Preparing Believers to Suffer
Episode No. 001
Suffering is not a glitch in the Christian life—it’s part of it. In this conversation, Matt Smethurst and Ligon Duncan talk about how pastors can prepare their people to face pain with faith and endurance. They discuss what it means to view hardship through God’s providence, why the “victorious Christian life” often looks like just hanging on, and how preaching, hymns, and patient shepherding can help believers trust God when he seems silent.
Resources Mentioned:
- When Pain Is Real and God Seems Silent by Ligon Duncan
- Joni Eareckson Tada’s ministry, Joni and Friends
- When the Stars Disappear by Mark Talbot
- Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
- Bible passages; Psalm 88; Psalm 40; 2 Corinthians 4; Romans 8; Genesis 50:20
- Hymns: “How Firm a Foundation,” “Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul,” and “Afflicted Saint, to Christ Draw Near”
Transcript
Matt Smethurst serves as lead pastor of River City Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. He also cohosts and edits The Everyday Pastor podcast from The Gospel Coalition. Matt is the author of Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel (Crossway, 2025), Before You Share Your Faith: Five Ways to Be Evangelism Ready (10Publishing, 2022), Deacons: How They Serve and Strengthen the Church (Crossway, 2021), Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures for Approaching God’s Word (10Publishing, 2019), and 1–2 Thessalonians: A 12-Week Study (Crossway, 2017). He and his wife, Maghan, have five children. You can follow him on Twitter/X and Instagram.
Ligon Duncan (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary, president of RTS Jackson, and the John E. Richards professor of systematic and historical theology. He is a Board and Council member of The Gospel Coalition. His new RTS course on the theology of the Westminster Standards is now available via RTS Global, the online program of RTS. He and his wife, Anne, have two adult children.