Why does God allow suffering and for the amount of time it happens.
This summary ties into Day 25’s summary, go read that first if you haven’t here.
We all will encounter issues and sufferings throughout this life, we will like them, we may get frustrated at them, and they may cause physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. These can be anything from physical issues to the death of someone close and loved by us dearly, either way pain is pain in its own form. We may not know why we get random sufferings or how some sufferings are given to others by God, but we do know that he is with us through it. It can be easy to take our eyes off of God and fixate them on the issues and circumstances we are facing, however, we must remember to look toward God in this seasons. Look at the suffering through his eyes and ask him why he is allowing such a thing to happen to you, it might be to strengthen you for something in the future. Look at it through his eyes of eternity and know that we will have the rest of eternity with him in his new Kingdom and on a new earth. Suffering can be caused by many things and has 3 main reasons as to why we have these sufferings in the first place. Remember that suffering is foreign to the creation of God since it was brought about by the sin of Adam and of Eve through the devil as a serpent.
Suffering can be brought about by us wandering away from Jesus’ protection as our Lord, Savior, and Shepherd. When we wander we lose his protection as we are longer close to his wings to guard us and his staff to lead us, helping us to stay away from danger. The good news though, he will continue to seek us out and look for us and help us get back to him when we go astray as he will remain faithful to us. For it is written in Matthew 18:14, “[God] is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost”. If you go astray, go back to him and run back into his arms, allow his love to overwhelm you once more, and ask for forgiveness knowing that he will take care of you. Our suffering may be caused by the sins and actions of others in our lives and how they treat us, others, and do certain things. They might gossip, speak harshly, or ruin things we entrusted them with; this is where we are called to forgive each time as God forgives us.
We are to forgive people and infinite amount of times as God has forgiven us by giving us Jesus as our Lord and Savior to die for our sins and to be forgiven by him. We are being to deny what happened, excusing it, or pretending that it did not hurt us, rather we are showing them mercy and saying we have learned from it. Doing this means you simply don’t hold a grudge or treat them differently now because of what they have done, it simply means you have learned from has happened and moved on. Having an unforgiveness is another we can suffer through times as we are called to forgive as God forgives us unlimited times. Unforgiveness festers in the heart into sin and thus we act out and tend to have less and less love as the days go on and the unforgiveness grows. This can lead to and cause sufferings that we may not have experienced if we were to forgive the one who wronged us.
Not forgiving people is a weight that will stop us from reaching the levels God wants us to exceed to since it is a burden on the believer’s heart. Forgive those who wronged you and ask for forgiveness from those you have wronged, no matter how long ago. You will feel the burden be lifted and you will excel to the places God wants you at in life as the weight is no longer there to hold you back. And lastly, in the midst of your suffering, respond to suffering with compassion and not losing your faith. Job is a prime example of what to do when we experience the worst sufferings that can happen to us. This is the only time that God made a deal with the devil and God allowed the devil to anything he wanted to do to Job except killing him. This was a test of Job’s faith, compassion to others, and Integrity. Numerous times from people close to him, even his wife, he was told to curse God and to do die for the pain he was going through at his current moment.
When going these tough moments, we might temptations to turn from God and to leave and quite possibly curse him, but do not lose your faith in him. Stay kind, humble, faithful, and compassionate to others and know God will get you through to the end of what you are facing. When we encounter people who are mourning, or we ourselves are mourning, be compassionate and sit with them and go through it with them. Do not lose your faith and hope in God and do not blame him for he is also going through it with us and is testing us. In the end, he will show us why we went through it and why he allowed these things to happen to us. He restored Job to even double of what he had before, just stay with him. Trust and know God is doing all of this for a reason and everything will be Okay in the end, Amen!