While the question continues to plague the minds of believers and nonbelievers alike, the Bible does provide clear answers to why people suffer.
This is an age-old question that still puzzles many Christians today. Who am I kidding, I have asked the same question too! One look around and some people seem to have it all: family, home, wealth. You name it, they got it. Then there are others who seem to live completely without: no food, no loved ones, no place to call home.
Sometimes I find myself asking, “God, why me?” My circumstances feel worse than anyone else’s until I am reminded there are people who would gladly trade their hardships for mine.
Only then can I think, “Wow, I am actually blessed to suffer as I am.”
Still the question remains: Why do some people suffer such terrible circumstances and others don’t?
Skeptics of Christianity cite sad events like natural disasters as evidence that God doesn’t exist. If He did, why would He allow so much suffering if He loved His people?
The truth is, He does love us. While the question continues to plague the minds of believers and nonbelievers alike, the Bible does provide clear answers to why people suffer. Let’s lay this question to rest once and for all with some biblical answers.
Suffering Produces Character
The Bible offers a very good answer to the question of suffering in the book of Romans.
“And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)
As much as I might question my suffering, here Paul says I should actually boast about my ordeals. I don’t know about you, but I don’t boast when I am struggling with work or with relationships. I say to God, “Get me out!”
Still, the end result of suffering is a matured character. I must admit that some of my harshest moments of life led me to become more kind, patient, and grateful.
Such struggles were important because these experiences allowed me to share my faith with others in the form of testimonies. I’d wager you have noticed the same about yourself after suffering.
If you have gone through any sort of difficulty, you can better support someone going through that same experience.
Sharing our faith in spite of our suffering can bring us and others closer to God. We can use these stories to either encourage fellow believers or inform a nonbeliever about how we overcame.
People respond to different stories. God knows this.
Just think, certain books of the Bible resonate with you more than others (I dreaded reading Numbers). Yet, all of these stories, and all of our stories serve a purpose—glorifying God.
We Are All Affected by Different Sins
Jesus spoke to the suffering we would endure before we were even born.
“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)
We all suffer from sin, but we all tend to gravitate toward specific sins. One person may struggle with anger, while another suffers from habits of overeating. We are all different.
With the differences in sin come differences in suffering. The angry woman might behave in a way that costs her significant relationships or job opportunities. The man who overeats might face a heart attack due to his sin.
We can’t predict the backlash to our actions. Only God knows this.
I have known people to lose relationships over the sin of infidelity, while others did not. There’s a level of uncertainty about what happens next when we sin. The best we can do for ourselves is pray for forgiveness and seek repentance. There is enough suffering in life as a result of the Fall for us to add to it with our own sin. So do your best to abstain from sin.
Suffering Makes Us Need God
God uses our individual testimonies to glorify his name. He makes use of our strengths and also our weaknesses.
Is being weak ever a good thing? Most people would say no, but God is actually glorified by our character defects.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Being unique allows each of us opportunities to uniquely glorify God in our lives. Similar to what I mentioned about testimonies before, suffering is a chance for us to build our relationship with God.
Those who come to God find him at different points in their lives; different ages, different circumstances. Depending on where we are in life when we find God determines a certain level of suffering.
“Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.” (James 1:15)
This verse from James indicates a spectrum that everyone who sins (everyone) falls on. Some of us realize our need for God at the desire stage, some come later after ending up in sin. We all have a need for God, but not everyone realizes.
While Jesus has told us we will all suffer on this Earth, there are also promises made in the Bible to those who follow God. Apart from God these promises are void. His power isn’t perfected.
Thus, suffering gives us reason to need God. Suffering leads us to build faith as we pray more fervently and find ourselves relying on Him in ways we did not before.
My life has definitely shown that when life is swell, I pray less (which isn’t good), but when I am suffering, I am turning to God for what feels like every minute of the day. He may allow some suffering to keep me dependent on him.
The Wicked Do Prosper
The least popular answer, the one I would rather not say, is that the wicked do prosper. I have at different points of my life wondered why some people seemed to get so many blessings while doing the wrong thing. Then I realized, the wicked do prosper.
I encourage you to read the entirety of Psalm 73, but will include an excerpt.
“God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart. But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray. For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Psalm 73:1-3)
I have wondered why people who cheat in school achieve good grades, why people who are evil get to claim power, and why some people who commit crimes never go to jail.
Some people who are suffering in sin don’t even know it. In their minds they are not suffering, and I suppose they aren’t.
Instead, doing the right thing feels like suffering in itself. Sometimes I feel like the people doing wrong get to brag about their actions without any consequences.
I would remind you, as I have myself, that we don’t live this life only for today. We have to think about the promise of salvation that awaits us in the end.
Maybe we as Christians are suffering more than others for doing what is right. But no matter what we endure in this life, it’s nothing compared to the glory and the comfort God is preparing for us when he makes all things new. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
A suffering life with Christ far outweighs a prosperous life built by selfish means. “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked” (Psalm 84:10).
There is always a purpose to our suffering. The next time you ask “why God, why?” remember that suffering brings you closer to God in worship. Not only do we find ourselves relying more on Him, but we are given the opportunity to glorify His name with our testimonies. When you see the wicked prosper, remember that God is the judge, and will hold all accountable for their actions. For believers, however, no matter what good or bad comes our way, we are called by Christ to a divine purpose.
“He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” (2 Timothy 1:9)
Let’s stay on the path, and live out our purpose according to His will, suffering as much as He allows, knowing his grace abounds in the end.
Photo Credit: © Unsplash/Anh Nguyen
