Why the Suffering?

This week we have a special guest…*drum roll*…Sara Willoughby!! She has graciously agreed to write a post for my blog this week. As a welcome gift, please go check out her own personal blog at: https://romans535blog.wordpress.com/. I hope you find as much encouragement from her post as I did!

ANSWERING THE ‘WHY’ QUESTIONS.

Why is there sickness?

Why am I (or the person I love) sick?

Why now?

Why?!

So many questions! Thankfully, there are answers. We may not be able to see everything that is going on, or fully understand it, but God hasn’t left us groping blindly in the dark. After all, His Word is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet, right? Let’s get to it, then.

Why would God, if He loves us, give us suffering or pain?

About a year ago, I was pondering these questions, and I finally came to a realization. God has given us the trials He has because He loves us. You see, I’ve been constantly sick for over two years now. It’s been a really rough ride. But however cliche this sounds, God has a plan in it. He does in your life as well.

Take Joseph in the Bible for example. He went from son, to slave, to favored, to prisoner, to ruler. When we read the story in the Bible, we can see how God was putting him in the perfect place to use him save multitudes of people from starvation, including what would be all of Israel. But can you imagine how Joseph would feel in the middle of all that? He couldn’t see any of that. He was forced to trust in God even when his own brothers sold him.  Even when he spent years sitting in prison, wrongly accused, God had a plan. We see the same thing in the lives of Moses (40 years in the desert, really?); and of David. He spent years on the run from King Saul, living in caves. Of course, he didn’t know when it would end either, or how God was going to accomplish what He’s promised.

So, why are there trials?

Because He loves us. Because God is more concerned about our faith than our comfort. Yes, this has been the hardest season of my life, but it has also been the one in which I have grown the most. God has taught me so much I would never have learned otherwise. He has sustained me. He has taught me to rely on Him, and to have compassion for others.

Often people think that once we are saved, life should be easy. Life should be good. We should be blessed. Right? But the truth is, God has never promised us the protective bubble we think we should have. Yes He is our protector, but He is also a just God, and we live in a fallen world. He can’t just sweep the consequence that comes from humanity’s sin under the carpet! He hasn’t promised us a joyride of life. No, He has actually promised us the opposite:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

~John 16:33 (NIV)

God isn’t sitting up in Heaven, cackling and rubbing His hands together at our struggles. He won’t waste any of our tears. He loves His children! We have to choose to trust and believe that God knows what He is doing, and that He has a plan. That He is using our trials to prepare us for the future. To train us. To bring us closer to Him.

Let me offer you some hope: This will end. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know it seems impossible. I know it seems so far away. I know. But it is true. God promises that when we are in Him there is relief, whether it is here or in Heaven. We will live in complete health and freedom in Heaven. Hold on to that, as I have! God still loves you. He has a plan in this. He is with you. There is an end to the suffering.

 

“’He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain,

for the old order of things has passed away.”

~Revelations 21:4 (NIV)