Into Each Life Some Rain . . .

Scripture

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

John 16:33 KJV

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Big idea

Summary

Graham challenges the popular assumption, reinforced by some prosperity-focused teaching, that faithful Christians should expect ease, health, and success as evidence of God's favor. He points to the long list of tortured, exiled, and homeless believers described in Hebrews and to contemporary examples of faithful people living with serious physical limitations, arguing that bodily health and comfort have never been the true measure of genuine discipleship, and that some of the most spiritually fruitful lives he has personally known belonged to people carrying real physical hardship. He defines discipleship as costly, active following rather than casual admiration or occasional churchgoing, noting that many of Jesus's own followers walked away once He made clear that following Him would require real, ongoing sacrifice rather than mere enthusiasm for His teaching.

He then widens the idea of suffering beyond dramatic persecution to the everyday costs of conviction, such as losing a job over a matter of principle, being mocked as a fanatic by friends or family, or being socially excluded because of one's faith, insisting throughout that faithfulness rather than popularity or worldly success is the real Christian calling. He warns that Christian media and public ministry can be tempted to soften the message to keep audiences comfortable, a compromise he says he has personally resisted. He illustrates costly discipleship through the story of a young German pastor executed for his resistance to the Nazi regime, and through Moses's willingness to leave behind the comforts and status of Egypt, framing genuine faith as always a choice between Christ and something else rather than an attempt to comfortably have both at once.

Graham then tells the story of a woman severely disfigured in a fiery car accident, who found Christ during her long and painful recovery and eventually turned her own suffering into a ministry of encouragement to others facing similar trials. He carefully distinguishes authentic cross-bearing from manufactured self-pity or exaggerated religious austerity, warning against wearing suffering as a badge of honor for minor complaints, and noting that Scripture never celebrates suffering that we deliberately bring upon ourselves through carelessness or self-punishment. He closes the chapter with examples of Christians throughout history and today who suffered greatly, sometimes fatally, for their faith, arguing that such suffering, endured for Christ, is never ultimately meaningless, and that Christ's promise to His followers was always His presence in the midst of trouble, not exemption from it.

Key points

• Physical health and worldly success have never been the biblical measure of genuine discipleship.
• True discipleship, as Jesus described it, has always carried real and sometimes severe costs.
• Everyday faithfulness at work, in relationships, and under social pressure can carry its own quiet form of suffering.
• Manufactured suffering, such as exaggerated self-denial or self-pity over minor complaints, is not the same as authentically bearing one's cross.
• Christ's promise to His followers was His presence in the midst of trouble, not exemption from trouble itself.
• Suffering endured for one's faith, historically and today, is never ultimately wasted.

Illustrations & stories

• A woman with severe paralysis and very limited use of her arms is presented as someone whose physical limitations became an unlikely platform for reaching millions with a message of God's love.
• A young German pastor executed by the Nazi regime for his resistance sends a final message calling his death 'the end, but also the beginning.'
• A woman named Gretchen survives a fiery drunk-driving accident that kills her mother and permanently disfigures her; during her long recovery she encounters a televised evangelistic message, commits her life to Christ, and later describes her greatest joy as knowing nothing that happens to her is an accident.
• A former concentration-camp prisoner, later given a comfortable home by supporters, tells a friend that God was just as good to her during her years of imprisonment as He is now.
• A famous missionary explorer, returning home with a body ravaged by disease and a lion attack after decades of hardship overseas, credits Christ's promise of constant presence as what sustained him through it all.

Notable line

Jimmy, God was good when I was in Ravensbruk, too

Billy Graham Hope for the Troubled Heart, ch. 3, a former camp prisoner's reply to a friend

For reflection and discussion

1. Graham argues that faithfulness, not success, is the true Christian calling. Where in your own life might you be measuring yourself by success rather than faithfulness?
2. Gretchen's disfiguring accident eventually became the doorway to her ministry. Has any hardship in your life unexpectedly become a source of encouragement to others?
3. One survivor in this chapter insisted God was equally good to her in captivity as in comfort. Do you believe that about your own hardest seasons? Why or why not?
4. What is the difference, in practical terms, between genuinely bearing a 'cross' for Christ and simply feeling sorry for yourself?
5. Jesus promised His presence in trouble rather than removal from it. How does that shape what you actually pray for when facing hardship?