Suffering: A Case Study
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Lord does not abandon us in our suffering. God is with His people, even when we hurt. Today, R.C. Sproul addresses some of the questions we encounter in the midst of our pain.
Get R.C. Sproul’s book Surprised by Suffering, plus lifetime digital access to his companion teaching series and study guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3945/donate
Meet Today’s Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If there is a God who is sovereign over all of life, over all of death, and over all pain, |
| 0:07.0 | and over all disease, and over all illness, and over all sorrow, then what that means is |
| 0:14.0 | that it is flat out impossible that any pain could ever be without purpose. |
| 0:26.8 | One of the most difficult situations I've found myself in is when I've learned that someone I care about |
| 0:33.2 | is being diagnosed with cancer or another illness, and I simply don't know what to say. |
| 0:39.1 | Have you ever found yourself in a situation like that? |
| 0:42.2 | This is the Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind. |
| 0:45.3 | I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. |
| 0:48.5 | R.C. Sproll was given the opportunity to visit M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas |
| 0:53.7 | and address the doctors and nurses |
| 0:56.0 | there about God's purpose in suffering. And although he was addressing the staff, his primary |
| 1:02.2 | audience were the patients, those who were suffering. Here's Dr. Sprawl. Whenever I encounter this question of suffering, either as a philosophical question or as a cry of |
| 1:19.6 | pain from somebody who's in the midst of that suffering when they're asking it, the question |
| 1:24.3 | that I hear in my profession inevitably is the question, where is God in all of this? |
| 1:33.3 | And then the next question is the question that is the one that every theologian dreads to hear. |
| 1:40.2 | It's this question, why? |
| 1:50.1 | When I'm afflicted, when you're afflicted, when pain intrudes into your life and the threat of death comes, the first thing that we ask is, why? Why me? Why has this happened? |
| 1:58.7 | How could God allow these things to take place? |
| 2:04.0 | Any time we ask this simple question, why, we're asking a question about purpose. |
| 2:15.9 | The why questions are the questions about purpose. The why questions are the questions about purpose. |
| 2:18.4 | The why questions are the questions about meaning. |
| 2:21.8 | We're not asking how, we're not asking when, we're not asking what, we're asking why. |
... |
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