Preaching magazine, (May-June, 2004 Volume 19, Number 6) was devoted to the issue of pain and suffering. Anna Graham Lotz (daughter of Billy Graham) was interviewed. The following question was asked her and then her response:
What can we do to help people better deal with those issues of pain and suffering, and use them for God’s glory?
Absolutely. We in the church need to teach our people to know God and to know Him for themselves, as they read the Bible for themselves and they apply it to their lives and they live it out by experience. To spend time in prayer for themselves, not just going through their prayer list to get answers but in prayer to get to know God, so that they’re actually communicating.
We in the church need to make it our priority that every single person that’s in the church would develop a personal, one-on-one, growing relationship with the living God and to know Him. He is a God of love, He’s good, He’s kind, He wants your best. His will is good for you. When you’re suffering but you know God like that, you trust Him.
If you don’t know God like that—if you know God through hear-say, second hand information, what your pastor says, your Sunday school teacher says, what you read in a book, what somebody thought He might be like, what you’re parents said He might be like—then when you suffer you don’t really know Him and so you doubt. You’re not sure He’s good. You’re not sure He really loves you. You’re not sure that you can trust Him with this situation.”
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