On a number of occasions, when I have been talking to friends about my faith in Jesus, the Son of God, I have been asked the same question or variations of the same question. “If God loves us why does he allow us to suffer?”. For a long time I did not know how to answer, as I felt the same.
To help understand this, lets look at a few passages from the Bible.
Firstly Romans 5V1-5 I am going to cheat here a bit and refer you to the most insightful and wonderful sermon on this very subject, spoken by my Church Elder which you can find on my Church’s Web Site entitled “We Rejoice in our suffering“.
I have a friend who has been struck down with the the most awful and paralysing disease of the nervous system, that has him on a life support machine, 10% of cases are fatal. Yet his faith is getting stronger and stronger by the day. His family’s faith, also, is getting stronger and stronger by the day. Both he and his family are CONVINCED that God has his hand upon him.
This faith is, very much, being rewarded. God is healing him, his Doctors and Nurses cannot explain why he is recovering so fast. Without God he could not. His and his family’s faith is stirring others in there faith and to faith.
I cannot say God use all suffering the same way, because he does not. But I am convinced there is a purpose behind all Suffering, which, in some way, will expand the Kingdom of God.
My final comment, revolves round the Book of Job in the Bible. Before Satan could inflict all the illnesses and disasters on Job, Satan had to have God’s permission. Even though, Job,
was plagued with terrible Illness and lost everything, his faith in God remained unchanged, and unquestioning. The tale of Job ends with God restoring everything to Job and more, because his faith never wavered.
Yes we rejoice in our suffering, because we can have confidence in the Lord our God. Even though we may not be able to see the purpose, ever, though often we eventually do, we can be confident in a pure, perfect and loving God.
