ALL-IN Followers of Jesus: Suffering

Bob Schwahn | Lead Pastor | March 15, 2026

Referenced Scripture:

1 Peter 4:12, Hebrews 5:7-8, Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 12:11, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Reflection Questions:

1. How are you experiencing suffering and pain in your life right now? How are you seeing people in your life experience suffering and pain?

2. We cannot read God’s favor or disfavor by assessing how troubled a person’s life is. True or False? Why?What does the Bible teach us about this statement? What have you learned from personal experience about this statement?

3. Why do some of us expect that God would/should spare His all-in followers from the suffering of this world?

4. What are some wrong beliefs or responses that can come from pain and suffering? What questions does suffering raise about God, about us, about our relationship with Him? What truths of Scripture do we need to keep in mind in order to counter these wrong beliefs and responses?

5. READ: 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

How are other believers intended to be an extension of God’s comfort to us in the midst of our pain and suffering? How have you seen God use other people to be a source of comfort for you? How have you been a source of comfort to others? Share some specific examples…

6. Why would isolation be detrimental to someone in the midst of suffering? Why can we tend toward isolation? How can we break through our tendency to isolate? What will that require of us?

7. Do you personally move toward people in suffering or tend to isolate? Why? Explain…

8. What specifically do we need from others in our suffering in order to experience comfort? What things from others can actually be unhelpful, even if offered with good motives?

9. What area of pain and suffering in your life do you need to share with someone? Who is someone in your life that needs your comfort and encouragement in the face of suffering and pain?

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