One of the biggest problems people have with God is the concept of suffering. They ask “Why do people suffer? If God is so good, why does he let bad things happen?”

Who is to blame?

First, it’s important to place blame where blame belongs. Satan is the one who instigates suffering, not God. People often assign blame to a good and perfect God and fail to assign blame to the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. God, in his goodness, has made a way for us to be rescued from suffering. God brings salvation. It’s Satan who brings suffering.

But there are some other reasons that we suffer:

1. because of our own sin:

   Since the rejection of God’s Word in the Garden of Eden, our sin causes suffering. We do things we ought not to do and experience the consequences of our actions. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.”

2. because of the sin of others:

   We all have free will (Joshua 25: 15 says “choose this day whom you will serve”), and we like the freedom and power that comes from being able to do what we choose. But that means that others have free will, too, and can choose to do evil, which can affect the lives of those around them. Those who don’t know God do “what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you” (1 Peter 4:3-5).

3. because of our own stubbornness and unrepentance:

   “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself” (Romans 2:5)

4. for rejecting the truth:

   “For those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil” (Romans 2:8)

5. to bring us correction:

   “When we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world” (1. Corinth. 11:32). “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11)

6. to keep us from possessing character traits that would detract from our witness to Christ:

   In 2 Corinthians 12:7, the apostle Paul says that “in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’.”

7. so that we rely on God more:

   “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God (2 Corinth. 1:8,9)

8. so that we are able to better understand the suffering of others and offer comfort to them:

   “God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinth. 1:3,4)

9. to produce in us perseverance:

   God allows us opportunities to suffer in order to produce perseverance, because perseverance produces character and character produces hope (Romans 5:3,4)

10. to advance the gospel:

    There are times that we will see that “what has happened has actually served to advance the gospel” (Phil. 1:12) by showing others that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18)

11. to become more obedient to God:

    “He learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8)

12. to receive what was promised:

    “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10:36) and “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinth. 4:17).

13. because we live in a fallen world that is under a curse, and that means that suffering is inevitable:

    “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” and has been “subjected to frustration in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:22). In John 16:33 Jesus says “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

14. because people oppose the gospel:

    “When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely” (Luke 11:53); “they opposed Paul and became abusive” (Acts 18:6); “stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you” (Phil. 1:27,28)

15. for the sake of being delivered from bad things:

    “The righteous are taken away to be spared from evil” (Isaiah 57:1)

16. and, of course, because we have an enemy who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10)

So before you go blaming God for bad things happening, be sure to reflect on whether there is a deeper reason for your suffering, and learn from it, and be encouraged. Because….

Hope is not found in our situation changing; it’s found in our situation….

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