Devotionals
“Seeing Through God’s Magnifying Eyes - Part IV”
September 2, 2005 †
"Why is there Suffering in the World" – 1st Reason
The truth is when it comes to events of the world that are out of our human hands we can’t claim to know what God’s true reasons are. None of us have ever actually seen God in the realities of this world. At best, by getting to know and understand God through prayer and proper, responsible studying of the Bible we can offer several logical reasons for why there is suffering in the world. After all, suffering is not an end unto itself. We only have to consider the outcome of Christ’s great suffering to see that there are reasons for it.
But again, just as we need to be careful in our reading and interpreting of the Bible, we must also be careful that any possible answers we propose or accept is not one that is incomplete or one that would make God appear to the world as being less than anything He is, which is loving, kind, forgiving, and almighty but never selfish. There are several answers that are floating around in our society which leave room for such criticism of the Lord by either non-believers or someone who does not yet know God on a personal. Some of it is because it is incomplete in its form, where a believer might be able to understand the reasoning given their background, but for someone who’s not familiar with the faith the answer is either not satisfying or doesn’t make any sense at all. And of course, any wrong interpretation of the Word can lead to proposed “answers” which are totally erroneous often leaving a tarnished look on God and the Church as well.
So, why is there so much suffering in the world? We know that evil causes much suffering in our world. And evil is also the source of sin which can also bring about suffering. Some people have rationalized that since we live in an imperfect world that is why suffering exists. Although these statements are all true, in that, those are the sources suffering, how do we explain the fact that they still exist when God is all-powerful. The Bible tells us that God has already conquered all evil. So how do we justify everything to prove for those who would say at this point that the existence of suffering proves the nonexistence of God? The answer is, although God does not cause suffering, it exists because He sometimes allows it. But unlike the fallen angel, God does not allow suffering because He wants to see us suffer. If this were so wouldn’t He allow suffering to happen everywhere? On the contrary, God only allows suffering to exist in situations where He can foresee a greater good come out of it. And that is one reason why suffering exists.
If we looked back in our lives chances are, at the moments of suffering, despite the pain and discomfort we felt something positive also came out of that. Maybe the events forced us to examine our hearts, or reflect on our conscience, thus resulting in a better us. Maybe the through the suffering we grew and learned how to be strong, physically, mentally and spiritually. Anything that can help us to grow into a more perfect person is also helping us to become more like Christ, and that could never be wrong. Many non-believers would use this opportunity to debate that the death of an innocent young child could result in something good. But even in death, if it was a death permitted by God then there is a greater good in it somewhere. It could be that it brought a family that was once torn apart back together again through healing together. Or the death though a tragic loss, gave many more people life; people who will affect the world in positive ways later. It would be impossible for us to run through all the possible good results that could come out of tragedy. That would involve all the players in all the times until the day of Armageddon. Because the greater good doesn’t have to be one thing that happens now, or even happen directly for us. It could be for someone you love. It could be one thing or a series of things, some which we may see and some we may not. (Reasons why continued on next segment.)
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