Why God Allows Suffering

So from a biblical point of view, we must understand that God did not create evil or suffering. But couldn’t He have foreseen that evil would happen? There’s no doubt that He did but think of it this way. As parents, before you had children, didn’t you know that there was a real possibility that your children might suffer disappointment, pain, heart ache, that they might even endanger themselves or you?

Even so, you had them because you knew of the even greater potential for love and real meaning in life. It’s the same with God, He knew that we would rebel against Him but He also knew that many would choose to love Him and follow Him and live eternally with Him. And it was worth it to Him, even though He would have to go through the great pain of giving up His Son on a cruel cross.

So the first truth that sheds light on our understanding of suffering is that God did not create evil or suffering. The second truth to help us is knowing that:

2) Although suffering isn’t thought of as good, God can use it to accomplish good.

There are several ways that God uses our suffering for our good:

a) He uses our pain to draw us to Christ

Throughout the OT, we recall how the people of Israel would turn back to God only after a period of suffering. C.S. Lewis said “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” In our own lives, how often do we drift away from God when things are going our way? It is during those times of adversity that we are drawn back to Him and realize how dependant we are on Him. Joni Eareckson Tada, who has suffered for more than 30 years due to an accident which left her a quadriplegic, said “I’d rather be in this wheelchair knowing God than be on my feet without Him.” Our sweetest moments with God are often during painful times. b) God uses our pain to sharpen our character- We become more Christ like as a result of our difficult times which is God’s intended purpose for our lives. Romans 5:3 “ We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance-character and character-hope.” Often times broken bones heal and are even stronger after they have been broken. Likewise, after we have been broken, we become stronger in our faith as we depend on God for our needs. c) Our sufferings are sometimes a way of God disciplining us so that we’ll mature in our faith-

In the book of Hebrews, we read “our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good…no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace”

Discipline is an act of love in which we correct someone’s behavior in order for them to have a better future. As parents, we use something we don’t particularly like (discipline) to accomplish something we love, which is protecting our children from harm if they don’t change their ways. God does the same thing with us. With our children, we aren’t allowed to see their futures and how our discipline was good for them. But God sees the big picture, He is very aware of how His discipline will be for our good. Not having His perspective of seeing the good in the future, we often can’t understand why we’re having to suffer.