THE BIG 6
Can we make sense of our suffering?
Jemima’s Story: SUFFERING
Can we make sense of our suffering?
Why would God allow suffering? Why doesn’t God take away all the bad people? What’s the story? These are good questions, and God’s story speaks to them in a way which holds out hope amidst the heartache and perplexity.
According to the Bible, everything was created perfect, and suffering is an intruder in this world—a consequence of mankind’s rebellion against God. Everything in you that cries out against suffering is a right instinct. This is not how life was designed to be.
The Bible also speaks of a God who steps into this broken world to do something about suffering. He is no cold spectator. In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, he came and suffered to provide the solution both to the problem of suffering and of rebellion. And God’s story ends with a glorious re-creation, with a world of no more suffering or pain or tears.
So why is it not solved now? One day it will be—God will make everything new. But because the root of the problem lies in every human heart we need to be radically changed first. That’s why Jesus came and suffered, paying the penalty for our rebellion and holding out the opportunity for forgiveness and change. One day it will be solved, and now we have the opportunity to ask him to forgive us and change us, so we can be ready.
But there is so much more than simply a future hope—there is a God who will walk with you in your pain until all things are made new.
So let the brokenness of this world, and even your own pain, take you to God rather than push you away from him. Without God pain seems meaningless and pointless. With God there is the promise of strength to cope (Isaiah 43:2), the promise of purpose and meaning (Romans 8:28), and above all the promise of everything being put right forever (Revelation 21:4,5). With Jesus Christ there is always hope.
