As we continue looking into this theme of worship, there is a question that needs to be addressed: How do you worship when you’re in great anguish and suffering? Or to build on our definition of worship: How do you treasure and value God above all else when you’re hurting so badly you can’t even raise your eyes toward heaven? For we determined two weeks ago that the command to worship is something that is to be done at all times – whether while singing on Sunday morning or while changing your oil on Monday.
I especially want to focus on this topic this morning because after saying last week that we must have a heart that exults in God being exalted, it’s hard for many of us to comprehend how God is exalted while we are suffering. Therefore, I want to try to answer this question.
The way that I want to answer this question isn’t by giving you a number of things to do, necessarily, although I will point out a few. The main manner in which I want to answer this question, however, is by giving us things to remember or realize. And the reason I am going to answer the question this way is twofold: 1) our text this morning gives us those kinds of answers, and 2) Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 that it is in renewing our minds that we will find our lives transformed, and I believe that is what we are going to need if we are to worship while in great anguish and suffering.
In our text this morning, Paul is writing to the Corinthians in defense of his apostleship. We all know that Paul had a rather difficult time convincing this crowd that he truly was an apostle, for his experience wasn’t like the others – Christ appeared to him out of the sky while he was riding to Damascus. But apparently in this situation, some men came to Corinth and claimed to be apostles themselves, challenging Paul’s apostleship. And the manner in which they are trying to prove themselves to be apostles is by speaking of great things they have done and the great visions they have had.
Therefore, Paul tells the Corinthians in essence, “Fine, I will play that game and boast to you of all I have done and the visions I have seen.” Though later he will tell them, “I have been a fool! [But] you forced me into it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing” ( 2 Cor. 12:11). And in our section of the text, this morning, Paul begins in boasting about his visions and revelations from the Lord. Therefore he begins: “I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations” (12:1)
He tells them only about one vision or revelation, but it is enough to top anyone. He tells them of a time when he was caught up into heaven and saw things that he couldn’t describe and wasn’t even allowed to communicate, for they were too great for men. He tells it in third person, but this is because he is trying to show humility and resistance in playing this game of boasting. Be assured, however, that the man who was caught up into heaven was Paul. There are at least three reasons: 1) Paul tells us in verse 6 that if he decided to boast in that as if it were he who had been, he would be speaking the truth, 2) that he would boast of someone else’s revelation would make no sense in this context, and 3) he ties together the receiving of this revelation with the giving to him of a thorn, and it would again make no sense that Paul would be given a thorn to keep him humble when he wasn’t even the one to receive such a vision.
It is this last point of defense that I really want to focus on: the “thorn” given to him. For if we are going to try to answer who to worship when you’re in great anguish and suffering, we need to find a text where worship and anguish both exist. And the thorn assures us that Paul had great anguish. I say that because this was a man who went through stonings, shipwreck, whippings, and many more things. This was a man who could handle his fair share of abuse. However, he tells us that he petitioned the Lord three times to take this thorn away. Therefore, I think it was something that caused him great pain, embarrassment, or both. Yet he was a man who worshiped in his weakness and hardship to such a point that he longed to boast of them even more than of his strengths (12:9).
I want to point out a few things Paul realized that we need to realize as well if we are to worship in times of great anguish.
Why was the thorn given to Paul? Paul says, “To keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations” (12:7). That is to say, Paul had a thorn because it kept him from being prideful over this fact that he had seen heaven and was still living on this earth. And it worked, for if it had not been for this challenge by these “super-apostles” he would have taken the secret to the grave.
But do you see that the struggle came only because he had received such great blessing? The same is true with us. If this morning you are struggling with the question, “How do I worship when my life is filled with such anguish?” realize you are blessed to ask such a question. You only have such a struggle because your heart has been transformed to be able to ask that question. People who do not have Christ as their Lord aren’t asking that question, for they are perfectly content to despise God in their suffering. Therefore, first realize the blessedness of even having such a struggle. In the words of Michael Card, “ … And know I am the richest man, though I must beg for bread. For the very one who might condemn has called me friend instead.”
Paul calls this thorn in the flesh, “a messenger of Satan to harass me,” but he also tells us that it was to keep him “from being too elated” (12:7). Now that seems a bit contradictory, for Satan’s desire is never to keep us from being prideful and exalting ourselves. In fact, he would want us to do just that. What Paul realizes, however, is that God’s hand is in this and his purpose is higher than Satan’s. It is much the same as the story of Joseph. What brought him to Egypt? The sin of his brothers took him there. Thus, surely we could call that a work of Satan. But as the Psalmist recounts that event, he tells us that God sent him there to save his people (Psalm 105:17).
And the same is true in your life. What can aid you in worshiping when Satan is attacking you? Realize that God is working in it so as to do something great in your life – possibly to keep you humble, so that he might shed more grace on you
As Paul pleaded for God to remove the thorn, God answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9). That is God did not simply say, “No, deal with it.” He said, “No, but here is my grace to help you.” God never leaves us without his grace, for we are his children. Salvation is by his grace, and it is a work that we know God will finish by his grace.
Therefore, in your anguish, know first that he will allow no temptation to come to you that he will not provide a way of escape and second, that it all the suffering that comes your way, God is giving you the grace to be more conformed to the image of Christ. You can stop at any point in your life – no matter how great the joy or how deep the anguish – and know that God is conforming you, his child, into the image of his Son. His grace is still at work in your life, not simply to deal with it and remain where you are, but actually to grow into the image of his Son during that time, just as Paul was made more humble.
This is the point that really tests whether or not we are people who exult in God being exalted. For if your heart is as I described last week – one that longs with everything for God to show how great he is to this world – then to know in your weaknesses and hardships that God is displaying in you how great he is, then your heart should find delight.
Paul realized this as God showed him that his power was made perfect in Paul’s weakness. And his response wasn’t, “Well show yourself strong in someone else’s life.” It was, “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (12:9). Also he says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10).
In our weakness, God is able to pour out his grace on us (remember he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble), then as we labor, according to that grace – for we are weak, God’s glory shines forth in that strength. It’s much like a child sitting on his dad’s lap as he mows the lawn. We don’t see that and say, “Wow, that kid’s talented!” We say, “That’s a great dad, spending time with his child as he mows the lawn.” But why don’t we say the first? The reason is that it is clear to us that to praise the child would be foolish, for he is definitely unable to operate the lawnmower.
We want the same to be true when people look at us. The problem, however, is that it is more difficult to see our weaknesses compared to that of a child when we are laboring. Therefore, let us boast in our weaknesses that God’s grace and power might continue to show in us and that men may praise him. Let’s boast of how weak we are in our anguish and suffering, finding delight in our hearts that, though we are weak, he is showing his glory.
Thus, I think the greatest source for worship when in suffering is to know that God is showing himself great in it. But that requires a heart like we looked at last week: one that exults in God being exalted.
Therefore, as we close this week, let me encourage you to do three things:
1) As we did last week, pray and labor to treasure God above all else. Repent if your heart doesn’t exult in him being exalted – for maybe it wasn’t exposed last week but it is this week. Then beg God to give you such a heart, for otherwise you will not worship when in great anguish and suffering.
2) Labor to keep people’s eyes on Christ. By this I don’t mean that when people thank you, say, “Don’t thank me … ” for God might have instructed them to encourage you in that. What I mean, though, is to labor to let me know that you are not able to do anything apart from his grace. For then men will know there is no glory that belongs to you.
3) Point out God’s glory when men might expect you to want to curse him. I think this is the most powerful display of worship one can see. It is sitting in your agony as a group of people look in on it, raising your head and saying, “Blessed be the Lord for he is worthy of worship.” It is saying to those who want to know how you can even keep on living, “I know that though I look weak and am in great anguish, I find great delight in knowing that my God is looking great right now?”
May we be these kinds of people – those who worship in anguish and suffering so that God’s glory might be seen greater than all things. Amen.