The following message was recorded at an event hosted by Desiring God.

More information about Desiring God events, conferences and resources is available at

www. Desiring God.org.

Thank you so much for coming.

I feel as I begin this seminar, I don't know how many times I've done it,

half a dozen or so over the years.

This is the one where I'm most concerned that my heart be right.

That's always important, isn't it?

But here you know as I'm looking at you,

some of you come so fragile to this seminar,

so on the brink of survival emotionally and you want to hear something helpful about suffering

and I could really blow it if I beat you up or if I shirked, shrunk back from truth.

So I feel vulnerable that I not do it in a way that would be

pastorally helpful or that it would not be true. So I would like especially to pray that God would help you to cut some

slack for me and and also be very discerning and pray for me that I wouldn't say things that are untrue or

that would be insensitive or unhelpful.

Let's pray. So Father, we move toward this issue of suffering again as Bethlehem has for as many years as people have suffered.

And I ask for in this particular seminar

a special grace of listening and

understanding and appropriating and a grace of speaking.

I have notes, but what may come to my mind by way of application I do not know I asked that

you would bring things to my mind and to my mouth that would be supremely faith-building life-giving hope advancing, advancing Christ exulting, Bible saturated.

...