Why Does God Allow Suffering?

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:07] This is Rick. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor Podcast. [00:00:11] Look, today I want to talk about. [00:00:15] I want to talk about. It's a little heavy. I want to talk about suffering and why does God allow suffering? [00:00:20] And. And that's generally, you know, it's a question everybody has. And, you know, I don't know about you, but I've personally asked this question so many times. [00:00:31] You know, I've asked it when I've been mad and angry. [00:00:35] You know, I've asked it in tears. I've asked it when I didn't feel safe. [00:00:42] It's something that I think everybody goes through at some point or multiple points in their life. [00:00:49] And maybe you've asked it too, right? [00:00:52] You know, you've probably said something like, man, if. If God is good, why is life so hard? [00:00:58] And I want to start this by saying I don't have all the answers, but I do believe that the Bible gives us enough truth that we can walk through that suffering with hope instead of despair. [00:01:14] I believe that Christianity offers something that no other worldview can. [00:01:22] It's not an escape from suffering. [00:01:24] It's not a denial of it, but. But it's a God who steps right into it with us. [00:01:31] So that's what I want to talk about with you today. [00:01:33] Not. Not debate, not a lecture, but just hopefully kind of like a conversation. [00:01:38] And so I want to take this question seriously and look at God's word and the very life of Christ to try to understand it a little bit. [00:01:48] You know, it wasn't very long ago that I was talking with somebody who, you know, their health wasn't doing good. Their. Their family situation was unraveling, and it was just this wave after wave hit them from the storms in their life. [00:02:02] And I'll never forget this person looked at me and he said, if God is good, why does he let this happen? [00:02:11] In that moment, they weren't looking for some clever comeback. They didn't need Bible verses thrown at them. They didn't need to be, you know, beaten down with. With scripture. [00:02:21] They just needed to know that it was okay to ask. [00:02:24] And it is. Right. God can handle our questions. [00:02:28] The Bible itself is full of people asking him why. [00:02:33] You know, David asked Job asked, even on the cross, Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [00:02:44] You see, that tells us, I think, something very important, that God isn't afraid of hard questions. [00:02:55] He invites us to bring those hard questions to him. [00:03:00] So if you're struggling, if you're struggling with, you know, why does God allow Suffering, you're in good company. [00:03:10] You're in the same company of David and Job and Christ himself. [00:03:15] Now, philosophers will call this whole dilemma the problem of evil. [00:03:22] And how they frame it up is like this. They'll say, if God is all powerful, he can stop the suffering. [00:03:30] If he's all loving, he would want to stop the suffering. [00:03:36] But in this world, suffering still exists. [00:03:39] And they will say, the philosopher will say, therefore, either God isn't powerful, he isn't loving, or he isn't real. [00:03:48] That's the argument. [00:03:50] And on the surface of that argument, it does sound solid, I'll admit it. But I do want to gently push back on it because. [00:03:58] And I'm going to push back. Not like I have all the answers right, but that line of reasoning leaves out some just critically important pieces in my mind. [00:04:11] And the first thing is this right, the existence of suffering, that does not disprove God. [00:04:18] In fact, I think it actually points to him. [00:04:23] And right now, I know you're probably listening and you're like, man, that sounds crazy, but I want you to think about it. [00:04:30] Why do we even call things evil or wrong in the first place? [00:04:35] If our lives on this world is just some survival of the fittest, if we're just some cosmic accident, why does suffering matter at all? [00:04:47] Why would it even be unjust? Why would we call it evil? [00:04:52] And the reason is because we all know deep down, every single one of us, that there is a thing as right or wrong. [00:05:04] We feel it in our bones, in our moral compass, that. [00:05:09] That there is a right and wrong. [00:05:11] And because of that, that points us to a moral lawgiver. [00:05:18] The very fact that we grieve and cry out against suffering shows us that we are wired for something better, something more, like what the world God intended it to be. [00:05:35] But then you ask, why does God allow it? [00:05:38] Why doesn't he step in and stop it all? [00:05:43] I want you to listen clear because I think it has to do with free will. [00:05:52] You see, God didn't create robots. [00:05:55] He created people who could love him, who could worship him, and who could love one another freely. [00:06:03] And here's the sticking point. [00:06:06] Love always requires a choice. [00:06:10] Without the ability to say no, love has no meaning. [00:06:16] Because love must be a choice God gave us. He gave humanity free will. [00:06:24] And in the Garden of Eden, we use that free will to rebel. [00:06:28] That one act of disobedience cracked creation. [00:06:34] That one act allowed sin to enter the world. And with it came death, disease, betrayal, addiction, abuse, and everything else that makes us suffer. Every other evil that Tears us apart. [00:06:52] When you look at the suffering in the world today, so much of that suffering that we see is the result of human choices. [00:07:02] War, violence, injustice, greed. [00:07:07] None of that is God's doing. It's ours now. Could God have forced us to obey him? Absolutely. [00:07:18] But then love wouldn't exist because we didn't get to choose. [00:07:24] So instead of forcing us, instead he gave us freedom. He knew the risk, but he loved us so much that the freedom of choice was worth it. The free will was worth it. [00:07:38] Now, a lot of people will say that doesn't explain everything. [00:07:44] You know, somebody will ask, what about natural disasters? What about, you know, children with cancer? [00:07:52] There's a whole bunch of what abouts. [00:07:55] But remember, the Bible itself says creation is broken. [00:07:59] Romans 8 says the whole world is groaning, wanting to be made new. [00:08:04] You see, that sin, that door that we open to allow sin in the Garden of Eden didn't just wound people, it wounded creation itself. [00:08:18] That's why storms come. [00:08:21] That's why diseases spread. [00:08:24] That's why tragedies happen that nobody chooses. [00:08:29] It's something to really think about. [00:08:35] You know, I don't. I don't want to sound like I'm just offering some scripted answers, because when you're in the middle of pain, you don't need someone giving you this neat little formula for suffering, how to deal with it. [00:08:52] You need presence. [00:08:54] You need compassion. [00:08:57] We all need hope. [00:08:59] And that's where I believe that Christianity is different. [00:09:03] Because God doesn't just give us reasons, he gives us himself. [00:09:10] And if you just look at the Bible, look at Jesus. The Bible calls him a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. [00:09:18] He knew what it was to be hungry. [00:09:21] He knew what it was to be betrayed, abandoned, beaten, mocked. [00:09:27] And on the cross, he took the deepest suffering of all. He took the weight of sin itself, the worst evil the world has ever seen, the murder of the son of God. That's what the cross was. [00:09:44] But that worst evil that the world has ever seen became the greatest good, the salvation of mankind. [00:09:55] The worst thing in our existence became the best thing in our existence. [00:10:02] And what that tells me is if God can redeem the crucifixion, he can redeem my pain and he can redeem yours. [00:10:14] As I go through this, I'm sure somebody's listening. I can almost hear the question, right? But why does he have to use suffering at all? [00:10:23] Couldn't he teach us without it? [00:10:27] And I've asked that myself, too. [00:10:31] But I also know in my own life, some of my greatest growth, some of the Biggest, deepest lessons I have ever learned. Some of the clearest glimpses of God's grace have come through my hardest times. [00:10:50] And James teaches us to consider it joy when we face trials because it produces perseverance and maturity. [00:10:59] I personally wouldn't have chose the pain I've went through in my life, but today I can see how God has used it. [00:11:09] It's given me compassion. [00:11:12] It's given me a voice. With men who feel like they're trapped by their past, it's given me scars. [00:11:20] And sometimes those scars are the loudest testimony that we have. [00:11:29] And also, I think we oftentimes forget that we only see part of the story. [00:11:38] You see, Isaiah reminds us that God's ways are higher than ours. [00:11:45] His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. [00:11:49] So what looks like chaos to us, unfortunately, may be part of a bigger plan that we can't see. [00:11:58] I mean, think of Joseph. His brothers sold him, threw him in a pit, betrayed him, imprisoned him. And then years later, when Joseph is the second in command in Egypt and everybody starving, he could look his brothers in the eye and say, you meant for evil, but God meant it for good. [00:12:24] I'm sure that, you know, he couldn't see it in the dungeon. [00:12:29] But what God was doing was writing that redemption the whole time. [00:12:36] I mean, isn't that the very defense of the cross? [00:12:40] Think about it. If the disciples had judged God's plan on Friday when Jesus was hanging on that cross, lifeless, they would have called everything a huge failure. [00:12:56] But three days later, the tomb was empty. [00:13:00] So what actually looked like defeat was victory. [00:13:07] You see, that's why even though I don't always understand suffering, I can still trust God. [00:13:16] Because the cross proves his love. [00:13:20] And then the resurrection proves his power. [00:13:26] Listen, here's. Here's what we can't forget. Here's the hope this world isn't the end of the story. [00:13:37] Revelations teaches us that there's a day coming when God will wipe every tear from our eyes. [00:13:44] No more death, no more mourning, no more pain. [00:13:50] Every injustice will be made right. [00:13:54] Every wrong will will be undone. [00:13:58] And compared to that, glory in Revelations, Paul says the suffering of this present time aren't even worth comparing. [00:14:10] So I guess it's the easy. [00:14:13] Well, maybe it's the hard question. [00:14:16] Where does that leave us? Where does that leave us right now? [00:14:20] And for me, it leaves us walking by faith, not by sight. [00:14:25] It leaves us choosing to trust God's character even when we can't understand his plan. [00:14:34] It leaves us walking with each other through the valley, bearing one another's burdens and clinging to the hope that Jesus is enough. Because he is. [00:14:46] So if you're listening today and you're in the middle of suffering, you need to know that you're not alone. [00:14:54] I want you to know that God sees you. [00:14:57] God cares about you and he can redeem even whatever suffering you're going through. [00:15:06] The hard part is maybe you don't see it yet and maybe it feels impossible. [00:15:12] But I know that the God who turned the crucifixion into the resurrection can do the same with your pain. [00:15:25] You just have to trust and have faith and believe. [00:15:35] I do want to thank you for listening today again. This is Rick with the Nomad Pastor podcast. [00:15:40] If you're struggling, if you're suffering, if you're going through something and you just need prayer, send me an [email protected] I want to say a quick prayer for us. [00:15:53] I think it's important as we go through things in our lives. [00:15:58] You can say it with me. [00:16:01] Lord God, we don't always understand why. [00:16:04] Father. Sometimes the weight of suffering feels too much to carry. [00:16:08] But Lord, we know you are good. We know you are near to the brokenhearted. We know you can take what was meant for evil and turn it to good. [00:16:17] Father, give us strength to trust you. Give us eyes to see your presence. Lord, hold the hearts, hold our hearts and let us see the hope in today's world. [00:16:32] Protect us. Father, we thank you for all the blessings that you have given in our lives, in this ministry and the people who have been touched and sent messages. Lord, I just want to continue to pray for them. [00:16:45] It's in Jesus name. Amen. [00:16:48] Thanks again for being with me today. [00:16:50] You know, I don't think it was an easy one, but necessary if it encouraged you. Share it with someone who's hurting. Keep asking the questions, keep seeking God and don't give up. [00:17:00] And until next time, I want you to remember love God and love people.