Why does God allow suffering?
Here is a topic I touched on a while back but I feel the spirit God inspiring me to touch on it from a different angle.
The question above has undoubtedly come into everyone’s thoughts and conversations at some point. After Adam and Eve turned from God, we have all become subject to suffering and pain in this world. But what’s the point? And why would God allow his beloved children to suffer? Nothing forces a person to confront their true self like suffering. Suffering causes our focus to turn inward, to face those parts of ourselves we might otherwise ignore. God can use suffering then to develop us into better people : the people who can love and enjoy Him forever (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4).
When we are suffering, God is right beside us. Nothing can separate us from His love. He wants to show us His love through His church, and give us a purpose through His Word!
Matthew 11:28 teaches us that as Christians, God does NOT want us to suffer! Having said that, we know He does want us to learn and grow and mature. This means he will permit us to suffer and will use it as a tool to serve our eternal welfare.
The biblical word “makarios” means “supremely blessed” or “more than happy”. This is God’s goal for us, even when things aren’t going the way you want them to go. God’s desire is to make us holy, not just temporarily happy. True happiness is a “blessed” life, and it only comes when we seek God first, above all else.
Not only does God care when you suffer, He cares so much that He chose to suffer for you so that one day you can spend eternity with Him in a world without suffering. By sending his son Jesus to die for our sins, God is working to restore the radiance of his own glory shining in and through us. The apostle John captures this reality well when he writes: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. God’s plan to end our suffering required Him to suffer.
What an awesome God we serve!
