The Savior and Sorrow

The Savior and Sorrow

Excerpts from the writings and sermons of Evangelist Lester Roloff

My ministry to the sorrowing began thirty-five years ago, while I was still in Bible college. My mother called and asked me to come home and preach the funeral for our next-door neighbor’s little daughter, who had accidentally been run over by a truck and killed. “I cannot do it, Momma,” I responded. But she insisted that I come and try.

I stood there that day, a timid preacher boy, while my mother sat with the grieving mother. The Lord alone knew how much I needed His help as I literally broke apart on the inside. But at the close of the service, after sufficient grace was given, I heard our neighbor say, “If only I had the faith of Lester.” Oh, if only she knew how feeble and frail my faith truly was!

But a little faith brings ample grace. From that day until this day, through the many valleys of sorrow, I have found God’s grace altogether sufficient.

Sorrow is a universal experience for the human race. And that is why we need a universal remedy. We must look to the Savior and the Scriptures for this remedy.

Trouble is a divine invitation into the comforting arms of our Savior. The prophet Isaiah saw Jesus as a “Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). And in the great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught His disciples, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

For the Christian, sorrow is Heaven’s lubrication sys­tem to help and not to hurt—to make better instead of bitter. All of our experiences of sorrow and trouble must be interpreted in the light of two great truths: God is too good to do wrong, and He is too wise to make a mistake.

God is too good to do wrong. His character can be trusted, and He always has a purpose for our sorrow. It isn’t our sorrow that brings glory, but our faith that brings the Savior to the scene. It wasn’t the death of Lazarus that brought glory to God, but rather the words of the Savior in the cemetery at Bethany that raised Lazarus from the dead. There is no glory for God in sickness, suffering, and death—apart from the demonstration of His grace to bear, to give victory, and to give deliverance. Tears are not a blessing un­less they become telescopes through which we see the Savior (Psalm 27:13-14).

God is too wise to make a mistake. I have found that it is not the necessary sorrow, but rather the un­necessary sorrow, that weighs so heavily. Indeed, it is imaginary trouble that does the most damage. David became weary and said in his heart, “I shall now per­ish one day by the hand of Saul” (I Samuel 27:1). And yet, the truth of the matter was that David died in a ripe old age—full of years and with a completed ministry.

Bible faith will always bring you to the conclusion that our Father never makes a mistake. So many of the world’s trifles are unnecessary sorrows for the Christian. Yet so much of our time is consumed by anxieties that will prove unnecessary in the end.

God is developing us for the journey ahead. Tears and testings have always been part of my heydays and high-days with God. Great waves of blessing and refreshment have often followed nights of sorrow and heartache. I remember, years ago, when the power of God greatly visited our church after a season of great suffering. Oh, the souls that staggered feebly through our doors to find rest in Jesus during those years. But if our church had never suffered, she probably would never have saved.

Sorrow has so often become Heaven’s mechanic in the garage of life—tuning the motor for the journey ahead. I believe the wise man was right when he said, in Ecclesiastes 7:3, “Sorrow is better than laughter,” though it may come as an unwelcome friend. Each valley of sorrow has a purpose—leading us deeper into the grace that God has planned for our good.

I have found that the will of God never leads us beyond the promise of I Corinthians 10:13 and the comfort of Romans 8:28. I remember waking up one morning during an agonizing season of aban­donment. I rose from my bed only to fall to the floor and cry, “Lord, this is the end of the road.” To which He said, “It’s only the bend in the road—there’s a lot more road.” We will never rest all of our hope on the permanent pillars of God’s eternal truth until the temporary pilings have been swept away!

Our hard times can teach us. Disobedience has brought me many heartaches and bitter disappointments. But it has also brought the chastening hand of God into my life. Sometimes it is necessary for the Great Shepherd to break a leg in order to save the sheep—to teach us that obedience is better than sacrifice. Hard times don’t break us, they make us—if our relationship is right and our fellowship is sweet.

Times of sorrow reveal our priorities. When the telephone call came that my earthly father had gone to be with the Lord, I made the decision to fulfill my weekend preaching engagements before returning home for the funeral on Monday afternoon. I made this decision in the face of much misunderstanding because my dad no longer needed me. And I be­lieve he would have had me to stay and preach to the living. You will be misunderstood more for do­ing right than for doing wrong because the world understands wrong better than it does right. How quick we are to forget Christ’s call to “let the dead bury their dead” (Luke 9:60).

The funeral arrangements of a believer are his final witness in this world. I believe the funeral time ought to be a time of strengthening for Christians and an invitation to the lost to be saved. If I were to come to physical death, I would want a warm, evangelistic sermon preached, with the simplest of funeral arrangements possible. When Jesus died, He sent a Comforter to make real His presence and His Word (John 14). This should be the final testimony of every Christian.

Only faith in Jesus can sustain us in sorrow. When sorrow comes, let me suggest that you read the Bible and pray and then sing and praise and stay around God’s people. My memory goes back to my mother who was excellent in comforting others in times of sorrow. And yet, she was acquainted with grief in that her only two daughters had gone to be with the Lord.

I used to wonder when I was a boy leaving for school on a cold Monday morning, how my mother could manicure her fingernails at the old-fashioned rub board at the west porch—with the fire burning around the old wash pot and the weather so cold that sometimes the clothes would freeze on the line. And yet, she was singing, “Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care,” and “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.” After thirty-five years of serving our Savior amidst sorrow, I’ve found out what she was singing about.

Jesus truly is our example of a faith that never falters. Jesus experienced every kind of sorrow that you and I will ever face. He knew family sorrow and misunderstanding. He was acquainted with social sorrow and religious sorrow—suffering outside the gate and nailed to the cross with hammers of religion.

We are journeying toward a sorrowless city and a sorrowless future. Sorrow does not take away from— but instead adds to—the Christian’s joy. Our Savior is perfectly able to see our affliction and to hear our cry. He knows, and He cares. God is too good to do wrong, and He is too wise to make a mistake.

(copyright 2024)

Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises
P.O. Box 100
Fort Thomas, AZ 85536

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