In the course of my work I communicate with many people. And because I work for Desiring God, frequently those communications get very serious, very quickly.
Yesterday was such a day. A brother Christian living far away told me of suffering in his life. The suffering was significant, immediate, and intense.
And his joy was real as well. He knows what it is to be free in Jesus, and to live with future hope.
That served as a reminder to me to cling to real things, like the Bible, and not to temporary things, like circumstances.
And that also brought to mind one of Pastor John’s best presentations on suffering and the sovereignty of God, from the 2005 Desiring God National Conference. Here is just one excerpt among many I could have chosen:
The approach I am going to take tonight is not to solve any problem directly, but to celebrate the sovereignty of God over Satan and all the evils that Satan has a hand in. My conviction is that letting God speak his word will awaken worship—like Job’s—and worship will shape our hearts to understand whatever measure of God’s mystery he wills for us to know. What follows is a celebration of “Ten Aspects of God’s Sovereignty Over Suffering and Satan’s Hand in It.” And what I mean in this message when I say that God is sovereign is not merely that God has the power and right to govern all things, but that he does govern all things, for his own wise and holy purposes.
Then in each of his ten points, Pastor John uses the Bible to illuminate what he means:
This is why Christ’s healings are a sign of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God and its final victory over all disease and all the works of Satan. It is right and good to pray for healing. Christ has purchased it in the death of his Son, with all the other blessings of grace, for all his children (Isaiah 53:5). But he has not promised that we get the whole inheritance in this life. And he decides how much. We pray and we trust his answer. If you ask your Father for bread, he will not give you a stone. If you ask him for a fish, he will not give you a serpent (see Matthew 7:9-10). It may not be bread. And it may not be a fish. But it will be good for you. That is what he promises (Romans 8:28).
You can listen to the entire conference message here: Ten Aspects of God’s Sovereignty Over Suffering and Satan’s Hand In It by John Piper
The Works of God 
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