Why does God Allow Suffering?

If God loves us and is sovereign over all things, why does he allow us to suffer when he could prevent it? This is one of the most difficult questions that Christians are often asked. We don’t always know the reason that God allows suffering. Joni Eareckson Tada, a woman paralyzed since her teen years, says that "God permits what he hates to achieve what he loves.” There are many things we could say about the will of God and suffering, but if Joni is right, then God has a purpose in allowing us to suffer to bring about something in us or through us that God loves. The apostle Paul gives 3 reasons in 2 Corinthians 1 for why God permits suffering in the life of the believer.

1. God wants to comfort others through you

2 Corinthians 1:3-6

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Paul says that God is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. He says that God comforts us in ALL our affliction. That includes whatever affliction you are experiencing or will experience. This means that God is willing and able to bring comfort to you in the midst of your suffering. But why does he permit it? Paul says the reason is “so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” So, God allows me to suffer so that I can be comforted by Him SO THAT I can comfort someone else suffering. One reason God permits suffering is so that we can be used by him to comfort others. God may bring people into your life who are suffering. He wants you to help them with the help you have received from your own experience of suffering. God permits suffering to achieve ministry to others.

2. God wants you to rely on Him

2 Corinthians 1:8-9

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Paul’s suffering was so bad that he thought he was going to die. Why did God permit such a terrible affliction? Paul says it “was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

Suffering has a way of making us realize how much we need the Lord in our lives. We recognize our weaknesses and inability to fix situations. Suffering keeps us close to God. Spurgeon has famously said, “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” That is a profound statement, but true. God may permit suffering to throw us back to a place of reliance on Him alone to help us.

3. God wants others to help you

2 Corinthians 1:10–11

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Maybe you are suffering because God wants others to pray for you. Paul truly believed that God would help him in his suffering through the prayers of other believers. When we suffer, people pray for us. God helps us through the prayers of others so that God will receive thanks for the blessings that only he provides. Notice that these blessings are in response to the prayers of others for you when you suffer. God may permit suffering so that he can bless you through the answered prayers of the saints.

There are many other reasons that God may permit suffering, but Paul provides at lease 3 reasons that may provide some insight into whatever you are facing today. Whatever God is permitting in your life right now, may he comfort you so that you may comfort others. May he cause you to not rely on yourself but on him who raised Jesus from the dead. May he bless you through the prayers of the church. May the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, comfort you today.

Blessings,

Pastor Gene