisms as an assault on the kingdom of Satan (Matt 12:25-29; Mark 3:23-27;  Luke 11:17-22; Luke 10:18-20; John 12:31; 16:11). Paul speaks of the exaltation of Christ over all spiritual beings (Eph 1:19-22 ; Col 2:15), and describes believers as those who have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son (Col 1:13; cf. 1 Peter 2:9).

1.1 Suffering as the Consequence of Sin

In the Old and the New Testaments, suffering more frequently is causally linked to the sins of the descendants of the first man and woman. God established a moral order in creation, with the result that retributive justice is meted out in life experience.

In this worldview, the