Why God allows Pain and Suffering

Why would a loving God allow pain and suffering? Many are the times we experience pain and wonder which kind of God we serve.

We even cry out to God to take away our pain but it feels like God has no ears. What is God doing when we are suffering?

Why can’t He save us from the suffering we go through or at least explain to us why He can’t?

I had similar questions for a long time. I thought about them from time to time until when the Lord gave me understanding.

Now I know why God allows suffering and pain in our lives. From the surface, pain and suffering look like bad experiences but actually, there is a part of God’s love that can only be expressed through pain.

Read Also: Where does God want me to Live?

In this article, I want to share with you the reasons why God allows suffering and why it is still God’s will for us to go through pain.

Why God allows Pain and Suffering

Whenever you go through suffering, the first thing you need to know is that you deserve it. Yes, no matter who you are and how close you are to God, you deserve some form of suffering.

It is only Jesus who suffered when He didn’t deserve to.

Let me explain…

When God created man, He never intended for him to suffer. That is why God created a garden that had all the needs the man needed. God even created a helper for man because God saw that it was not good for man to be alone.

But then God warned man not to eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. God told man that the day He eats fruit from that tree, He will surely die.

We all know the story; Adam and Eve ate the fruit and God drove them out of the garden.

According to God’s law, when man ate the forbidden fruit, He was supposed to die. Man was to be cast into Hell like the fallen angels.

But God was merciful. Instead of casting Adam and Eve into Hell, He drove them from His presence. When Adam and Eve went away from God’s presence, God used a third party to reconcile with man.

All suffering originated when God drove us away from His presence. To this day, if you are not in God’s presence, you will suffer.

The further you move from God’s presence, the more pain you experience.

Read Also: Does God forgive me when I commit the same Sin Repeatedly?

God has designed life this way so that we may know when we are drifting away from Him.

Not Knowing God’s Law

Since everyone is guaranteed a certain level of suffering, it is wise to make sure you don’t suffer more than what is allocated for you.

To minimize suffering, you must get as close to God as you can.

To get close to God, you must know His law. God’s law is what dictates who deserves what. Jesus told us in one of the beatitudes that blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. That is God’s law.

For you to see God, you must keep your heart pure.

Therefore, if you can keep your heart pure, you will see God and minimize suffering.

God Himself said that His people perish for lacking knowledge. Not knowing God’s law will cause you pain.

You will go against the law of God unknowingly and suffer for it. Take the example of Apostle Paul who thought He was doing God’s work by persecuting Christians.

When Jesus appeared to him on his way to Damascus, Paul was struck with blindness. Afterwards when he began his ministry, God promised him great suffering. The suffering was for him to repair what He had destroyed during his days of persecuting Christians.

We know how painful the ministry of Paul was; writing letters in jail, rejection in many cities, physical beatings and much more.

Paul deserved all that suffering.

Therefore, if you want to minimize pain in your life, start following God’s commands early.

Suffering is Part of God’s Will

There is a special type of suffering that the righteous go through. This suffering is normally permitted by God Himself. It can be very confusing to the person going through it.

The best example from the Bible is Job. The Bible story of Job begins by God acknowledging how Job was upright and how much Job loved Him.

Read Also: How to Know if it is God’s Will for you to do Something

But then God allows the devil to go and inflict suffering on Job. God never gives Job a clue of what was coming. All through the suffering, Job has no idea why he is in pain.

Job knew that suffering meant he had done something wrong against God. But Job could not see anything wrong he had done to deserve that level of suffering.

Job even pleads with God to tell him the wrong thing he has done so that he repents of it but God remains silent.

Eventually, God takes away Job’s suffering but He never tells Job the cause of the suffering.

The reason why God allows this type of pain is for us to learn about Jesus. Jesus suffered greatly for our sin. God allows us to experience the pain Jesus experienced for us to appreciate how much Jesus loved us.

We read in the Bible that Jesus was rejected in his hometown. For you to get a glimpse of what being rejected by your own people means, God will cause your own relatives to reject you.

For you to understand what it felt for Jesus when Judas betrayed Him, God will let a person close to you betray you.

In the case of Job, God wanted him to know what it feels like to suffer without knowing the reason why he was suffering. It was the image of Christ where He suffered yet in the law of God He was innocent.

This type of suffering can be very annoying but if you go through it patiently, God will reward you.

Why God allows Suffering: A Result of His Love

God wants us to be reconciled to Him. He has great love for us. But for God to reconcile with us, we have to leave our evil ways.

The evil that made God drive us away from His presence must come out of us for us to return to God’s presence. The process of God removing evil from us results in pain and suffering.

The process should not be painful but it often becomes painful because we insist on holding on to our evil ways. When God asks you to forgive someone who has wronged you and you delay to forgive that person, God will increase pain for you.

God uses the pain to tell you that unforgiveness should not be in you. The earlier you give in and forgive the person God wants you to forgive, the sooner your pain is taken away.

Many children of God today are suffering sicknesses and straining financially because they have refused to give up their evil ways.

Read Also: Does God want us to have Money?

If you curse your parents, the Bible says your lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness. It doesn’t matter how faithfully you have served God, if you curse your parents, your life will be completely ruined.

God causes you pain and suffering for you to know you are holding on to something that needs to be given up.

God causes you this type of pain out of love. In the end, if you respond to the pain by giving up your evil ways, God will make your life beautiful.

Why God allows Pain and Suffering: Conclusion

God allows suffering for good reasons. It is only Jesus who suffered when He didn’t deserve to. The rest of us suffer either because of the evil we are doing, the foolishness we have or just as a lesson for us to know Jesus better.

Suffering to know Jesus is the pain the Bible calls suffering for God. When people discriminate you because you love Jesus, it is an approval from God that you truly love Jesus.

Paul encouraged Timothy to endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. As a good disciple of Christ, work to avoid suffering as a result of sin and as a result of foolishness.

The only suffering you are supposed to go through is that which teaches you about Jesus.

May God help you!