One of the most puzzling questions that plagues the hearts of many is why bad things happen to “good people”, why suffering exists, why some people receive the miracle of healing and others don’t and many other things that sometimes cause many to resent God. Ironically, Jesus never addressed or tried to explain suffering or why it happens. This ultimately tells us we ought to position ourselves in a posture of humility not to seek to know and understand things which in God’s wisdom, He has seen fit to experience Him through rather than question Him.
The story of Job is one of, if not the one story that may bring even more questions than answers, but Bible scholar Tim Mackie put it this way: “the book of Job does not unlock the puzzle of why bad things happen to good people. Instead, it invites us to trust God’s wisdom when we do encounter suffering, rather than try and figure out the reason for it. This story invites us to honestly bring our grief and suffering to God and to trust that God actually cares and knows what He is doing.”
Job’s story doesn’t end in him lamenting and God staying quiet; instead when he has laid bare his concerns without cursing the Lord, God shows up and calls Job higher into the sovereignty and omnipotence that makes Him God. Job’s response in Job 42:5 reveals, as Bible teacher Jackie Hill Perry once put it: in the good, God is felt but in our pain God is seen.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 NIV
Our theme scripture is one of the most quoted and known even by unbelievers. Today, allow me to engage you into a deeper conversation on this profound truth that Paul revealed to us. In the face of suffering, I hear a lot of believers, well meaning though ignorantly, credit God for the bad things that may be happening and in deceitful humility surrender to a will that does not convey God’s nature and most times, is the direct opposite.
First and foremost, if we agree that no one gives what they don’t have, God too cannot give bad things because He does not have them. Secondly He doesn’t cause evil but may allow it and even then, it is never more than you can bear as 1Corinthians 10:13 assures us. No child of God goes through things which their potential to overcome hasn’t been weighed against. Failure to understand this truth blinds many through their suffering and exalts the intensity of the circumstance beyond the believer’s authority and reality that he is truly kept from the enemy’s reach though not hidden from his view.
The world we live in has fallen since the sin of our first parents Adam & Eve; and because of this fallenness, it is not designed to shield us from calamity. The knowledge of evil has now been made known to men and all creatures. Before the serpent deceived Eve, evil did exist because Satan had long been expelled from God’s presence with his cohorts (see Ezekiel 28) but the fact that Adam and Eve had no conscience of it postured them to be carefree in complete reliance upon God to make every provision as needed.
As a result, we are conscious of evil, our limitations, our weaknesses and insecurities. And because we are well acquainted with these, the default becomes to fall back on what is familiar rather than the new identity we have received in Christ. Paul gives us the remedy to this contradicting situation in Romans 12:2: do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The only remedy for us to put things into perspective in every season of our lives is to constantly look for the alternative in scripture to what you feel in the flesh and train your mind to embrace that truth (which is God’s truth) as your reality, above all else.
Things like suffering and tribulation as often mentioned through scripture will not cease until Christ returns. We, as children of God, are the only people that can boast about having a God who not only knows our suffering but relates to it and sees to it that it is not wasted or in vain, even though He does not cause it. For the most part, believers who endure and hold fast to God as sovereign, good and all knowing come to the end of their trials with a testimony.
Their testimony encourages and is like a balm for others giving them hope and stirring up their faith for it is written that God strengthens those who are committed with all their hearts (2 Chronicles 16:9). Child of God, when times seem to weigh in on you and circumstances bring a cloud that seems not to clear, remember that even in the midst of your trial, He is not a king indifferent to your pain (Hebrews 4:15) and nothing dies in His hands; hence yours and my boast that indeed all things work together for our good!
Praise Him now and forevermore.
If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, and you feel that this is the perfect time, pray this prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I thank you because you died for my sins and you were raised for my glory. Today, I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I am born again. Amen.”