“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 1:6-7 NKJV)

Why does God allow suffering if He plans on ending it all at some point anyway? Before answering this question I think it is important to note that God’s allowance of suffering doesn’t mean He is the cause of it; rather, it often means that He allows people to choose the path that they want to take in life without removing the consequences of exercising ‘free will’. Moreover, just because people exercise their ‘free will’ irresponsibly, that doesn’t render God to be at fault for the choices that they have made to do the opposite of what should be done in fostering a deeper sensitivity to ethics and morality.

The Awakening of the Conscience

God not only commands us to uphold and live by higher standards, He also gives fair warning of what will happen to people who engender an immoral lifestyle (Ex. 15:26). Hence, His allowance of suffering doesn’t mean He finds pleasure in seeing bad things happen to people (Ezek. 18:32). What it does mean however, is that God uses suffering as a means to awaken people to the lessons that He desires to teach them about life, which, for the most part, can only be learned by allowing us to reap what we sow (Job 4:8; Psa. 9:15-16).

If there were no consequences as such, then how could anyone ever find value in doing what is morally upright? In other words, how could a child discover that it is a bad thing to lie and cheat if no disciplinary action were taken to awaken his conscience to the baneful nature of dishonesty? What incentive would he have to stop lying? So it is necessary then, for people to reap what they sow not only for the purpose of learning that there is both a right and wrong way to behave, but also to awaken the conscience to the fact that it is best to live right before God to avoid causing and experiencing pain.

Therefore, suffering should not be seen as an absolute negative; for, invaluable lessons can be learned from it; and if people would but approach ‘suffering’ from the right perspective, they would soon learn those lessons and thus achieve great things by implementing their principles (Pro. 19:18; Heb. 12:5-11; Rev. 3:19).

For example, God often allows suffering to take place because He wants to open our eyes to the folly of our ways and thereby steer us away from a path which leads to a destructive end (Deut. 8:1-20). Moreover, suffering helps us to become aware of the fact that we are not self-sufficient, but are in need of power beyond ourselves (2Cor. 1:8-9). In other words, God will sometimes allow suffering to take place to open our eyes to our need for Him. And then there are times when God allows suffering to happen in order to silence our prideful nature. Thus He prevents us from hurting both ourselves and others by not letting pride take its full course (Pro. 11:2, 16:18).

Suffering isn’t Always the Result of Our Choices

Now then, all that I’ve just shared with you has to do with suffering that happens as a result of choices. But what about people who are born blind or crippled? What about those who take good care of their health and end up getting cancer or some other type of illness or disease? What about people who are faithful to God and end up suffering great loss? Why do these suffer? What is there to learn from all of this?

There is something about suffering that people often tend to miss: suffering brings people together. That is, suffering is a doorway to love because it gives us an opportunity to share our lives with others who are in need of comfort and encouragement. Furthermore, it helps us to discover what it means to be loved as we receive such comfort and encouragement ourselves. Thus we learn what it means to be like Jesus who opened the door of His heart to suffering souls for whom He earnestly labored to meet their needs without complaint or bias.

With that being said, what do you do to show people who are suffering that they are loved? Do you embrace them with the love of Jesus Christ or do you ignore their cries for help? How do you respond to them when they express anger towards God for allowing them to suffer? Are you impatient with them or do you show them empathy? Do you put them down or do you lift them up? Do you love only those who love you or do you reach out to your enemies too?

Hypocrites and Empty Prayers

Is it not hypocritical to say to those who are suffering, ‘I’ll pray for you’, while completely throwing away an opportunity to act as an answer to prayer for them? Indeed it is! And I’ve experienced this kind of thing myself on numerous occasions. For example, there was a time when I was going through certain hardship, and I had expressed a need for help. The people that I shared my burden with had the means to help me, but all they did was say, ‘I’ll pray for you.’ In other words, they shared words of hope with me, but they didn’t translate those words into something practical when it was within their means to do so.

Don’t get me wrong here; I’m not complaining about them for having said that they would pray for me. What I have an issue with is the fact that they had the means to help me, but only gave me empty words instead. Hence, their means could have been an answer to prayer; but they withheld their means from me for the sake of preserving something other than what they would have been most useful for at that time. Unfortunately, this is something that happens quite frequently. Perhaps you’ve even experienced it at some point. If you have, then I am sure that you know how badly it hurts to encounter it, especially when you are desperate for help.

And then there are those who act without praying and cause more harm to those who are suffering than good. That is, they assume the role of a judge and give people the impression that they are suffering because they either lack faith or have sinned against God. The story of Job comes to mind here as his so-called friends tried to do this to him. They thought that they were doing something good, but they were really only adding insult to injury by attributing Job’s suffering to God’s anger as they presumed that Job had sinned against God and would not repent. Yet, we know that God didn’t see Job in this way because He declared him to be “blameless and upright” (Job. 1:8). Satan was the culprit behind Job’s suffering; and it’s obvious that his so-called friends were under his influence at the time.

We need to be very careful to avoid assuming that just because people are suffering that that means God is punishing them for lack of faith or because they have supposedly sinned against Him. Who are we to assume the role of God as Judge to speak to them in this way? Personal guilt and offense isn’t always the culprit of suffering. Sometimes people suffer for other reasons. In job’s case his suffering was the result of satanic affliction.

Faith and Suffering

Now here’s something to consider: sometimes God may allow someone to suffer not because they have poor faith, but because we lack a degree of faith for which we are in need. For, even though we may have the truth, we might not be practicing it. Hence, God has lessons to teach us through suffering; and sometimes the greater part of the lesson is meant to be learned by those who encounter people who suffer rather than by those who are actually suffering.

Just take a look at people like Joni Erickson Tada from joniandfriends.org. She is a quadriplegic. There is no doubt that she loves the Lord with all of her heart. She is a woman who has great physical limitations; yet, she doesn’t allow these things to keep her from reaching out to people both near and far in Jesus’ love. Another person who comes to mind here is Lori Laws: she has a debilitating muscular disease which renders her life to be very strenuous; yet, she doesn’t let that stop her from praising God and sharing her faith on her blog at www.lorilaws.com.

Now then, could these precious souls complain about their physical problems all day long? They certainly could. In fact, a lot of people who have far less severe problems do nothing but complain and blame God for what has happened to them. But Joni and Lori do not do that. Instead, they use their time to praise the Lord and encourage others by expressing how great a blessing God is and has been to them. What incredible faith they have!

Yet, some foolish people would give others who are suffering in this way the impression that they haven’t been healed by God because they supposedly lack faith in Jesus Christ. Obviously, these so-called ‘Faith Healers’ haven’t learned anything! How could it not be a miracle from God that people such as Joni and Lori could praise Him under such circumstances? Indeed, they are walking miracles! And I have learned a lot from such people. I have learned what it means to take what God gives and to give what He takes; and both Joni and Lori demonstrate this every time they praise Him. Their physical problems aren’t evidence of faith that is lacking; but their songs of praise to God and commitment to reaching out to others in Jesus’ name, while suffering, certainly demonstrate what it really means to walk by faith. Thus God is using them as a means to increase faith and awareness of His power and influence in others!

Closing Thought:

So where do we go from here? Well, at this point we have to make a choice. We will either learn what God desires to teach us through suffering or we will ignore His lessons for us by doing nothing but complain about our situation and blame Him for what has happened to us. In other words, we will either accomplish little for lack of trust in God or we will accept our circumstances and allow patience to do its good work in and through us to the glory and honor of Jesus Christ.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4 NKJV)

Don’t ignore God’s lessons for you. For, if you do you will only walk in darkness and live in torment; instead, allow God to teach you what you need to know about your life, so that you may set an example of what it truly means to live by and uphold the faith of Jesus Christ. So instead of complaining about your problems, eagerly look for opportunities to comfort and encourage others who are suffering with you, showing them what it means to love and be loved. In this way your life will not only be a testimony of the power of God, it will also be a blessing to others.

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