Created very good: The problem of suffering

Since the fall mankind, has wrestled with the problem of a good, all powerful God, and the fact of suffering (Genesis 3; 17:1; Luke 18:19).  In the end,  if you are to find an answers, you will need to wrestle with the question for yourself. That's what Job did! He was righteous, but his suffering, as his friends would have it, was not for wrongdoing (Job 42:7). Certainly bad choices have bad consequences (Galatians 6:7). But not all suffering is for our own sin! We can suffer from other people's sin, or because of seemingly random happenstances. When we suffer, we might think, with Job's accusers, that God is punishing us. They were wrong (Job 42:7)! We might feel that He is unjust. That was Job before he got his answer (Job 19:7; 42:3). You might feel He doesn't care, that's a lie too (1 Peter 5:7). Have you ever asked “Why?” Many people who say they don't believe in God, nevertheless seem to be angry with Him.

I hear people say “there's a reason for everything!” That seems to imply that God sends the bad, but that He has a reason for sending it. He gives a child cancer to teach him or her something?  That would be child abuse! And that's not the God of the Bible, nor the One I trust! And in the end, it is all about trust! We read “God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). It's not that evil is good, rather that God is at work for good in the evil that He allows. It's not so much then, that everything happens for a reason, but rather that for disciples, God uses what He allows for the disciple's good.

Life's not fair, nobody said it was! But the greatest injustice ever, was surly the perfect Son of God crucified (1 Peter 1:19). The fact is, we all suffer (John 16:33)! For the disciple however, the bigger question is how to deal with suffering?  On the day that I knew was going to be the most difficult in my life, the day I knew my wife was going to take the four children and leave, the Lord brought this verse to mind “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). I felt I was being told that suffering is a barrier the other side of which is joy, and if, like Jesus we endure it, there will be “joy in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

Our response to suffering is a crossroads. You either curse God (Job 2:9), or you wrestle, and keep wrestling until you get your answer (Genesis 32:26). If you persevere, you will, like Job, find yourself humbled, and acknowledging that you know nothing, move from knowing about God, to having a personal, loving, intimate relationship with Him (Job 42:3b, 5; Genesis 32:24-28).

Lord Jesus, You tell us that in this world we will have troubles. But we are to rejoice, because You have overcome the World (John 16:33). Thank You Lord that You provided a way to stand up under trials, and we can come boldly to Your throne of Grace to find help in time of need (1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 4:16). Thank You Lord that You not only suffered for us, You suffer with us (1 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 13:5). Thank You Lord in Your precious Name Amen