Why Does God Allow Suffering?
This particular question has led many to struggle with their faith in Christ.
Unfortunately, our world is sinful. We face many tragedies each day, such as cancer, diseases of various kinds. Murder, death, child abuse.. and the list goes on and on.
We do live in an imperfect, fallen world, and the Bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust.
At the very beginning, from the very start, from day one, God created the world perfect in every way imaginable to man. There was no evil, suffering, hate or depravity.
But then, man enters, trouble starts!
Immediately, they began lying, deceiving, blaming and of course they rejected God (as some still do to this day), and as a result, sin entered into the world.
So, the world we live in now, the world as we know it, isn’t at all how God intended it to be. In fact, Man corrupted it. We were losers (sinners) from the word Go.
I’ve heard this analogy. It’s like pulling on the string at the bottom of your knitted sweater and it begins to slowly unravel.
It was the two in the garden, (the pair on the ground, not the apple in the tree) that started the unraveling of human kind as we know it. And it begin to unravel and continues to this day.
All this human sin has led to all the suffering in the world and to the downfall of mankind. Hate, murder, sin and debauchery have been prevalent in our world since that time of the unraveling.
God gave Adam and Eve a free will, they used that free will to do wrong and to listen to the serpent (satan) instead of God.
I’ve heard this many times before especially from agnostic or atheist friends. “I can’t believe in a God that allows evil things to happen.” I respond with this. “ if there is evil, then there must be good.” You cannot have one without the other.
CS Lewis said it best. “A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.”
Isaiah says, “His ways and thoughts are higher than ours”
Ephesians 3:20 says that “he does far more abundantly,” not less, than what we ask or think.”
As we struggle with life and with life’s events, let us fix our eyes on the unseen, which is eternal rather than with the seen which is temporary.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us!
Romans 8:18
God didn’t create us to be robots, he created us to be free. We’re all given a choice to do right or wrong. Unfortunately, many choose the latter, leaving a mark of sin and distress, pain and suffering and often times devastation on someone’s life.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29
You see, we won’t know everything and not everything is revealed to us. Maybe, someday when we all get to heaven, God will reveal those things to us. But for now, there are some things that are hidden from us and it’s not for us to know.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the WILL of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:20
So, in order to blame God for this, we have to assume that you don’t know his character.
Over and over again scripture tells us of the character of God.
When he saw sin, he be addressed it. When he saw pain, he healed it. When his friend died, he wept.
God is: Loving. 1 John 3:1
Faithful & Righteous. Psalm 145:17
Sovereign & Just. Psalm 103:19
Compassionate. Psalm 103:8
Refuge & Help. Psalm 46:1
And the list goes on…
All of us face trials and we even try to avoid these trials and hope they just go away? The real question should be then, how can I change the way I respond to these trials?
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds.
James 1:2
James is telling us here, that bad things are not optional, they are inevitable.
Our lack of understanding does not nullify the goodness of God.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Of course, as we are facing trials and troubles, we have to remember that there is a time to mourn, and during this time, we have to hang tight to the Lord. For he will see us through. Remember, the time frame for this period of mourning is different for everyone.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18
Many Blessings,
Connie
