Developing the right attitude to pain and suffering is the number one survival strategy for everyone going through a difficult situation and asking ‘why does God allow suffering and pain?’
One of the reasons some people will never reach all the full potential of their lives is the attitude they have developed towards pain.
Difficulties and pain are part of our lives; they are part of the things God and nature uses to shape us into what we are meant to be.
If you are someone who always runs away from hardship and pain, chances are you may never fulfill your potential.
“Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us.” Ecclesiastes 7:3 (NLT)
We don’t want sorrow and sadness! However, there is nothing we can do to eliminate them from the equations of our lives.
Pains and challenges happen to us to perfect us and bring the best out of us. Your strength is measured by the weight of difficulty you can bear.
“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” Proverbs 24:10 (ESB)
You may be asking right now, ‘why does God allow a hardship, can’t he perfect his will in us without subjecting us to these difficulties?
Well, let’s go through the answers together. Let’s see what the Bible has to say.
Why Does God allow Pains, hardships, and Sufferings?
#1 – Because it is a part of the Process.
One thing you can do to destroy your faith or render it inactive is to misunderstand or misinterpret the workings of God.
Usually, God introduces or permit some changes in our lives that are not palatable, but what we usually fail to understand is that the changes are towards a divinely designed outcome.
We usually lose sight of or unaware of the outcome but get discouraged by the process (the hardship).
“Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.” Deuteronomy 8:15-18 (NLT).
Not every adversary or challenges you face are there to destroy your life. Some situations are God engineered or at most permitted to get the best out of your life.
The Suffering and Pain You Face are Not to Destroy
One of my favorite TV programs was the FOX television series; Prison Break. In one of the episodes, Lincoln Burrows paid a dude to beat up his own son LJ (Lincoln Junior), to the point of sending him into A&E.
Why does he have to do that? He needed to get the boy out of the sight of the FBI agents who were watching him. Although the plan was somehow dramatic and dangerously bloody, however, but it worked!
You don’t win Olympic medals without hard training. Sometimes you get very close to breaking points. You even asked yourself why are things this hard; is this not suppose to be training?
“You have tested us, O God; you have purified us like silver. You captured us in your net and laid the burden of slavery on our backs. Then you put a leader over us. We went through fire and flood, but you brought us to a place of great abundance.” Psalms 66:10-12 (NLT).
Have you ever thought about those people that are causing you pain and discomfort and wondering why God hasn’t done anything about them?
Maybe you have even prayed about God removing them from your space and they are still there!
Here is why:
“These are the nations that the LORD left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle. These are the nations: the Philistines (those living under the five Philistine rulers), all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.” Judges 3:1-3
Did you see what this verse is saying? God deliberately reserve some enemy nations around the Israelites to teach them warfare because every generation must learn how to fight battles; not to be destroyed by them.
God allows certain people, situations, and experiences to happen for our knowledge, growth, and maturity.
How do you get a shirt that is sharp and crisp without applying the hot iron? You know the answer! That is exactly the reason we are pressed by challenges and pressure; to become sharp and straightened.
#2 – Pain and Suffering are a wake-up call.
There are times when we get complacent, comfortable and contented to our disadvantage. Consequently, to get our attention and get us back on track, God introduces or permits pain.
The story of the prodigal son in the book of Luke chapter 15 is a typical example. It took lack, hunger, and loss of respect for him to decide to go back home. When he arrived back home, he was met with everything he had lost and needed.
While he was in that foreign land, he was barely able to feed himself. The absence of resources woke him to his real identity. He remembers there is plenty of provisions from where he came from and right there he made the decision to return home.
People who do everything to prevent challenges in their lives hardly make meaningful progress.
God can allow suffering and pain to serve as the alarm clock that he uses to wake us up.
“I used to wander off until you disciplined me, but now I closely follow your word.” Psalms 119:67 (NLT)
Does God enjoy seeing us going through pain? Does God derive any pleasure from our suffering? The answer is NO! Does God allow suffering and pain because he is angry at us? NO!
“Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion. For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.” Lamentation 3:32-33
Are pain and suffering necessary, sometimes, to get our attention, impart wisdom or help us get better? The answer is a resounding YES!
Similarly, the doctors perform a surgical operation only to help the patient get better and this is usually after the last course of after other clinical options are exhausted or life loss is imminent.
#3 – Suffering and Pain Shapes Character
God forms us into the shapes he wants through the molds we are cast into.
“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Hebrews 2:9-10
We need to see pain as a process of molding us into the right shape, just as metal castings are produced at the foundry by melting.
Now that you understand the purpose of pain and suffering, you should change your attitude and relationship to pain.
Furthermore, Confront every challenge as an opportunity for perfection, growth, and maturity.
Does that make the challenges we face easier? NO. It, certainly, doesn’t.
However, having the right attitude helps to keep the focus on the prize and not on the pain.
In conclusion, If you have been asking why does God allow suffering and pain, now you have your answer.
Finally, please share this post on your social networks so that others may read and be blessed and please, remember to leave a comment below.
God bless you.