God Is There Through All the Suffering

Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Those are comforting words and very true to those who know and love the Lord God. It doesn't come with conditions. It doesn't say we will rejoice and be glad in it IF....The Lord made this day, and everything, down to the millisecond, has already been done. He knows every single thought, feeling, emotion, action, event and reaction to every single person alive on that very day! He is in control of it ALL! He knows it ALL. He has created it ALL. He is there through it ALL! But what about those who just don't understand all the suffering in this fallen world? Can they believe those words too? Absolutely!

As we look around us, there seems to be a rash of “chaos and tragedy” going on in every corner of the earth's axis. Terrorism, not just in the USA, but in the world. Natural disasters, not just in the USA, but in the world. Murders, violent outbreaks, crimes, deviancy, breakdown of family units, addictions, not just in the USA, but in the world. It's everywhere. And people ask the same proverbial question over and over.....”Where is God in all of these disastrous tragedies? Why is there so much suffering if there is a God?” This question was asked many times in the Bible as well. Job wondered this in Job 21:7-15: “Why do the wicked live and become old, yes, become mighty in power? Their descendants are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull breeds without failure; their cow calves without miscarriage. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice to the sound of the flute. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Yet they say to God, 'Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?'” When we ask this of God, we are asking from our human perspective, seeing things through our worldly eyes. Which is all temporary. Job concluded this in Job 21:30: “For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom; they shall be brought out on the day of wrath.” There is a day when wickedness will be dealt with in a permanent way.

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This isn't an easy answer for those who subscribe to atheistic or agnostic views, because unfortunately the only reason they primarily have those beliefs is because they have been seriously, and often times severely, wounded along the way, maybe losing a loved one suddenly, or violently, maybe a violation, whatever it may be, it was enough for them to turn from knowing and seeking the very one who created them, who loves them enough to give them life and the very one who wants and desires to comfort their aching hearts if only they called upon His name! He already took our sins, took our pain and suffering and our heartaches away to the grave with Him on the Cross! He already KNOWS how we feel because He FEELS it too! Or for those who follow false gods, because everything is based on works and not salvation through Jesus, and some of those works are violent ones. Some of the rituals are violent. Suffering is hard to witness in anyone! Whether it be someone you love, someone you are acquainted with or a total stranger. It is not easy to understand why it's allowed, why it happens to believers and non-believers, and as human beings, we will NEVER know the full answers to those questions because we don't have the mind of God! We aren't all knowing.

It doesn't take the pain away but it does comfort those who are born again, knowing that whatever the crisis is, whatever suffering comes in this life, our Sovereign Lord will turn it all around for the good as it states so beautifully in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Notice how the verse doesn’t say we all will see immediately or even in this lifetime how God has caused good to come out of a bad circumstance or tragedy. But remember, we can only see things dimly in this world through our worldly eyes. In this temporary world where our eyes can only see objects for as far as one eye can see. And notice that God doesn’t make this promise to everyone. He makes His solemn pledge that He will take the bad circumstances, tragedies and heartache that come upon us and cause good to emerge if we’re committed to following Him. If we are born again Christ believers of the Lord Jesus! God is right there...up close and personal. All someone has to do is call upon His glorious name and He will show His face to those who seek it!

So let's take a look at what is said about suffering in the Bible. In Romans 5:3-5, it says it best, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” So to be clear first of all, God did not create evil and suffering. However, it is true that He did create the potential for evil to enter the world, simply because that was the only way to create the potential for genuine goodness and love. But it was human beings, NOT God, in our own free will, who brought that potential evil into reality. Although suffering isn’t good, God can use it to accomplish good. And He has time and time again! Romans 8:28 is quoted earlier as a reference to acknowledge His mercy, love and grace for His children and to provide proof that He did not create evil or suffering. In the beginning, in Genesis 1:31 it says: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” God has existed from eternity past as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, together in a relationship of perfect love. That's what He wanted for us when He created us. But love is a choice. And in order to love and have the ability to choose to love or not to love, He had to provide us with free will. As one philosopher said: “I believe all suffering is at least potential good, an opportunity for good. It’s up to our free choice to actualize that potential. Not all of us benefit from suffering and learn from it, because that’s up to us, it’s up to our free will.” Unfortunately, we humans have abused our free will by rejecting God and walking away from Him, allowing sin to enter. That has resulted in the introduction of two kinds of evil into the world: moral evil and natural evil. Both of which we are seeing an exponential growth going on all over the world!

Moral evil is the immorality and pain, suffering and tragedy that come because we CHOOSE to be selfish, arrogant, uncaring, hateful and abusive. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So much of the world’s suffering results from the sinful action, or inaction, of ourselves and others. It’s unfair to shoot someone and then blame God for the existence of evil and suffering because Satan exists and evil persists because sin is loved more than our Lord Jesus! There's an old cartoon that said: “We have seen the enemy, and he is us.” True today as well. The second kind of evil is called natural evil which include things like wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes that cause suffering for people. But these, too, are the indirect result of sin being allowed into the world. As one author explained: “When we humans told God to shove off, He partially honored our request. Nature began to revolt. The earth was cursed. Genetic breakdown and disease began. Pain and death became part of the human experience.” The Bible says it’s because of sin that nature was corrupted and “thorns and thistles” entered the world. Romans 8:22 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Nature longs for redemption to come too and for things to be set right. That’s the source of disorder and chaos. Disorder and chaos is what we are living, breathing and experiencing right this very moment in time!

And God is NOT the author of disorder, chaos or confusion! Satan has that title, albeit, a short lived title! Satan comes around us to have us focus on grief and trials, fostering us to have no hope. Those who are believers have just that, HOPE! Jesus is HOPE! Despite how things may APPEAR, we are to understand our trials by Phil. 2:13-15: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure; Do all things without complaining and disputing,; that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world...” He has us to be His examples no matter what state of health we are in. Praise the Lord! But don't forget that the devil is like a dog on leash that God will use in order to chasten and direct a believers life if He deems it necessary. As believers, we don't have the same relationship with Him as the world does. He is used to buffet us not exploit us. God will use the enemy to keep us awake. 1 Pet 5:8-10 tells us: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” 


Our God is an ever present friend and as our ever present friend, He suffers right along with us! He asks us to cast our cares upon Him. He has a purpose for our trials and sufferings. Job, who probably suffered more than any other person in the Bible, gives us insight into how God controls the circumstances in our lives. The enemy had permission by God but he could only go as far as God would ALLOW it. The Lord has overall control in every single situation. In this suffering that the Lord allows for His children, He does not fully reveal to us the why’s or the how’s. Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.' For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." It's by His infinite wisdom that He interacts with His children. Job 28:20-24 “From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?  It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air.  Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a report about it with our ears.' God understands its way, and He knows its place.  For He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heavens.”

Gods ways are unsearchable. We can't always see or even remotely comprehend Gods purpose, but with the eyes of faith we can understand the things of heaven being done in our lives on earth. Here on earth we are God's children being conformed to Christ’s likeness through suffering. Jesus suffered the ultimate suffering! Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, can ever compare to His suffering on the cross for ALL of OUR sins! If there is no suffering there is no learning. Christ called us to sacrifice and die to our self, in our lives, by picking up our cross and following His footsteps. Charles Spurgeon said, “Through our trials God is slowly weaning us from this earth for the world beyond.” He is purging us from something very real and offensive to him. Those things which are contrary to Him and His ways. They don’t make us perfect but implant faith and give us a glimpse of what rest we will have in the promised land.

As Lee Strobel once said, "So when tragedy strikes, as it will; when suffering comes, as it will; when you’re wrestling with pain, as you will – and when you make the choice to run into His arms, here’s what you’re going to discover: you’ll find peace to deal with the present, you’ll find courage to deal with your future, and you’ll find the incredible promise of eternal life in heaven."

The day is coming when suffering will cease and God will judge evil. The entire universe is God's and, in it's entirety, is under His total control, but not everything is according to His perfect will which is why we were asked to pray that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Nothing happens that God isn't aware of, or ultimately, isn't in control of because it is He, who has set the boundaries to it all! Yet He allows evil to continue even though it is not His will. Some suffering and evil is allowed by God as training or used as chastisement or it can be a judgment. God usually allows such suffering with a view toward restoration and reformation of character. For unbelievers it's used to bring them to know, love and accept Him. For believers it's for our growth and to bring us closer to Him. Faith grows in the soil of adversity. The more life throws at you, the greater the amount of fruit that will be produced. We receive spiritual blessings through our buffeting, although at the time it may produce discomfort and anguish. But the day is soon coming when God will judge all evil in this world.....and that will be a beautiful day! God promises a time when there will be no more crying, no more tears, no more pain and suffering, when we will be reunited with God in perfect harmony, forever! Let the words of 1 Corinthians 2:9 soak into your soul: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”

That’s absolutely breath-taking, isn’t it?


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