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. And they chose to sin rather than live in perfect harmony.
God needs to show you and me that sinning leads to suffering. And because of his respect for free will he had to let Adam and Eve suffer the consequences for their sin. Just like it is today God wants you and me to see what living in sin can do. God wants you and me free from sin. That is why it is so important for him to teach you and me about sin and its nature.
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."
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?
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.
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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I really need to work on being more thankful that I am surviving my trials.
I know it’s hard to do. I have the tendency to whine first and then I realize it’s not going to make it any better by whining..lol
Hm, interesting, this helps us learn patients. I love the scripture that says he will never leave us nor forsake us.
Great post.
~Michelle
https://michellescrazybusylife.net
Yes, learning patience in the midst of suffering is hard but God will use that experience for his purpose and our good! I too love the fact that God will never leave us nor forsake us.
I needed to read this so impactful thank you so much
Your so very welcome! I am so glad it made an impact on you!
The stone becomes a diamond by grinding. Likewise, our nature needs to be cleansed from sin and passions by suffering in order to be ready to meet God.
So true! God wants us to be like Christ. And going through hard times will allow us to be molded into the likeness of Christ. Thank you for commenting!
I really appreciated the directness and simplicity of this post. This line encouraged me the most: “The end of Jobs’s story ended with many blessings and that was because he had faith that God would see him through all his struggles.” Sometimes when you are experiencing difficult suffering for a long time, you struggle to know what to “believe” for from God because God doesn’t promise to always heal or relieve the cause of your pain. But this blurb shows that we can trust God to see us through our struggles, no matter the outcome. I personally struggle with chronic Lyme disease and have been for many years now. Each day the battle starts over and the toll it takes on every aspect of life, but especially in the spiritual realm is real. I would be very blessed by prayers for healing and spiritual endurance, that I can be like Job and trust God to see me through.
Hi Olivia! I just prayed for you to have the strength each and every day to do life. To be blessed and to trust in the Lord no matter how you feel in the moment. To remember his promises when you have good or bad days. And to love you through it all. I myself struggle with anxiety and depression. Something I have had for the past 7 years. I have had to learn how to trust the Lord to help me on the bad days. It was so hard at first with all the panic attacks that I was having, it was those days I found myself in His word the most. He definantly knows how to get our attention..LOL..Just wish sometimes we didn’t have to go through struggles to be that close to HIm. Thank you so much for commenting and sharing with us your story!
Very nice read. There is always purpose in the trials we go through. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for reading my post!
Jesus told us that in this world we would have sorrows and hard times but to take heart because He has overcame the world. Because of human nature (sin) bad things happen and God is not a dictator controlling puppet strings but a loving God there to comfort us always. Good read!
It is so hard to think God wants to help us if He is allowing these bad things to happen. But you are right we cause a lot of suffering ourselves because of our sinful nature. But God is still the God of love and comfort no matter what we go through.
When we go throw sorry, grief or suffering, the 1st question we ask is why God? No one wants to experience pain, but i belive every experience in life comes to teach us a lesson. Maybe God allow suffering to draw us closer to him. He is our only hope and burden bearer.
I agree with you Kevin. I believe God allows some suffering to mold us into the people we were meant to be and in the process it allows us to get closer to Him.
This is beautifully written! life is not always a field of roses.
Thank you very much! Unfortunately, it is not all roses, but knowing God can certainly help those roses to grow in your life!
a very good read especially for those needs to understand and currently encountering trials.
Yes, I just wanted people to know that there is a purpose behind the trials we go through. And that God doesn’t want us to be suffering. If we choose to look at him and not our circumstances we can battle the trials a little better than we can doing it alone.
Definitely helpful to remember that our suffering has a purpose and is never wasted by God. Thanks for sharing with us!
I am so glad it does have a purpose!