Today, a question was posed to me that I felt led to write about. "why do you think god is putting us through this...?" POW! What a question. Thankfully it was rhetorical, the questioner knew I would not have the whole answer and I admit I do not know if God was making a specific statement to him in the sense he was asking. The question itself has two levels though; the lighter of the two is "why is this happen to ME"? The true heart of that question (at the foundation) is "why does God allow bad things in the WORLD?"
The first part of any answer to these should mention that God allows sin in the world as surely as He allows free will and that it is not Him that brings pain and suffering in all its forms. It is OUR CHOICES or the CHOICES OF THOSE AROUND US that effect us. How do I know? For starters theirs the whole story of Eden where their was no sin and all was good. Then sin came (by our choice), everything fell apart, and we are basically still at that point now aside from available salvation. But still the questions come... Should I take it personally as if I am being punished? Can I find the reason and make amends? Does God just have a mean streak? Having the answer to where sin came from and why doesn't always stop us from finding questions and trying to blame God for it. In that light lets take a closer look at this. Would God ever use suffering as a test? Yes. (See Job) Would God ever use suffering to guide us? Yes. (See Jonah) Would God ever use suffering to build us up? Yes. (See Paul’s letters) Would God ever use suffering to bring justice? Yes (See Sodom and Gomorra) Would God ever use suffering without reason? Nope. Does every act of suffering we have part in stem from Gods direct influence? Nope. (See the Fall of man)
So we are getting a picture of God and suffering that is scriptural which does not portray Him as delighting in evil or the suffering of His creation. Now would be a good time to mention Gods love since He is not evil or neutral but GOOD! Two of His most basic natures after all are Love and Justice, both of which are completely relevant to the topic. Signified so often by His actions of mercy, justice, grace, and forgiveness in scripture. All the sin that passes from generation to generation born of the first sin from the first Adam is wiped away by the sacrifice of the second Adam, one generation after the next. God came down from safety n the throne and bore all worldly evils, ultimately sacrificing Himself for those that hate Him, for what? Not for fun. For us and as proof that He is not evil but LOVING!
So after all this I have barely scratched the surface of the topic in this post and even with all that I have to say on top of this I only know part of the design of things that our Glorious Maker has done. But it should be clear both from the Word and from reasoning that God is good regardless of our suffering. It is all the more important that we hold fast to His goodness to make it through these tough times whether it is a personal agenda of His or general sin in the world weighing down on us. Otherwise we are "biting the hand that feeds us" and trying to make it on our own when help sits in waiting. Keep these things in mind when you are suffering, remember that God is good and that He loves us all. It will only be harder to do it alone and it would only be misplaced to blame God for being anything but good to us. See past the suffering to the greater things.
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