SUFFERING…THERE WAS A TIME ON THIS EARTH WHEN SUFFERING and SORROW DID NOT EXIST. When God first created man upon the earth, everything was perfect. There was no sickness, no pain, and no sorrow of any kind. It was God’s plan for man to live in peace and harmony never having to experience sorrow. According to Genesis chapter three, it wasn’t until man chose the way of Satan, rather than the way of God that sorrow entered the world. Man sinned against God in Genesis 3:6-7, and God reveals to Adam and Eve the consequences of their sin in Genesis 3:16-19. God told Adam and Eve that they would now experience sorrow & death.

SOMETIMES GOD HAS TO ALLOW A TRAGEDY TO ENTER A LIFE IN ORDER TO GET SOMEONE TO LOOK TO HIM FOR SALVATION. Do you suppose the leper (Matthew 8:2) would have come to Jesus if he had been in perfect health? What about the blind man in Luke 18:35-43? Second Kings chapter five tells the story of Naaman, the Syrian captain who had leprosy. Had this man not had leprosy, he would have probably never turned to God. The Bible is filled with cases where God reaches people through suffering. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t fear God until God humbled him by making him spend seven years of his life on his hands and knees like an animal. (Daniel 4:31-37) 

GOD TEACHES US VALUABLE LESSONS THROUGH SUFFERING. One reason is humility. Apostle Paul had a thorn in his flesh that tormented him. Yet God did not remove the thorn but gave Paul the GRACE to bear it in (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). God used this thorn in Paul’s life to help keep him humble, to keep him from being exalted above measure. Sometimes God uses suffering to teach us patience. We are told in Romans 5:3 that suffering produces perseverance. Remember Job? He lost everything in one day. (Job 1:14-22) Plus Satan smote him with boils all over his body. Yet in all this, Job did not sin with his lips.  (Job 2:10)

UNDERSTANDING WHY GOD ALLOWS EVIL AND SUFFERING REQUIRES A FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF ONE OF GOD’S GREATEST GIFT’S. The gift is free will or freedom of choice. God granted this freedom to our first parents, Adam and Eve at creation. Of all earth’s physical creatures that God has made, man alone can exercise free will. Our freedom to decide what we want to do can result in acts of good or evil. Even in the Ten Commandments God reminds us that the consequences of wrong actions can affect one’s descendants unto the third and fourth generations. (Exodus 20:15) We can trace many tragedies and much suffering to our own all too human actions and decisions.

A pain free life is impossible. There will be times when suffering comes to us through no fault or wrong doing on our part. And when pain and suffering comes knocking on our door we learn we cannot go around it, above it or below it. We have to go through it. I don’t understand why I survived cancer and yet my husband died from cancer. All I know is that no matter what happens to me during this life time God is still in control.