Last week I promised to address a benevolent God in the light of children’s suffering. Suffering comes in various forms from illnesses to physical abuse to mental and physical torture. The question arises, how can a benevolent God allow such things. Let me say at first that as Christians, our hearts should break over the sufferings of others. Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is with our hearts we should reach out to the suffering. But, it is with our minds that we should look at the reasons for suffering.
Let’s first look at mental, emotional, and physical suffering. This comes at the hands of others. A child is called”stupid” or “a failure” or worse is beaten, raped, even tortured and killed by another usually in authority over them. Why doesn’t God stop this sort of abuse?
Abuse of any sort, of course, is done according to the will of the abusers. As we’ve seen in previous posts, God has given us freewill. It’s as much a law of the universe as gravity. For God to stop these godless acts, He would have to change the laws or violate His promise of freewill. God doesn’t break His promises. He has given these laws for a reason and will seldom violate them. Yes the deviant who sexually molests a child is evil, but it is his own freewill he’s acting on, not God’s. The child’s will to stop the abuse can’t be acted upon because the pervert overpowers the child. But, the fact this pain occurs is not to say God is not present. He is and weeps at the godlessness and barbarity of man.
God loves us and wishes for us to love Him. A world with freewill but without suffering is unrealistic. God grants us freewill so we might love him freely and genuinely. If He had created us with the love for God built into us, it would have been a forced love, not given freely. The cost for us to freely love is the choice not to love God, to choose to do things which are ungodly. It is then that suffering is imposed on others who are weaker. This isn’t the result of God’s will but man’s.
The second category is natural evil, the pain of illness,birth defects, accidental physical injuries and such. Paul tells us suffering is a fact of life. Yet, for the Christian,suffering builds our character, and our relationship with God and man.
Romans 8:16-17 (ESV)
16 TheSpirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
While we certainly may not enjoy the suffering, it draws us closer to our Lord. James tells us in the first chapter of his epistle that we are to embrace the trials in our lives as they build character and endurance by proving our faith.
We spend about 70 years on this earth. That time is so short compared to the eternity we have awaiting us. Paul agree and says the suffering of a few years seems almost insignificant compared to eternity.
Romans 8:18 (ESV)
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
As Christians, earthly suffering produces much. It should cause us to act like Christ by comforting and assisting those who are hurting. It draws us closer to God and gives the world a chance to see the heart of God through the acts of His children who seek to comfort those in pain. Suffering also brings many who suffer to Christ seeking the peace He provides.
God is no masochist. He seeks to use us as His hands and feet to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and comfort the hurting. We are His ambassadors to a hurting world. We are the body of Christ.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 