Why does God allow suffering?

Kerry Hurff

I recently had the privilege of delivering the Sunday evening sermon on a Sunday night at the Fishinger Road congregation. The title was, “Why does God allow suffering?”. The Evangelists warned me, “No one has answered this for the last 6,000 years!” …but I took the assignment anyway. I focused on what we can do to prepare for, and deal with, suffering ¹ , and offered some bible verses for consideration:

John 16:33. We must be prepared: God is. He has a plan. The plan includes Jesus. We have a place in Heaven. But we live now in a fallen world, and we are going to suffer. Choosing to be a believer In Christ further risks suffering. But we need to prepare now, for no matter how good our lives are now, we are going to suffer in this life-We should prepare to choose how to suffer and know that suffering can also strengthen us by leading us to hope.

Psalm 88. It is ok to weep and be brutally honest with God about pain and sorrow. Do not deny or try too much to control your feelings in the name of being faithful. Job was very honest with God and even complained. I believe God is very patient with us when we are desperate, and even when we are angry with God. Faithfully pour out your soul to Him with your emotions

Romans 8:25-28. We must pray and trust. Christians are commanded to trust God’s wisdom (since He is sovereign) and trust in His love (since He has been through what you have been through). Despite our grief, we must eventually transition from “let this cup pass from me” to “Thy will be done.” Wrestle until you can say that. We must also be praying. Job complained, but he did it in prayer. Even if you can’t love God now, I encourage you to pray to want to love God, or at least pray to Him to help you love Him.

2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 12:1-2. We must be disciplined in our thinking. Meditate on the truth and gain the perspective that comes with remembering all that 1. God has done for you and 2.is going to do. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Forget not His benefits, his salvation. Direct your thoughts until your heart is engaged. Much of this disciplined thinking has to do with Christian hope-particularly if you are dealing with death. But disciplined thinking is crucial in all suffering.

Hebrews 10:23-25. We must not shirk our Christian community. Suffering can be isolating. It hurts to even get up and get ready to go out. But the Church is a great place to be when you are suffering. We must continuously hear the gospel message, hear scripture and attend worship whenever we can…together with the believers. This church, the church of Christ at Fishinger Road, knows the
meaning of suffering, and is loving, supportive and caring. We have experts who have suffered grief and divorce…and can empathetically share their experiences. We can always do more, but don’t be an isolated coal. Come to the fellowship of the bonfire of believers

Matthew 6:31-33. We must re-order what we love. Suffering can reveal there are things we love too much, or we love God too little in proportion to them. I loved my job too much, and it took being fired three times for me to understand it was not my highest priority.
Our suffering is often aggravated or doubled because we turn good things into ultimate things. Suffering will only refine us if we allow Him to teach us to love Him more than before. This happens by recognizing God’s suffering for us in Jesus Christ and by praying, thinking and trusting the love of Christ into our souls

Romans 12:19-21. We must give and receive grace. Depending on if we are the cause of our own suffering, or if someone has betrayed us, we must try and extend grace and forgiveness. We may need to repent and seek reconciliation with God and others. When wronged, we are called to forgive the wrongdoers from the heart, laying aside a desire for revenge.

Psalm 34:15-19. The Lord sees us and hears our cries. He is faithful. His son died for us and knows what it is like to suffer.

¹ Some of these thoughts I found in Walking through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller. While not a member of the church of Christ, he offers some good thoughts on dealing with suffering.

There are many of us who are suffering. Can we pray for you today?

Call us at 614-451-4886 if we can help in any way.