ABSTRACT: Sport and competition can easily arouse pride, insecurity, envy, and malice. Yet they also can afford opportunities to express a healthy, deeply human inclination to play. Play finds its roots in God himself, whose creation reflects not only exactness but exuberance. He created humans in his image to reflect, in part, his playful, non-utilitarian creativity. More than that, the saving presence of God often inspires expressions of play such as singing, leaping, dancing, and merrymaking. Christians play well in the midst of a broken world when they soberly acknowledge the reality of sin and sorrow, while at the same time remembering that Christ’s kingdom of joy is on the way.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Erik Thoennes, professor and chair of theology at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, to offer a brief theology of play.

Western culture views sport in two drastically different ways. One has preserved within sport the healthy, joyful expression of the deep human inclination to play; the other has locked into a utilitarian understanding of sport that squelches play and its perspective-giving power. One appreciates the actual process of playing a sport; the other has sadly turned sport into an expression of human pride, insecurity, envy, and malice. As Christians, what will keep us from turning sport into something ugly rather than beautiful?

Sport is playful competition, or you could also call it competitive play. At the heart of a healthy understanding of sport is the proper balance between competition and play. To that end, a robust appreciation of play is sure to help. Among the many factors we could consider in answering the question of what it means for Christians to play the way God intends, in this essay I want to consider the necessity of keeping play in competitive sport for the glory of God. The main question I want to answer is, How does play help us to fulfill our created purpose in this beautiful yet tragically fallen world? First, we will briefly define play. We then will look at play in the Bible. Finally, we will consider play in light of God’s purpose in creation, humanity, and salvation history.

Defining Play

We can define play as a fun, imaginative, non-compulsory, non-utilitarian activity filled with creative spontaneity and humor, which gives perspective, diversion, and rest from the necessary work of daily life.1 In light of God’s sovereignty and faithful love, play for the Christian should demonstrate and encourage hope, delight, gratitude, and celebration.

Play and fun go hand in hand.2 One cannot truly play without a sense of good-natured humor and fun that at times invokes deep laughter. Play has the potential to totally absorb the player. Fun need not be frivolous, however. The sacred should never be trivialized by making fun a major priority, but freed slaves are inclined to sing, and play and fun are byproducts of expressing one’s freedom. Although fun is a necessary part of the definition of play, play is not the opposite of seriousness and can be very serious indeed.

Another aspect of play is that it is non-compulsory. Play must express freedom and therefore cannot be imposed on anyone. Humans are created to exercise freedom — and indeed, imposed circumstances often spark playful expressions of freedom.

“The value of play is elusive; as soon as you dwell on the pragmatics of it, it ceases to be play.”

Play is also fundamentally non-utilitarian. The pragmatic results of play must necessarily fade to the background, to an almost subconscious level, lest the pure playfulness of play be lost. Play may lead to accomplishing goals but does not depend on it, and it most certainly has the potential of accomplishing much if it is allowed to be more than merely a means to an end. The value of play is elusive; as soon as you dwell on the pragmatics of it, it ceases to be play.

True play includes imagination, creativity, and spontaneity. To play means entering a world of make-believe where the players act as if the agreed-upon rules, boundaries, and goals really matter and exist. This has parallels in the Christian life in that the exercise of faith and hope require a kind of imagination. While Christian faith is not based in a fictitious world of make-believe, it does require creatively imagining something God has promised in order to trust in him. Living with faith and hope leads to the kind of joyful discipleship God requires of his people.

Finally, play provides needed perspective, diversion, and rest. Like the arts, play can afford “counter-environments”3 that provide freedom from dwelling on the daily difficulties of life in a fallen world. Play should not serve to anesthetize Christians to life’s burdens, preventing them from engaging those burdens wholeheartedly; rather, it should provide a needed, hopeful Sabbath from their relentless presence.

Play and Competition

The inherent tension between competition and play does not mean they are unable to fruitfully coexist. Competition can increase the potential for true play, and play has the potential to heighten the enjoyment of competition. Sport requires a commitment to an imaginary world where the participants agree to act as though the made-up parameters of space, time, and the rules of the game really exist and matter. This is why we despise a spoilsport more than a cheat. The cheat acts as if the rules exist, even though he is trying to break them, but the spoilsport breaks out of the commitment to the imaginary world of play by scoffing at the very existence of the world that the game requires.

Competition intensifies the participants’ commitment to the world of make-believe where play thrives. Play keeps the competitor from losing perspective and seeing the final score as more important than playing the game.

Serious Play

Christians are commanded to live carefully and wisely and to make the most of the time we have “because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16). Stewarding our time wisely and seeking eternal rewards should lead to a sense of peaceful urgency because the time we have is short (Psalm 32:6; Romans 13:11–13). We may think, then, that the Christian life affords no place for activities that seem so unessential as sport, play, and recreation. Certainly, for a Christian, play should never have a trivializing effect on life. God and life are not to be trifled with, and play in this sense has no place in the Christian life. If play serves merely to divert rather than to give hopeful perspective, it can actually prevent serious transformative engagement with a world badly in need of redemption.

“Play can serve to remind those who are burdened and heavy laden that there is rest and restoration on the way.”

An eternal perspective, however, should lead to both diligent, earnest engagement with gospel ministry and restful playfulness as we trust in the God who knows the beginning from the end. The sovereign grace of God frees Christians to seriously play even in the midst of the suffering all around us in this fallen world. Paradoxically, there is a vital connection between suffering and play. Those who most recognize the difficulty of life in a fallen world are often able to play and laugh best. Play and playfulness can serve to remind those who are burdened and heavy laden that there is rest and restoration on the way. These moments of emancipation can remind the faithful of the ultimate liberation coming when God makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).

Play in the Bible

The Bible never explicitly addresses play. The Bible is a mostly serious book that seeks to pull the reader from his sinful, God-ignoring sloth and distraction to an earnest pursuit of his Creator and then to holy living. But the seriousness in the Bible often sets the stage for the unbridled joy of knowing God — joy that is often expressed in playful exuberance. Most of the elements of our working definition of play — fun, free, spontaneous, creative, non-utilitarian — are found throughout Scripture, especially in response to the liberating, saving presence of God himself. This sense of play, it seems, has its origin in God himself.

Biblical words translated as a variation of “play” (sachaq, shaa, and raqad in the Old Testament, paizo in the New Testament) can also carry meanings of amusement, merrymaking, celebration, laughter, sport, delight, mocking, dancing, frolicking, leaping, and prancing. The most common kind of play in the Bible is the playing of instruments. Music, depending on the kind, can be a profoundly playful expression. Humans, animals, and creation itself are portrayed as having an indelible playfulness woven into them.

To understand play in the Bible, as we shall see, we also need to appreciate related concepts such as laughter, Sabbath, feasts, festivals, childlikeness, and music. These activities are impossible to do well apart from serious play. So, our study of play in the Bible will not be limited to passages where words translated play occur. Rather, we will focus on examples where main components of play are present. These occur most often when God’s presence, grace, and glory are most evident to his covenant people.

Playful God

God created the universe with amazing order. He also guides our lives in his wise providence, which assures us that nothing happens apart from his careful, perfect plan, which culminates in his glory and our good (Romans 8:28). But in the midst of God’s wise ordering of the universe and perfect execution of his purposes, he works with a creative, playful extravagance.

This is evident in both the creation itself and God’s interaction with it. The description of God’s creative activity in Psalm 104, for instance, gives us a picture not only of God’s awesome power and wisdom, but also of his abundant playfulness in his creative work — gushing springs, singing birds, wine that gladdens hearts, and abundantly watered trees all point to a fabulous display of lavish divine activity. As the psalmist describes the immense and powerful sea, the greatest sea creature of all, Leviathan, is said to have been formed by God “to play in it” (Psalm 104:26). This verse may even imply that God himself is at play with Leviathan in the seas he has created!4

The overwhelming artistic variety we see in creation indicates that there is not only an intelligent designer behind it, but also a playful artist. The sheer variety of tastes, colors, sounds, textures, and shapes in creation indicates anything but pure utilitarian motivation by its Creator. God is both skillful architect and creative artist. He does nothing based in need (Acts 17:24–25; Psalm 50:9–12), so creation, like play, is “meaningful but not necessary.”5 In creating and sustaining everything, and in accomplishing redemption, God’s pleasure and glory are his primary motives (Isaiah 43:7; Matthew 10:26; Luke 11:21; Ephesians 1:5, 9, 11–12). Creation is God at play, “a play of his groundless and inscrutable wisdom.”6 Creation, and life itself, become a source of pleasure and delight for those who delight in the Creator and the work of his hands.

We get glimpses of the playfulness of God also in Christ’s teaching, which often includes verbal sparring. Jesus’s parables frequently contain humorous exaggeration (the beam in the hypocrite’s eye, Matthew 7:5), word play (Peter’s new nickname, Matthew 16:18), and irony (asking whether the people who went to see John the Baptist had gone out to see someone “in soft clothing,” Matthew 11:8).

Play and the Coming Kingdom

The most stirring images of play in the Bible occur in attempts to express the joy and freedom experienced in the coming kingdom of God. One of the most vivid of these images appears in Zechariah 8:5: “The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.” God gives his people a beautiful scene of the eschaton to look forward to: children playing with uninhibited, unhindered freedom. Isaiah 11:8–9 offers a similar picture of the freedom to be found in the heavenly city. Fearless, childlike play, no longer inhibited by the effects of sin and the curse, is a key metaphor of Christ’s kingdom. Similar images of playful celebration and merrymaking abound in other prophetic glimpses of what the New Jerusalem brings (for example, Jeremiah 30:18–19; 31:4, 13–14).

“Fearless, childlike play, no longer inhibited by the effects of sin and the curse, is a key metaphor of Christ’s kingdom.”

One of the tenderest pictures of God’s deep care for his people is found in his promise of a restored Jerusalem. He likens it to the care of a compassionate mother for her little baby (Isaiah 66:12). In the restoration, God provides the security and freedom a child experiences while playfully dandled on her mother’s knee. These images call to mind Jesus holding up a child as the prototype of the kind of person to whom the kingdom of God belongs (Matthew 19:14). Jesus calls his followers to an attitude of childlike dependence and trust in God, and this kind of trust invariably leads to childlike play as we see God’s fulfilled covenant promises.

Playful, spontaneous exuberance sparked by God’s presence and blessing is also vividly displayed in David’s joyful worship when the ark of the covenant was returned from the Philistines. David looks downright childlike as he celebrates the symbol of God’s abiding presence reentering Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:5, 14, 20–22). David’s celebration epitomizes key elements of our definition of play. His enthusiastic, exuberant dancing and leaping was free, creative, fun, and non-utilitarian, and it demonstrated and encouraged hope, delight, gratitude, and celebration.

David’s playful dancing and leaping mirrors other responses of joy over God’s restoring power and presence (Psalm 87:7; 114:4; Isaiah 35:6; Malachi 4:2; Jeremiah 31:4, 13; Luke 1:44; 6:23; Acts 3:8). One would be hard pressed to think of a less practical, less constrained, less mandatory, less boring activity than leaping and dancing. This is the exuberant response of pardoned prisoners.

Those who fail to understand God’s astounding grace have no appreciation for this sort of impractical, unrestrained worship. The woman in Luke 7 dismissed pharisaical decorum when she kissed Jesus’s feet and used her tears and hair to anoint his feet with oil. She stands as a vivid and powerful picture of a sinner who understood grace (Luke 7:36–50). This same disposition was displayed by the woman who “wasted” expensive ointment anointing Jesus. She did a “beautiful thing” to Jesus in preparation for his burial and realized that unrestrained appreciation was warranted (Mark 14:3–9). His disciples failed to have her perspective at this moment, but most of them would welcome it once the Author of life left an empty tomb behind.

Sabbath and Rest

Beyond explicit play-oriented passages, Sabbath observance in the Bible helps us understand the value of play. Sabbath-keeping forced God’s people to disengage from providing for themselves and remember the ultimate source of their daily bread. The Creator and Sustainer built a mandatory rest into each week to get his people to put their efforts at survival into perspective. Even more radically, God instituted the Sabbath when his people were in the wilderness, where failure to fend for yourself could mean death. Resting in God’s sufficiency and power wars against a human-centered view of life and demands we surrender any vestige of self-sufficiency.

Similarly, Isaiah rebukes Israel and seeks to free them from thinking their efforts were the ultimate source of their protection (Isaiah 41:13–14). In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also seeks to quell the pride that leads to anxiety about our provision (Matthew 6:25–33). In this passage, Jesus is saying, “How dare you worry? Who do you think you are — the sovereign God?” James also corrects a heightened view of human planning by comparing it to God’s comprehensive sovereignty (James 4:13–17).

None of these exhortations is intended to undercut human effort, attentiveness, passion, diligence, or responsibility. Isaiah, Jesus, and James all worked extremely hard and took their human decisions and activity seriously. Human activity, however, must always be subservient to the overarching plan and power of God. God calls us to the freedom and Sabbath rest that lead to childlike dependence, trust, and holy play.

Hopeful Play

How can we ever justify playing when hunger and abortion kill millions of children every year and wars rage around the globe? Without sober acknowledgment of sin, play can become a mere distraction or obsession. But because of God’s sovereign power to bring a wonderful conclusion to all of the ambiguities and suffering in life (Romans 8:28), the Christian has hope and can truly play in righteous measure.

A game’s clear, definitive result is part of its appeal. The 24-hour news cycle reveals never-ending political, national, international, interpersonal, and religious conflicts. It is no wonder many readers turn first to the sports section to discover yesterday’s results. While the clear resolution sport offers is part of its draw, ironically, interest in play and sport rests largely on the uncertainty of the final outcome. We lose interest in games if the outcome is assured before the game starts. This is why parity in sports leagues is vital to maintaining interest. There must be a good measure of uncertainty as to what will transpire and what the end result will be. The more tension created by this uncertainty, the more engaged we become with the game.

This creative, spontaneous uncertainty is central to the definition of play and at the heart of the intrigue of sport. It also mirrors the tension at the heart of the drama of human history. The spontaneous uncertainty with an eventual ending inherent in play reflects the unfolding story of our lives. Like games, our lives are filled with uncertainties that lead to one final result. Play can equip a person to deal with uncertainties on the way to the conclusion. For a Christian, the promised good conclusion to the difficulty of life in a fallen world brings a deep enjoyment of play as it dramatizes a life that ends well.

Hope of the Cross

God’s redeeming power that evokes play and laughter from believers is seen most powerfully in the “folly” of the redemptive work of Christ (1 Corinthians 1–2). The juxtaposing ironies in his life are many: the glorious Creator becomes a baby, the Creator of all beauty has nothing in his appearance to attract us to him, the source of all joy becomes the man of sorrows, the Holy One is cursed and crucified. His life conjures images of a man chasing an impossible dream, except Jesus doesn’t remain dead at the end — and all our hopes and dreams come true in him.

“When play is grounded in the hope of the gospel, it can become one of life’s greatest and most encouraging pleasures.”

The gospel leads to play, for it expresses our ability to transcend the brokenness of our world. We momentarily see the human predicament as not only daunting but fixable (Romans 8:20–22). The Christian worldview recognizes the relentless difficulty of life in our cursed world, but it also recognizes that the world is being redeemed by the one who created and cursed it. So we have hope, and play, in the midst of our brokenness. “He suffered that we may laugh again. . . . In the cross of Christ God is taking man dead-seriously so that he may open up for him the happy freedom of Easter.”7 Without hope, play becomes merely a diversion from life’s troubles rather than a hopeful expression of the freedom to come in the eschaton. When play is an end in itself, it can become a frivolous idol that keeps us from dealing with the human predicament. When play is grounded in the hope of the gospel, it can become one of life’s greatest and most encouraging pleasures.

Heaven: The Play of Eternity

Christian play is a response of those who know God as their Father — who know that he has overcome the world and that he loves to abundantly share the spoils of this victory with his children. God’s saving power leads to great joy among God’s people (Psalm 126:2). This joy is possible even when life is brutal (Luke 6:21). Tears and empty stomachs are not the whole story. God will bring ultimate healing one day.

Christian play should see suffering for what it is, but always through the eyes of cross-centered hope. Following Jesus turns pain into glory, confusion into wonder, sin into redemption, Good Friday into Easter Sunday. God invites us to come to him as his free, forgiven, secure children. To be sure, we are to approach our holy God with healthy fear and hearts broken by our broken world, but God’s people are also called to rejoice, sing, play, and laugh because we know that the owner of all things is working out his perfect plan, which ends with a wedding banquet and perfect resolution and rest. This sure hope in God’s sovereign power and loving-kindness enables us to play with abandon, even before the great wedding banquet begins.

Audio Transcript

Welcome back to the podcast. Well, coming up soon — I believe on Wednesday of next week — as we read the Bible together, we read the first section of Matthew 23, where Jesus confronts the religious rulers of his day. And to anticipate that text — which is itself loaded with a full day’s worth of reflection — we have a cluster of thoughts and questions from a listener named Jim who lives just outside of Nashville.

“Pastor John, hello to you. I’m a bi-vocational elder and sometime preacher at my little church,” Jim writes. “I have always been drawn to Jesus’s words about the Pharisees in Matthew 23:1–5. The text is instructive to me about preaching and personal holiness. It seems to suggest at least four things.

“(1) Hypocrites can preach truth. Jesus says these Pharisees are truth-tellers; therefore, ‘observe whatever they tell you’ (verse 3). That line is startling. There’s an obligation to obey the truth of what they get right, even though they, the Pharisees, are hypocrites. Does that hold true today? Irrespective of whether we know a preacher is truly obedient in private, we receive the truth of their preached words. It also seems to apply to men who are later disqualified for sin, and people are left wondering about all the truth they learned from that preacher over the years.

“(2) It seems to speak to a preacher’s assurance. It suggests that preachers who preach truth well do not find in that homiletical skill the grounds of their personal assurance if their private life does not measure up. Is that true?

“(3) It speaks to the calling of pastors to preach holiness. In verse 4, it seems the calling of others into personal holiness and living out personal holiness go together for a preacher. Would this make a preacher hesitant to preach holiness because his life doesn’t measure up in private? How far does his life need to measure up until he’s a hypocrite? Do I repent for myself every time I call for holiness from the pulpit? These questions haunt me, a preacher with remaining sin within me.

“(4) It speaks to all our service. If we serve only so others see us serving, that service is rendered vain (verse 5).

“Many thoughts and questions intertwine for me over this text. What do I get right and wrong on Matthew 23:1–5?”

Well, first of all, I just commend Jim for reflecting so profoundly on this text.

Let me give quick, short answers to those four questions — especially the last one, I think, was more of a comment — and then step back and see how those words of Jesus are so relevant for all of us.

Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees

Here are the words from Jesus. Jesus said to his disciples,

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. (Matthew 23:2–5)

1. Hypocrites’ Teaching

So, the first question Jim asks is, What should we do with the true teaching of hypocrites — preachers who preach true things and live a double life, denying by their private lives what they preach in public? There are three responses to that.

First, when duplicity is discovered in a pastor, the pastor should be removed from his service, according to the qualifications given for the elders in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–16.

Second, truth is truth even if a donkey or a heretic or the devil himself speaks it, just as when the demons called out to Jesus, “[We] know who you are — the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). Then Jesus wouldn’t let them talk, it says in Mark 1:34, “because they knew him.” They got part of the truth right, but they hated it. So, we must not make a preacher’s sins the only measuring rod of all that he teaches. He may say true things and hate them, and we should believe the true things and not hate them.

That doesn’t mean, by the way, that Jesus’s words about knowing them by their fruits (Matthew 7:20) are wrong, because there is always plenty about a false teacher that is false and misleading and needs to be recognized — even if many of his doctrinal sentences are true.

Third response to that first question: no, you do not have to assume that, when a pastor is discovered to be guilty of ministry-disqualifying sin, you need to reject all the truth that he’s taught you over the years. You don’t have to go back and say, “Well, I guess everything he taught me for all those years was false.” You don’t have to do that.

“Let us put to death immediately every temptation to love the praise of man.”

However, it will always be good to reassess that teaching in retrospect and see if there were omissions or imbalances in it — true as it was — that we can see in retrospect were owing to his hidden sin. He skipped things, he didn’t say certain things, and he rode this hobbyhorse all the time. And you see now in retrospect why he was skipping them, why he was riding his hobbyhorse.

That’s my response to his first question.

2. Oratory and Assurance

Second, he asks how the preaching gifts (the skills) of a pastor relate to his assurance. Now, part of the answer is that no public rhetorical skills can atone for private reprehensible sins. It is possible to be a great orator and a lost sinner. The blood of Jesus and its effect in our holiness is the source of our assurance, not our rhetorical skills. Which means, yes, that true, godly, humble, Christ-exalting preaching will be part of that holiness — and thus, in that sense, part of a pastor’s assurance.

3. Preaching Holiness

The third question Jim asks is, How holy do you have to be to preach holiness? That’s a good question. The way I would answer would be this: not perfect and not careless. Or to say it another way, humbly penitent for remaining failings but vigilant to gouge out your eye rather than sin and bring the gospel and your church into disrepute. According to 1 Timothy 4:15, your people need to see you passionate in your pursuit of holiness.

4. Serving for Praise

And the fourth question Jim asks is, If we serve to get the praise of man, is our service ruined before God? And the answer is yes, our service is ruined if we live for the praise of men.

So, those are my brief answers to the questions, but let’s step back and see how these words of Jesus relate to all of us.

Practice of Pharisees

I think it’s always helpful when you see a text like this to break it down into pieces, and then see how the pieces relate to each other. So, there are three steps that I see in Jesus’s exposure of the scribes and Pharisees.

One, they use the truth to cover their own sin. It says, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat” — that is, they teach what the truth of the law of God says — “so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice” (Matthew 23:2–3). So, they cover their non-practice with teaching Moses’s law. They use truth to cover sin.

Two, they do not accompany that teaching with any God-dependent doctrine of enabling grace. They don’t teach people how to avail themselves of God’s grace to help them obey. They just leave people with burdens — heavy, weighty, crushing burdens of God’s commands — to do with no help at all. They won’t lift a finger to help people obey. “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” (Matthew 23:4). There’s no doctrine of sanctifying, enabling, empowering grace.

And the third step in exposing these rascals is that they love the praise of man more than God or his truth. That’s the deep, deep desire, pleasure, treasure of their lives. It’s the governing principle of their lives. “They do all their deeds to be seen by others” (Matthew 23:5).

Fruit from a Poisoned Root

Now, here’s the key question: How do those three indictments relate to each other? Here’s what I would suggest, and this is how they become so relevant for all of us. I’m going to go backward and show how they build.

Number one, Jesus has put his finger on the deep desire of their lives — the deep love of their lives. What do they love? What do they desire? What’s the passion and the treasure of their lives that’s driving their decisions, their behaviors? And the answer is the praise of man. They taste how delicious is the pleasure of self-exaltation that comes through other people’s praise. That’s number one.

Number two, now we move backward (or forward) toward the next effect of that. What is the effect of loving the praise of man on the doctrine of grace in living a godly life? And the answer is that it cancels grace. Grace that enables a person to obey God’s law means we don’t get the praise — God does. Grace does. Grace is a breaking gift; it’s a humbling gift. They cannot embrace God-exalting grace because it contradicts their self-exalting love of human praise. So, they load men with burdens of duty and tell them, in essence, “Be self-sufficient like us” — implying that you’ll get some praise for your moral achievement like we get praise for our moral achievement.

And then finally, if they love the praise of man, and that keeps them from embracing God’s enabling grace for obedience, what do they do with truth, the truth of Moses’s law, when they sit on Moses’s seat? And the answer is that they don’t love the truth; they use the truth. Bible words become a cloak for hidden sin. They turn Moses’s seat into a place where they get human praise.

That is a warning to all of us, not just pastors. Let us, all of us, put to death immediately every temptation to love the praise of man. Instead, let us love the Christ-exalting, self-humbling grace of God through Jesus Christ to help us do what we need to do, and then let us use truth to stoke the fires of love for God and love for people.

When I’m crying out, “How long, O Lord?” my pain has already outlasted my patience. I want deliverance — now. Today. To me, “How long, O Lord?” means “Lord, this trial has outstayed its welcome. Please fix it and restore me right away.”

Maybe you’ve felt that way too.

Yet even when our suffering feels endless, God knows exactly how long it will really last. It has an end date, an exact day and time predetermined by God. My pain will not last forever; it is not random or indeterminate. God has fixed all the details of this trial and will give me everything I need to endure it.

No Longer Than Necessary

The truth that all my suffering has an end date buoyed me years ago, when my life was in turmoil. Every day, the weight of my problems seemed heavier; tears would well up without warning. I saw no way out, and I wondered how much longer the pain would continue — and whether I could hold out until then.

Then one day I heard a speaker on the radio quote Warren Wiersbe, who said, “When God puts his own people into the furnace, he keeps his eye on the clock and his hand on the thermostat. He knows how long and how much” (Bible Exposition Commentary, 3:51).

God knows how long and how much. Those words brought indescribable relief. He knew how intense the furnace was, and he knew when relief would come. The furnace wouldn’t be hotter or longer than was necessary.

Every Minute Is His

Throughout Scripture, we see God predetermine the length of his people’s suffering. Before Abraham had children, God told him that his offspring would be enslaved in a foreign land, “afflicted for four hundred years” (Genesis 15:13), after which we know God delivered the Israelites through Moses. God told Jeremiah that the Israelites would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11), and then a remnant was brought back. Jesus told the church of Smyrna that they would have ten days of tribulation, but not to fear their suffering (Revelation 2:10). In each case, the adversity was both necessary and purposeful.

We often think of time so differently, certain that if God has promised to deliver us, it should happen right away. Perhaps people in the Bible felt that way too: Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac, Moses waited 40 years in the wilderness, David waited 15 years before becoming king. God’s timetable rarely coincides with ours.

Yet even when our deliverance seems slow, we can be certain that it is not delayed. Our rescue will not and cannot be too late, for every minute of our suffering has been appointed (Habakkuk 2:3).

In Pain on Purpose

Recognizing that our suffering is for a limited time, and that it is necessary, has radically shifted my perspective while in pain. Knowing there is a purpose, a purpose intended for my good (Romans 8:28), has helped me to endure the hardest of days. My faith will be purer, stronger, and more genuine after going through the fire, and that benefit will carry into heaven, resulting in praise, honor, and glory (1 Peter 1:6–7; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:18). My suffering will not be wasted.

And every detail is known to God, who has predetermined how far each trial will go and every blessing I will gain as a result. As Charles Spurgeon said,

In all sickness, the Lord saith to the waves of pain, “Hitherto shall ye go, but no further.” His fixed purpose is not the destruction, but the instruction of his people.

The limit is encouragingly comprehensive. The God of providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition, and effects of all our sicknesses; each throb is decreed, each sleepless hour predestinated, each relapse ordained, each depression of spirit foreknown, and each sanctifying result eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes the ordaining hand of him who numbers the hairs of our head.

This limit is wisely adjusted to our strength, to the end designed, and to the grace apportioned. . . . The limit is tenderly appointed. The knife of the heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. (Morning and Evening, August 17)

In Christ, the waves of our pain have a limit, a boundary that God has set. And the pain itself is purposed for our gain, to teach us and to bless us. While suffering hardly feels anything like a blessing in the moment, knowing that every ounce of my pain has been predetermined and weighed, adjusted to my strength, tenderly appointed and absolutely necessary, has helped me withstand it. Though I do not and cannot know all the reasons that my suffering has been necessary, I can trust that every trial is working for my benefit.

There Is Still Today

Though we know that the end is already determined, and each morning brings us one day closer to that end, there is still today, looming ahead with pain and suffering. How do we make it through today?

First, we can remember that God will prove himself far better than we fear; he will do far more in this trial than we can imagine. There will be blessings along the way — every single day, without exception — and God will give us comfort and signs of his love. We just need to look for them.

Then we can resolve to live one day at a time — to stop thinking about tomorrow and the difficulties it may bring, to stop anticipating tomorrow’s struggles, wondering how we will manage. Today’s troubles are enough. Tomorrow may bring incredible deliverance, a reversal of our pain and loss. Our fears and worries could be needless, as God may give us miraculous rescue.

“Even when our deliverance seems slow, we can be certain that it is not delayed.”

Or tomorrow may bring deeper suffering and, with it, deeper grace. Either could be true, as none of us knows what tomorrow will bring. What we have is today. God gives us grace for today. God provides for our needs today. God grants strength for today. And he will continue to give us the strength that we need, just as he has promised: “As your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). Nothing we endure can outlast or outstrip the grace of God.

Hunt for Grace

After all, his grace surrounds us even now, even as we suffer. Philip B. Power, a pastor in the 1800s whose public ministry was cut short due to ill health, said,

God will not send trial without the intention of blessing; therefore, where the trial is great, we may be sure that the blessing intended is great also. If the trial were to be allowed to lengthen itself out beyond the possibility of fruit bearing, it would become simply an evil, an objectless infliction. Therefore, say to yourself, “This day’s trial could not be spared. God has still further blessing in store for me.” (A Book of Comfort for Those in Sickness, 80)

Look for the blessing. Look for God’s hand. Look for his comfort. They are all there. We can be certain that even when we’re overwhelmed and crying out for relief, God has something wonderful in store for us. He will not leave us desolate in our suffering — ever. He brings new mercies every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23). We may not know what the day will bring, but we do know that it will bring God’s comfort and presence. It cannot but be so.

So, if you are feeling overwhelmed by your suffering, crying out to God, “How long, O Lord?” be assured that he knows exactly how long. He will not let you suffer one minute beyond what is necessary and never delays his deliverance for you. God is never cruel.

And today, in your suffering, God’s grace will give you everything you need to endure it, as well as perfectly timed blessings in your endurance. You may not know when your pain will end, but you can be assured that the end has already been appointed, and the result will always be for your good.