Why does God allow suffering?

Don’t believe anyone who tells you they have the complete answer to this most difficult of questions. No one has the definitive answer to this and if God hasn’t given us the answer we can only surmise based on what we know of God’s character. God is perfectly loving, constant and unchanging and as we lead lives which are never perfect and constantly changing we find it difficult to understand what this means.

For some who ask this question it is a theoretical or theological question. But for others, and perhaps for you, suffering is not a problem to solve but an experience to endure and live with.

Suffering is part of this world, sometimes the result of our actions and desires, sometimes the result of apparently arbitrary actions or events. Suffering, to some extent, is inevitable and it is foolish to expect to escape it. Suffering affects us all. It can soften or harden us. It can bend, distort or even break life. It can develop the virtues such as courage, patience, obedience, determination, pity and compassion.

How, therefore, should we meet suffering? Where possible we need to remember that God loves us, in through and because of suffering. On a cloudy day we may not be able to see or feel the warmth of the sun, but that doesn’t mean that the sun has disappeared. We must trust that God will be with us in our suffering, sustain us in it and bring us through it, not only undefeated by it, but having experienced the grace, love and peace which he offers us. As you continue to think about suffering you might like to look up these verses (Romans 8:38-39).

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