Suffering

[Bonefish]

I am not trying to preach to anyone, only to find answers to the most confusing questions in my life. If you will allow me, I will share with you some of things I found that seem to make sense to me. The first question I had was on ?fairness?, which I posted earlier. My next question was why God allows suffering in our lives. As far as I can find, suffering started when God gave Adam and Eve ?freedom of choice? in the Garden of Eden. God did not prevent Adam and Eve from making the wrong choice. Freedom of choice allows us either make well thought out decisions or poorly conceived or even evil decisions. Each day world and national leaders make decisions and choices affecting people which have the potential to cause great suffering. Sometimes it is the lack of decision making that causes suffering. God wants us to evaluate and pray for guidance in our decision making in order to avoid harmful consequences.

Everyone has a choice to choose between right and wrong, wisdom and foolishness, carelessness and vigilance. The freedom of choice allows us to learn the importance of righteous behavior and of following God?s teachings in our lives. If we follow God?s blueprint for our lives, we can avoid bad decisions and/or even prevent them. God rarely interferes in our decision making unless we ask for His guidance. God does answer prayer, and he does intervene for his people when we ask, and it is His will to do so. ?Ask, and it shall be given to you? (Matthew 7:7). ?And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive? (Matthew 21:22). God will protect His people. ?Worship the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. I will take away sickness. No woman will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you full life span. I will cause the people ahead of you to feel terror and throw into confusion all nations you encounter. I will make all your enemies to turn their backs to you in retreat.? (Exodus 23:25-27). In Deuteronomy 30:19, God gives us the choice between life and death, blessings and curses. Why would God give us a choice if we were unable to make one?

The word suffering may be used to describe physical pain, but more often it refers to mental or emotional pain. The word pain usually refers to physical pain, but it is also a common synonym of suffering. The words pain and suffering are often used both together in different ways. For instance, they may be used as interchangeable synonyms. Or they may be used in ?contradistinction? to one another, as in ?pain is inevitable, suffering is optional", or ?pain is physical, suffering is mental.? Or they may be used to define each other, as in "pain is physical suffering?, or "suffering is severe physical or mental pain.? Biblically speaking, there are two categories of suffering. One is for righteousness sake (righteous suffering) which brings us closer to God, and the other is the result of people or bad decisions that cause us problems. Righteous suffering can be difficult for Christians to understand because it involves either taking on the suffering of others, being of the Christian faith, or God?s wish to teach or discipline His people. We assume suffering is always evil or the result of evil and therefore irreconcilable with God?s character, but that is not true. Evil (sin) is simply anything, thought, action or otherwise is not God?s perfect will. When helping someone with problems caused by sin or evil, we need to ask God for his ?shield of protection? in doing so (Psalm 91). To help friends with serious problems in life, it may be as simple as prayer, love and personal support.

God used Job to prove to Satan that Job would not forsake his faith and commitment to Him in the face of unbelievable torment and suffering. It is interesting that even though God restored Job?s prosperity, He did not explain why He let Satan inflict such suffering upon him, and still Job was faithful to His God. In Psalm 73, Asaph, the psalmist describes the near loss of faith by observing the wicked who blasphemed God. Feeling abandoned despite personal righteousness, the psalmist could not bear the injustice until an experience of God?s nearness in the temple made clear how weak the wicked were. Their sudden destruction shows their impermanence (lack of durability). Worship taught Asaph the ultimate good in life is knowing God. Asaph, as well as we, can have confidence our security is from god (John 17:3 & Philippians 3:10).

Most unnecessary suffering can be avoided by faithfully obeying God in keeping His Commandments and Laws. ?Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them? (Proverbs 1:29-32). ?He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow? (Proverbs 22:8). Personal misery in people?s lives is brought about by Satan?s influence and by our own sinful nature (Jude 16, Romans 6:12). ?And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not? (Deuteronomy 8:2). ?God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested ?beyond your strength,? but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it? (1 Corinthians 10:13). No one suffered like Jesus. Jesus endured the ultimate in suffering on the cross.

Accidents, disease, and carelessness contribute to human suffering. However, if we are following God?s guidelines by observing principles of ?prevention, caution, good diet and sanitation,? we can reduce much suffering that comes from these types of suffering. Prolonged and obsessive guilt can also bring great suffering. Salvation can relieve all suffering if we would just believe and trust in God. ?God takes no delight in the death of the wicked? (Ezekiel 33:11). ?God often post-pones punishment in hopes of repentance? (2 Peter 3:9). ?God wants the whole human family to achieve salvation in His Kingdom? (1 Timothy 2:4). But, our repentance and cooperation are prerequisites. Our hearts must be changed.

Another aspect of human suffering is called ?time and chance.? Tragedies or accidents can happen to anyone regardless of whether we are Christians or not. These tragedies or accidents have nothing to do evil or sin. They can be the result of bad choices and/or decisions, not sin, or they may occur for no fault of your own. Events can happen just because we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, we can choose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time by making poor decisions. It is hard for us to understand why horrible things happen to good or Godly people. Disasters may come when we least expect them and there is nothing we can do about it unless we ask God to guide and protect us in our daily lives. Life is not always under our control, and we may find it hard to understand why things happen the way they do. God, on the other hand, sees and understands all things. When tragedies occur, they are powerful reminders just how precious and short life truly is. If we believe in God?s Word then we know we are not alone during these difficult times. In Matthew 6:26 it says, ?Look at the birds in the sky, they don?t plant or harvest or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren?t you more valuable than they?? The fact that we can?t control uncontrollable events in our lives makes it so important we repent of our sins and receive Christ into our lives.

We must realize God is in control of our lives at all times, and He allows events to occur for reasons we may not understand. Some things simply are beyond human comprehension. Personally, this is part I have trouble understanding, but I realize at this point I must have the faith to trust Him. After all, who am I to question God?s abilities? In Ephesians 1:11, ?In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.? In Isaiah 45:7, God said, ?I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.? In Proverbs 16:4, ?The Lord works out everything for his own ends, even the wicked for a day of disaster.? Suffering is just a natural part of life. We cannot blame God. We must trust God because He knows what is best. There is one thing that stays constant?God will bring relief to those who obey his word. In Hebrews 13:5-6 it says, ?God particularly looks after His people.? God will relieve all suffering and extinguish all crime when he returns, but until then, He has provided instructions through scripture to help us through difficult times, and in these instructions, we are to believe and trust in him totally without reservation.

No one understood suffering more than Job in the Bible. Job?s suffering was God?s test for Job?s character and to see if he was committed to Him. As time went along, Job started to resent God and closed his mind to the possibility he could learn from his suffering. In the end, Job saw his problem which was the lack of understanding and excessive confidence in his own righteousness. God sometimes allows pain and suffering to teach and direct us. Job recognized his own self-righteousness which he did not see before. If we realize that God does not allow anything to happen for no purpose, it may help us to wait until we can see what God is trying to reveal to us (Hebrews 12:11). God sees things way before they become obvious to us.

[Bonefish]

Sorry the commas and quotation marks that came through as "?." I didn't have time to correct them.

[Big Gills]

I very much enjoy your reflections and plan to take more time to go over your post again tonight. Thanks for sharing with us. On many occasins in my life I can relate to Job alot. But slowly I have come back to Jesus and God and my faith is stronger now. And yes it was through the hard times that I finally turned back to God for strength and support. My question is then why does hurt and suffering continue now that I have found the Lord again? I thought once he welcomed back the prodical daughter it would be better but it isnt. So why does pain and suffering continue after we have found the Lord again? Its first on my agenda of questions when I meet God when I pass on. Until then I would welcome any ideas on that.

[Bonefish]

Gills, I too have a few question to ask as well. It is hard to understand the pain and suffering that can occur in this life. I feel most answers are in the Bible, but some questions I have may not have answers, and I will just have to go on faith.

[DJD]

I never read the entire bible. I do enjoy reading certain books like Mathew and I never felt I would have my pain and suffering removed from my life. My understanding (very limited) is that Christ will walk with me and be there for me but will let me live my life which includes good and bad experiences. I can ask for help and pray for things but sometimes the answer to my prayers are no.

[Bonefish]

DJD, I have to say I have learned a lot from the study I have done in the past few years. I have to say I have had very few prayers not answered through the years of which I am amazed. I feel God has spared me from some terrible situations at times, but I realize I am not exempt from grief and suffering. Again, I don't think God will allow any more suffering than we can handle. When you consider a light year is the distance light travels in one year at a velocity of 300,000 km each second or travels 10 trillion km in one year, and the farthest galaxy to date is 19 trillion miles or 13.1 billion light years from eath, it makes me feel very small. I am glad after all is said and done, God values my soul enough for an eternal existance.

[kygorski]

After losing two wives to lingering ailments, the only solace I get is in the lords prayer.Thy will be done.Like Job we can and do question God,but in the end itsn his decision.It gauls me sometimes to hear that old saw, about more than you can handle, this usually said by someone who hasn't nee3ded to deal with intense personal grief.