Doorway Part 2 with Pastor Athol Barnes | 01.19.2025

Grace Point Baptist Church's Podcast

September 11, 2001. A horrific attack shook the world, affecting countless lives. It was traumatic for the survivors and those who lost loved ones. It was a doorway that everyone had to go through.

Only the Lord knows the doorways of grief and trauma that potentially await us this year.

From Successful to Suffering

The biblical figure Job had to endure terrible and painful doorways. He was blameless and upright according to Job 1:8, yet Satan was permitted to inflict terrible things on this righteous man. In all he endured, Job did not sin lose his faith in God (see Job 1:22).

Job’s friends’ slander and accuse him as they try to make sense of his suffering. In chapter 19, he tries to defend himself. Through all this, God seems to be silent and preventing Job from finding relief (see Job 19:8). It is evident that God is showing Job that the only way forward is by going through the doorway of suffering.

Suffering can be an intensely lonely time in a person’s life. Job laments that everyone has deserted him (see Job 19:13-19).

As Job is making his plea for mercy, he knows that God has allowed these awful events to happen (see Job 19:21). Job recognizes God has permitted his pain; he doesn’t give Satan any acknowledgment.

If we learn anything from the account of Job, it is a study in the sovereignty of God. We don’t know why God allows suffering, but ultimately, we know that God has promised to work it all for our good and for His glory. There are countless stories of people who have gone through the doorway of incredible pain and suffering allowing God to use their pain for His glory.

From Pain to Perspective

From verse 25, we notice Job changes his focus. It seems as if he had a prophetic revelation that went millennia ahead of his current situation and points to the redeemer, a portrait of Jesus.

What shifted? Job walked through the doorway of suffering and found that Jesus was right there. God gave Job a revelation of what is to come, the eternal and abundant life that Jesus offers.

While Job was on the inside of the door, he was experiencing excruciating physical pain, trauma and even slander. He was frozen, stuck in his pain and trauma.

But when he took his focus off his immediate situation and turned to the Lord, he walked through the doorway of trauma and found that God was already there. He was not alone; God had never left him (see Deuteronomy 31:8).

From Hurting to Healed

The promise of God’s presence is echoed throughout Scripture, culminating with the giving of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to the church.

Sometimes when we encounter suffering, we freeze, not knowing how to move forward through the door that we are facing. There are times when God seems far off; we get stuck, paralyzed by the trauma or the unknown of living beyond the current painful situation. We cannot see what healing would even look like or how to get through the doorway.

Are you dealing with trauma? Stuck on the threshold of the door, paralyzed by trauma or fear of the unknown?

When you experience trauma that was not your fault and not your choice, God invites you to work through the effect of the trauma. That is what God did for Job; He can do that for you. Healing will come as you step through the doorway by allowing God to change the effect of the trauma.

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