Why does God Allow Christians to Suffer

[Charles Perkins]

As Christians we are told in 1 Pet 3:15 always to be ready to give an answer to those that ask the reason of the hope that lies in us in a spirit of meekness. Elsewhere God tells us that he will give us the words when a situation comes up.

We know that Christ suffered a great deal the last day of his life. Christ though unlike us was without blemish and yet God allowed Christ to suffer. We all have sinned and some of us greatly.

Some might say we deserve the suffering that comes to us in our lives, and to that I have to say yes and far more at least in my case. This though doesn't really answer the question. In my humble opinion we all deserve the penalties of our sins, but Christ came to forgives us, and to lead us into a Spirit led life of faith and love. So again I ask why suffering?

God tells us in his word.
P34:15-22 God allows them so that we can see his deliverance
1 Cor 3:9-13 God tests us to see what we are building on the foundation he has provided us

Some times we suffer for righteousness sake. God tells us that it is better to suffer wrongly, suffer ourselves to be defrauded. Why? It is a matter of trust. God tells us that we will have many afflictions and that he will deliver us from them all (Ps 34:19).

1 Cor 1:6 affliction is for our consolation and salvation. One might ask but how? We are to love the brethren suffering is an opportunity to love others. It is also an opportunity to exercise faith that trust in God that he will make a way in our suffering and help us in our time of need.

Seeing suffering as an opportunity to exercise the Spirit God gives us is impossible to the world, but for Christians it is required so that we learn obedience just as Christ we are told learned obedience through suffering (Heb 5:8).

How do you answer when confronted with this question especially by those just learning about Christ?

 

[Sai]

Because everyone is suffering. They just don’t know it yet.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

[AustinC]

My answer: Hebrews 12:3-24

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

 

[Charles Perkins]

Because everyone is suffering. They just don’t know it yet.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

Can you explain?

There is a lot of suffering in the world, but in what ways are all suffering today?

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I don't start explaining with direct scripture quotes. I usually only talk about this with someone that is grieving and scared and maybe losing faith. I talk TO them, not AT them. Instead of giving advice, I often present some personal stories along with a paraphrased Bible story and secular stories and offer the stories as a buffet for the person to sample what is most to their taste at the time. Like a sick person needs sick people food.

I am very careful not to engage in secondary wounding.
Secondary Wounding

God refines us with fire like silver. It hurts. A lot.

 

[Sai]

Can you explain?

There is a lot of suffering in the world, but in what ways are all suffering today?

Universal death.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

[Charles Perkins]

I've noticed two basic ways that people respond to suffering. One is anger or why me. The other is opportunity. Have you ever noticed how some dealing with cancer to be more at peace and happy while others withdraw or seem to blame the world.

There are probably are other ways, but these are the two basic ways that I see.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I have noticed that peace or withdrawal has more to do with how those around the patient react to the diagnosis than anything intrinsic about the patient.

 

[Sai]

I've noticed two basic ways that people respond to suffering. One is anger or why me. The other is opportunity. Have you ever noticed how some dealing with cancer to be more at peace and happy while others withdraw or seem to blame the world.

There are probably are other ways, but these are the two basic ways that I see.

Count it all joy to the highest degree of joy possible is the right response to trials.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

[Charles Perkins]

I have noticed that peace or withdrawal has more to do with how those around the patient react to the diagnosis than anything intrinsic about the patient.

That's sad to hear. I've seen people suffering that you might otherwise not know they were suffering. They were more likely to comfort me when I came to see them. God works in wonderful ways in our lives if we let him. Through suffering we can learn empathy for others who suffer. Suffering can become a a learning experience, though a painful one, as we learn to trust God.

 

[Charles Perkins]

In one of my greatest trials, I learned what it is to have faith. Many that I thought were friends deserted me, but God was always there. There were many opportunities in my time of trial to draw close to God and learn better what it is to walk in faith. God can and does work miraculously in our lives if you let him and trust him. It took time to learn that and I'm still learning.

 

[AustinC]

I don't start explaining with direct scripture quotes. I usually only talk about this with someone that is grieving and scared and maybe losing faith. I talk TO them, not AT them. Instead of giving advice, I often present some personal stories along with a paraphrased Bible story and secular stories and offer the stories as a buffet for the person to sample what is most to their taste at the time. Like a sick person needs sick people food.

I am very careful not to engage in secondary wounding.
Secondary Wounding

God refines us with fire like silver. It hurts. A lot.

Malachi 3:2-3
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.

 

[AustinC]

In one of my greatest trials, I learned what it is to have faith. Many that I thought were friends deserted me, but God was always there. There were many opportunities in my time of trial to draw close to God and learn better what it is to walk in faith. God can and does work miraculously in our lives if you let him and trust him. It took time to learn that and I'm still learning.

Job 19:13-27
“He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy. My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

 

[Charles Perkins]

Suffering takes on many forms besides sickness. There are those who are neglected, hungry, abused, persecuted, bullied, lonely, depressed, etc.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

When the secondary wounding process is viscous enough, and when the neglect and shunning of the person who needs assistance is extreme enough, they are crippled. If all that comes from the church, and secondary wounding process includes a direct attack on the person's faith, the suffering person is just human and humans were not designed to withstand such a comprehensive and vicious attack.

I think we need to be very very very careful how we judge the response to suffering of other people. We do not know what is going on in ALL aspects of their lives, and what additional burdens were placed upon them by others. Shaming a person for not being more resilient to secondary wounding, medical and social neglect, and direct attacks upon their faith, is a third degree of wounding being placed upon that person.

We must not engage in this third degree of wounding against others or against ourselves. Sometimes merely getting to the other side is enough, no matter how messily we do it. We are human. God knows that. Humans need to remember that humans are human, too.

 

[Charles Perkins]

When the secondary wounding process is viscous enough, and when the neglect and shunning of the person who needs assistance is extreme enough, they are crippled. If all that comes from the church, and secondary wounding process includes a direct attack on the person's faith, the suffering person is just human and humans were not designed to withstand such a comprehensive and vicious attack.

I think we need to be very very very careful how we judge the response to suffering of other people. We do not know what is going on in ALL aspects of their lives, and what additional burdens were placed upon them by others. Shaming a person for not being more resilient to secondary wounding, medical and social neglect, and direct attacks upon their faith, is a third degree of wounding being placed upon that person.

We must not engage in this third degree of wounding against others or against ourselves. Sometimes merely getting to the other side is enough, no matter how messily we do it. We are human. God knows that. Humans need to remember that humans are human, too.

One should never judge others in any matter, especially in the lowest moments of our lives. No one can know how they will react personally until their time of suffering comes. The influence of others most certainly can be very debilitating and can wound.

We are human. Suffering is difficult. One can only hope that they have the faith to trust that God is with them even when all others desert them. We do have a great help, guide, and comforter in our God. Being human though we can be weak in our moments of crisis which is one reason we need to practice, exercise our faith at all times so that we can be ready.

Each of our experiences are different, but none should lose hope. God wants us to love and times of suffering are opportunities not just for those suffering, but for fellow Christians learning to walk in faith, love and mercy.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Each of our experiences are different, but none should lose hope. God wants us to love and times of suffering are opportunities not just for those suffering, but for fellow Christians learning to walk in faith, love and mercy.

The problem that I have witnessed is that some churches are built on the assumption that lack of suffering is the reward of obeying the church. If the suffering person has been taught wrong, and then asks for clarification about these church beliefs during the suffering process, and is then told that their suffering is a result of their sin and maybe they were never saved at all, and maybe not even eligible to be saved, it is hard to keep faith. And yes I have seen this done, blatantly and subtly, in multiple churches.

One of the primary symptoms of PTSD is lack of faith. I think modern medicine has this a bit backwards. I think that when a person is able to keep their faith, they are far more resilient to PTSD. I think when the person's previous training did not correctly prepare them for suffering, they are more vulnerable.

Statistically, Christians are as likely to lose their faith during PTSD as any other religion. Researchers are not seeing anything different about American Christians, in faith loss, or immunity to PTSD. Caregivers will expect Christians to falter in exactly the same way as people of other or no faith. I believe this to be an indication of a widespread problem within the American church.

 

[AustinC]

When the secondary wounding process is viscous enough, and when the neglect and shunning of the person who needs assistance is extreme enough, they are crippled. If all that comes from the church, and secondary wounding process includes a direct attack on the person's faith, the suffering person is just human and humans were not designed to withstand such a comprehensive and vicious attack.

I think we need to be very very very careful how we judge the response to suffering of other people. We do not know what is going on in ALL aspects of their lives, and what additional burdens were placed upon them by others. Shaming a person for not being more resilient to secondary wounding, medical and social neglect, and direct attacks upon their faith, is a third degree of wounding being placed upon that person.

We must not engage in this third degree of wounding against others or against ourselves. Sometimes merely getting to the other side is enough, no matter how messily we do it. We are human. God knows that. Humans need to remember that humans are human, too.

Galatians 6:1-10
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

 

[Sai]

When I was 8 my mom passed away. Six months earlier my grandmother passed away.
I prayed and read the New Testament every night.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

[SGO]

Most of the time I keep my mouth shut, because I do not like to even think of the possible answers.
Since sin entered the world everyone suffers.
So suffering is a result of sin and not many enjoy hearing that.
But since God is all powerful and knows everything then the suffering has to work out some way to glorify Him.