Why does God allow suffering?

Some of us don’t understand why God allows tragedies, sickness, and war. If He is a God of love why does He allow all that suffering?

THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING

God never intended for there to be suffering in the world. Adam and Eve, the first ones at the beginning of creation, had a perfect world. But Satan was allowed to come in and tempt Adam and Eve with sin. God allowed Adam and Eve to have free will. Free will means letting us make our own decisions. And because of the free will he gives us he had to let Adam and Eve suffer the consequences for their sin. Just like it is today God allows sin but he doesn’t want us to live in sin. That is why it is so important for him to teach you and me about sin and its nature.

A key point I want you to remember is that God does not cause bad things to happen. He allows them in our lives for reasons that I can’t explain. Maybe these trials are to teach us something. Or bring us closer to him. Ethier way the sin of this world and our enemy the devil cause the bad things to happen, not God. 

And to capitalize on this point, in John chapter 9 Jesus talks to his disciples about a man who was blind from birth. The disciples questioned why he was blind. And Jesus responded, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

In the Life Application Study Bible it says that Christ used this man’s suffering to teach about faith and to glorify God. If God took suffering away whenever we asked, we would follow him for comfort and convenience, not out of love and devotion. Regardless for the reasons for our suffering, Jesus has the power to help us deal with it. When you suffer try not to ask, “Why?” Instead, ask God to give you strength for the trial and a different perspective on what is happening.

GODS ULTIMATE PURPOSE FOR YOU

God’s ultimate purpose for you is to become like him. And in order to grow more like our God, you will need to go through trials. Trials will prune and cut the bad out of your life. They will help you become who God really wants you to be.

Romans 5: 3-4 (ERV) says, "And we are also happy with the troubles we have. Why are we happy with the troubles? Because we know that these troubles make us more patient. And this patience is proof that we are strong. And this proof gives us hope. And this hope will never disappoint us."

He also wants you to be his friend. He created you for himself. He created you to live in peace and harmony with him. 

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT)

TRIALS COME WITH A PURPOSE AND A REWARD

Your purpose is in James 1:2-4 (ERV) which says this, “My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of troubles. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be all that God wants you to be.

And your reward is in James 1: 12 (ERV) which says, ” Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial after they have proved their faith, God will give them the reward of eternal life. God promised this to all who love him.

A MYSTERY TO SUFFERING

There is a mystery to some suffering. You may not know the answer and you may never know this side of heaven.

For example when I would hire help in the restaurant. I would hire them and would train them and then they would turn around and quit on me within a week. I could never understand why God would allow me to have to go through training them for them to just leave me.

Another example would be when my mom got cancer twice within 10 years of each other. Why did she have to go through that twice? Wasn’t once enough? Why do we even have cancer in the first place?

There are many people who have suffered far worse than those things I mentioned. And they may never know why. But part of this journey you have with the Lord is learning to rely on him and not yourself. The burdens of this world can not be handled with just you alone. You need God’s help and God says he will never leave you. That he will save you from your struggles. You just need to have complete faith and trust in Him.

JOB’S STORY OF SUFFERING

This reminds me of the story of Job. When Jobs’s wife was questioning Job about all the bad things that were happening to him. She asked him “Are you still holding on to your faith? Why don’t you curse God and die!” Job then answered, “You sound like one of those fools on the street corner! How can we accept all the good things that God gives us and not accept the bad?”

Job has got a point. Why do we accept the good and not the bad? Why do we cry out when bad stuff happens instead of accepting them and asking God to help us go through the struggles.

The end of Jobs’ story ended with many blessings and that was because he had faith that God would see him through all his struggles.

WORSHIPING THE LORD WHEN YOU SUFFER

As Christians, we should look at the suffering as a time to worship the Lord.

Did I just say worship? I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound like something I would want to be doing if I was suffering.

But if you think about it for a minute it makes sense to worship Him. Worshiping Him will bring peace to your heart and help you to feel better about the situation. Now I am not saying that you still won’t be disappointed or hurt. But you can still worship Him and feel sad. God can change those feelings within you. And you will go from feeling sad and hurt to feeling at peace.

SUFFERING CAN BE A TOOL

You can also look at it as a tool to help others when they are going through suffering because you have been through it.

2 Corinthians 1:4 (NLT) says, " He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.  When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."

People need to see God at work. And there is no better way than to show them through your trials. God never promised this life on earth would be easy. But he did promise that he would be there for you and that he would never leave you.

CONCLUSION

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