21 Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. 22 And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet 23 and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” 24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him.
25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”
32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
(Mark 5:21-34, New King James Version)
In a way, we are like that bleeding woman; Carrying years of pain and torment from whatever it is that has tormented or ailed us. From “The Bleeding Woman’s Story-Jen’s Story-Our Story” , a blog post about a bible study that discussed Mark 5:21-34, the post shared the following:
In a way, the Bleeding Woman’s story is our story, because in a way we’re all “bleeding” inside, in our own way. Inside there’s something that’s draining us of life, like an open wound that keeps on letting. Jenn shared her personal story of how she always felt somewhat inadequate, like she needed to be perfect in order to be fully loved. It was a draining enterprise. The “bleeding” is different for everyone, but so often it’s an identity thing.
In the book, “To Those Who Suffer“,author, Sean Nolan, dwelves into the concept of suffering and as a Christian, what and how our Heavenly Father can do and not do for us.
This book took some time of reading and re-reading mostly because of the depth of the discussion and raising self questions of “How do I view suffering as a Christian” and “What are my expectations and often unrealistic expectations” about suffering and I found, To Those Who Suffer, to be both a source of comfort and humble understanding of how often we may misunderstand what it means to suffer and what we think our Heavenly Father should or should not be doing.
At 207 pages and with both humble wisdom and scriptual based applicable truths, Sean Nolan truly touched at the heart of understanding what our Heavenly Father can truly do for us.
The chapters are short, but deeply filled with convicting truths that doesn’t shy away about what our Father seeks for all of us and though, too much to share in a simple review, one passage that, for this reviewer, quickly summed up what,To Those Who Suffer, seeks to convey to the reader, comes easily from page. 24, under the heading, “Misunderstanding God’s Love”, where Sean Nolan shares,
“In the church today there is a huge misunderstanding of fwho God is and what His purpose for our lives is. In my early Christian years I viewed God as a divine vending machine. I thought that praying to God is like putting money in a drink machine. I put my prayer in and through that prayer, I would be making my selection of what I wanted God to do in my life and then God was obligated to give me what I wanted. So many Christians have ceased praying to God and asking Him for His will to be done as instructed to in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2).”
Sean Nolan has a humble outlook on what it means to suffer and why as heexplains, “If suffering were a tree, its fruit would be unique and extremely rare. The reason why the Lord uses the painful process of suffering to sanctify us (conform us into the image of His Son) is that suffering produces unique and extremely rare fruit that cannot be grown or cultivated by any other means.
Not for the easily convicted, To Those Who Suffer, is highly recommended for those who are seeking to gain a deeper understanding of why heaven is not here on earth, but in our Father’s kingdom in Heaven one day and in the meantime, why the things we want and desire does not happen as we would like it to.
Though wars and sickness will continue to happen, what is forever promised and rest assured is hope in and through our Heavenly Father.
To Those Who Suffer, is a deeply encouraging and wonderful reminder that our Father does and will come through for us even if our circumstances doesn’t change.
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This sounds like a great book, the quote that really relates to me:
“Jenn shared her personal story of how she always felt somewhat inadequate, like she needed to be perfect in order to be fully loved. It was a draining enterprise.”
God is helping me work on my perfectionist problem and realizing where it actually came from in the first place was the start of the process.
Thanks for sharing about this book!
Bev(Quote) (Reply)
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