Why doesn’t God stop the suffering in the world?

Is God Mean | Episode 12

If God is omnipotent and loving, Why doesn’t He put an end to the suffering in the world?

Making sense of the problem of pain and suffering

Where is God in pain and suffering?

If God is an all good God, then He would want to eradicate all pain and suffering in the world right? If God is an all powerful God, then wouldn’t He also be able to eradicate all pain and suffering in the world? Yet, we live in a world where extreme pain and suffering are highlighted daily. The news, social media, nearly everywhere you look there are wars being waged, people starving, worldwide plagues, violence in the streets, and in every city in every region around the world there are people suffering and experiencing extreme pain and grief.

So what gives? Where is God in all of this pain and suffering? There are many people who have presented the idea that this problem of pain and suffering is evidence of one of three conclusions. Either one, God isn’t all good. Or two, God isn’t all powerful. Which leads them to the third conclusion that God doesn’t exist at all.

There are some Christian apologists who have tried to argue a fourth conclusion that maybe all pain and suffering isn’t evil and is even good for mankind, and that maybe God uses pain and suffering to teach us a lesson. But when I consider the overwhelming suffering and pure evil that some people in this world experience, I find that view grossly lacking an understanding of God’s character and a slap in the face of His loving nature. God is not the author of evil. It is the enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but then why doesn’t God stop the dark forces of evil in the world and deliver us from pain?

If you are suffering, or watching someone you love suffer, or if you just don’t know how to reconcile the problem of pain and suffering with the idea of an all good and all powerful God, then please watch this video until the end. I firmly believe that our God is all good and all powerful, and I’m going to explain where God is in the midst of our pain and suffering and bless you with some hope. I truly believe this paradigm shift in your thinking is going to help you. So let’s dive in.
Where do we get our definition of evil?
So why would an all powerful and all benevolent God allow evil, pain, and suffering in the world? While pondering this question, let’s keep three points in mind:
Point One:
If there is evil, there must be good. There has to be something to compare evil against to even recognize it’s evil.

Point Two:
If there is both good and evil, then there must be a moral law by which to define them. There has to be some plumb line by which the standard of right and wrong is measured equally for all humanity. If morality is relative, and there is no official standard, and we all get to determine what is good in our own mind, then there is no true good and no justification for enacting justice or punishment on evildoers.

If morality were relative, there would be times when what one person deemed to be good for themselves would inevitably contradict what another person deemed was good, and goodness would add up to nothing more than varying opinions where one person’s evil was another person’s good. In a world with no set moral law, you would never be justified in desiring justice, because maybe what you deemed evil in your eyes was righteous in their eyes.
Point Three:
If there is a moral law, then there must be a moral law giver. Someone had to make the final determination on what defines right and wrong. Do you get to make the final determination? Do I? No. It couldn’t come from man or it would be no more than opinion. The only one justified to determine good and evil for humanity is humanity’s creator.

Humanity has a universal knowledge of good and evil. We gained that knowledge when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. We know that there are clearly defined standards for good and evil because that knowledge is instinctively written on our hearts.

However, there are some who have tried to find other sources for the measure of morality. Let’s review what they found.
Where does morality come from?
According to Alan Dershuwitz, in his book Shouting Fire, there are only 4 conclusions to the question of where human rights (basic morality) came from:
Conclusion one: They’re natural.
This argument of course doesn’t hold up because one look at wildlife in their natural habitat shows you that nature isn’t moral, it’s wild. Nature is all about survival where only the strong survive. The weak are eaten with no thought given to whether it’s moral or not, and if all we are are highly advanced and evolved animals then we’re all just trying to survive, too. Attempting to create a world that promotes survival and comfort is smart, but it isn’t equivalent with right or wrong. It’s just expedient for survival. If a tiger kills and eats an antelope is it evil? If the antelope escapes and causes the tiger to die of starvation is that evil? No, that’s just the natural way. With that in mind, would a rich business man who takes advantage of the disadvantaged to get further ahead be immoral? Or would that just be a classic case of only the strong survive?
Conclusion two: We created them ourselves through legislation.
The clear problem with this argument is it makes moral law nothing more than fragile human opinion. If we created the standard for human rights then we can unmake them as well. True right and wrong can not be so adjustable and easily alterable.

True morality is immutable. Otherwise, it’s just the flavor of the day flowing and stretching to fit each generation’s ideals and whims of what humanity should strive for. If something is only wrong until it is inconvenient or problematic for it to be wrong, then was it really ever truly wrong to begin with? Ancient cultures used to sacrifice children during pagan rituals. Nowadays we consider that evil. If one day it becomes culturally acceptable again, would it still be wrong? Was it wrong during ancient times?
Conclusion Three: The majority of the population believe they’re right. Therefore, they must be right.
The glaring question this conclusion raises is, “What about the minority?” Isn’t one of the major functions of human rights to ensure the rights of the minority are honored? Doesn’t pushing the ideals of the majority and stomping out the ideals of the minority do the opposite of what human rights are supposed to accomplish?

True morality must be equal, consistent, and applicable to every human being regardless of who agrees. Right is still right even if you’re standing alone. Imagine how meaningless morality would be if right was only right if the majority stood with you.
Conclusion Four: God gave them to us.
Ding ding we have a winner! This is the only conclusion that makes sense. If there is evil, then there is good. If there is good and evil, Then there is a moral law that determines good and evil. If there is moral law, then there must be a moral law giver, and the only acceptable conclusion for who that moral law giver is, is God.

The only alternative to this conclusion is that there is no real morality and none of us truly does good or evil. In this bleak and pointless outlook of the world, we’re just advanced animals fighting for survival and nothing we do really matters beyond selfish motivations of self preservation. If this is the reality of the world, then there is no “problem of evil” because there is no evil, and no justice either.

So while the problem of evil and suffering is something that atheists often use to try and disprove God, just by acknowledging that there is evil, the natural course of their arguments leads to evidence that proves God’s existence. The “problem of evil” is a better argument in defense of the existence of God than it is against His existence.

But while the problem of evil proves God’s existence, it doesn’t explain why God continues to allow evil in the world. The bigger question is not does God exist, but is God good?
The Father of Lights
Absolutely God is good! James 1:17 says
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (KJV)

Everything good comes from God! You may then be asking, “If God is good, then why did He create evil?”

The simple answer: He didn’t.

However, Colossians 1:16 says
“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” (NIV)

If the Bible says that God created everything, then how can I say that He didn’t create evil? Because evil doesn’t exist. Now, I know that sounds crazy. Let me explain.

Did you know that cold doesn’t actually exist? Cold is not a thing, but rather it is the lack of a thing. It is the lack of heat. To be more scientifically specific, cold is the absence of the kinetic energy of atoms. The more average energy atoms have, the “hotter” the temperature, but “cold” does not have its own presence. Cold is just the word we use to describe an absence of heat. Likewise, there is no such thing as darkness. There is only light or lack of light. Dark is just the word we use to describe the absence of light.

In the same way, there is no such thing as evil. There is only good or lack of good. Evil is simply the word we use to describe the absence of good. Or, more accurately, evil is the word we use to describe a separation from God and His will, as everything good comes from Him.

This doesn’t mean that the cold, darkness, or evil are illusory. We’ve all experienced all three many times in our lives. All three are very real experiences. My point is simply that all three of these things are simply the absence of something, and not the presence of something. They didn’t need to be created. Cold was not created. Heat was created. Heat is good. Cold is just what it feels like when you remove heat.

In the same way, God didn’t create evil, but He did create free will and gave mankind the ability to choose their own destiny. This ability to choose is good. However, mankind used their free will to separate themselves from God, and that separation is what we refer to as evil. Interestingly, when God first created mankind, this idea of good versus evil wasn’t even a thought, because there was no separation from God in the Garden of Eden.
Good and evil originally a non-issue?
People often think that the point of Christianity is to make people righteous. Some think that religion is all about overcoming evil to be good, or maybe about some sort of cosmic tally keeping track of your righteous deeds versus your evil ones. Some think that God’s primary focus is on keeping track of who’s righteous and who’s not, and that the end goal of Christ giving His life for mankind was to cleanse them of their sins.

While Christ’s sacrifice definitely accomplished this, that was not the end goal. Cleansing people of their unrighteousness was more of a peripheral issue than the main focus. Having your sins wiped away is only the very beginning; a means to an end.

Have you ever taken a moment to ponder that when God first made mankind in the Garden of Eden that they were not given the ability to be conscious of evil? Apart from eating of the forbidden tree, they couldn’t have sinned if they wanted to. They didn’t know how. They didn’t even have a concept of what sin or wrongdoing was, and they were never supposed to know what it was. As we pointed out earlier, evil is just separation from God, and Adam and Eve were never separated from Him.

Up until this point, Adam and Eve were naturally good as they were completely connected to God. They had been created in the image and nature of God and had no internal evil inclinations. Morality was a natural outflowing of the virtue imparted into them by their creator. They were naked and unashamed, just like an innocent child who rips their diaper off and runs naked through the house without a care in the world. Everything was pure to them, because they were truly pure themselves.

It wasn’t until they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they were given an understanding of morality and were able to perceive and internalize evil. As they engaged in their first act of rebellion, a new understanding of what it meant to be separated from God’s perfect will was birthed.

However, If mankind would have trusted and obeyed God by avoiding the tree, humanity would have never been conscious of sin or been able to conceive evil ideals. We would never have experienced separation from God’s perfect will for mankind. God’s original plan for mankind protected us from the burden of evil by preventing the concept of evil from ever even entering our consciousness.

So when people ask, “Why couldn’t God have created a world without evil and sin?” My answer is, “He did!” You can see how unimportant the concept of human morality was to God by the fact that it wasn’t even included in God’s original blueprint for mankind’s experience. We were never meant to be separated from God. In the Garden of Eden, God took care of morality for us so that we wouldn’t have to be concerned with it.
God’s ultimate plan for mankind
So if we strip this idea of a cosmic score keeper away from our perceptions of God’s interactions with mankind, what do we have left? What was, and is, the ultimate point of our existence? The answer to that age-old question is very simple: relationship.

God created humanity because he wanted a family to love, and to be loved by. He originally put us in a world void of any understanding of wrong and evil so that we could simply enjoy Him and be enjoyed by Him without any distractions, pains, suffering or separation.

Scripture about God us being created for God’s pleasure Revelation 4:11 and Colossians 1:16
Morality had nothing to do with God’s creation of us. Morality was originally irrelevant for us as God took care of it for us. The purpose of your entire existence is love. You were created to be God’s family. That’s why we humans long for connection and relationship. We were created in God’s image, and we experience the same longings that He experiences.

The beautiful part of our desires is that choosing a relationship with Him satisfies both His longings and ours. A thriving relationship with God fills all the empty parts of our souls and fulfills mankind’s highest and most noble purpose. We have been gifted with a story and identity more beautiful and artful than even the most skillful author could weave in a magical fairy tale. Life truly is such a gift, but if God was so generous, and his aspirations for the human experience were only good, then why did He put a tree they weren’t supposed to eat from in the garden at all? Why give humanity the opportunity to ruin everything?
The gift of choice
God’s primary objective for humanity was love. To be loved by Him, to love Him, and to love each other. In order for true love to exist, one key ingredient is required: choice. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented that choice. It was the only restriction they had been given or understood. Without that tree, Adam and Eve would have been essentially pre-programmed robots, lacking the ability to choose to trust and obey God, and instead would have been forced to do things God’s way without any other option available.

God wanted beings that were like Him and who understood Him so that He could communicate and develop a relationship with a compatible partner. We were created in God’s image and likeness, with the same emotions that He possesses, with a will and intellect to properly understand and process those emotions, and most importantly with a free-will capable of choice and love. Adam understood this desire for a compatible partner as he quickly discovered that none of the animals in the garden would make a suitable life companion. It wasn’t until God made someone in Adam’s likeness, that could truly understand Adam, that Adam found his companion and family in and through Eve. Mankind is God’s Eve. We are God’s family.

How much satisfaction would Adam have received from a robot that lacked free will and was just pre-programmed to do whatever Adam wanted? Having a robot to do whatever you want may be useful in some ways, but it would not be beneficial or fulfilling as a wife or a family member. How would you like to have a giant walking iPad for a spouse that waited for you to select a command on a screen before it took action? A robot may be handy for folding the laundry, doing the dishes, or fixing the car, but it’s not going to satisfy the desire for committed love and friendship. A pre-programmed “I love you” from a robot means nothing. A freely given “I love you” from a spouse that didn’t have to choose you means everything. Plus, it’s worth mentioning that the robot doesn’t have any quality of life either.

God made us like Him in that we are free-will beings, able to choose how we write our own story, and thus a being truly capable of giving, understanding, and receiving love. By placing the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden, God gave humanity the gift of love; the gift of free will and choice; the gift of freedom. By giving humanity the gift of free will, it of course gave humanity the freedom to reject God and His ways. People exercise that freedom every day, but it also gave mankind the freedom and ability to sincerely love God and each other.
The easy choice
There is no other way to create a world capable of the most wonderful experience of love without creating a world of choice. God, however, went out of His way to make the choice in the Garden of Eden as simple, easy, and obvious a choice as possible. They had one simple command. Only one tree, in the middle of a garden full of the most beautiful and delicious trees, was off limits.

How can you look at this scenario and be angry at God? He gave them the gift of love, while creating a scenario that should have been the easiest win for Adam and Eve. Talk about being set up for success, Adam and Eve had everything, experienced no pain or suffering, had no concept or inclinations toward evil, and lived everyday in bliss surrounded by unlimited provision, beauty, and joy. All they had to do was avoid eating from one tree. They didn’t have a difficult Old Testament law to abide by. There were no ten commandments to live up to. None of that. All they had to do was not eat from one tree. They could literally do anything their minds thought up without restriction as their minds had no inclinations towards evil. God tried to make this as easy and simple as possible. He laid a perfect life of bliss out on a silver platter for them. Yet, Adam and Eve still chose the only single path of rebellion in a world full of nothing but righteous paths.
The entrance of evil
When Adam and Eve chose to willingly rebel against God’s wishes, sin came crashing into what had previously been a perfect world. Everything that God had protected them from by encasing them in a heavenly paradise, free from evil and corruption, now entered into Eden. Adam and Eve had been clearly warned this would happen. Yet, they distrusted God and disobeyed anyways.

We immediately see the disintegration of harmony within Adam and Eve’s utopian existence as they become uncomfortable with their nakedness and begin to blame one another for their rebellion. The never before experienced feelings of guilt, shame, and selfishness are put on display as Adam and Eve hide from God. This is when we find God’s words explaining the havoc that sin would wreak on the world.

“17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Genesis 3:17-19 KJv

The wages of sin have always been death, and here God explains how sin curses the entire earth. The evil now present in the world will cause toil and ultimately death of the physical body.
The cost of free will
Free will easily explains murderers, rapists, thieves, violence, war, hatred, abuse and all moral evil. The idea that people use their free will to choose evil is simple enough. So why doesn’t God remove that free-will and rid the world of evil altogether? If God were to remove the choice from mankind to commit evil then He would also be removing mankind’s ability to love. In a world void of choice God would effectively eliminate evil, but He’d eliminate love and all the beautiful parts of life, too. All of us would be nothing more than robots and we’d lack the ability to truly understand and relate to God. Robots don’t have a high quality of life, and it’s not something that you should be hoping for!

Even animals have free will, and thus are able to “love” in their own way. However, they aren’t created in our image and so we are limited in how close we can be with them. You may love your dog or cat, but that pet could never be a spouse. Sometimes we treat our pets like children and call them our fur-babies, but in reality they can’t begin to compare with the experience of having a biological child who truly understands you and communicates with you on an intimate level.

We’ve not only been given free-will and the ability to love, but we’ve been created in the image and likeness of God! To be chosen to be the family of God, and to be given the immeasurable gift of being able to understand and relate to Him as He is, is not something we should despise or desire to change. Yes, mankind’s ability to choose has come at a great cost, but the rewards far outway the cost. When compared to the perfect harmony and love we will thrive in with God for all eternity, even the most tragic life of intense pain and suffering here on earth is nothing more than a tiny blip of inconvenience on the way to eternal bliss, like a mild sunburn in exchange for a dream vacation in a sunny paradise.

Whenever my wife and I were considering having a baby we were very concerned about the current state of the world. We really wrestled with whether or not we should bring a baby into this world for fear of what it may suffer through as it grew up. That fear was quickly dissuaded whenever we felt God speak to us that the joy our baby would have in Heaven with Him for all eternity at the end of its earthly life far outweighed any pain or suffering the child may experience during its time on earth.

The same is true for every single one of us. For God to remove free-will would remove that promise of love-filled eternal bliss with God. That’s a price I’m not willing to pay, and I’m sure glad that God wasn’t willing to either.
What About Natural Evil
Free will explains moral evil like Hitler, but what about sickness, disease, and natural disasters? Whenever Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and welcome sin into the world, mankind voluntarily chose to remove the creation that they had been placed over out from underneath the umbrella of God’s protection. They chose to take the path of the serpent. The natural effects of sin are decay, rot, and death. Anyone that chooses to voluntarily and intentionally separate themselves from God also separates themself from the life giving and preserving power that is God.

Sin brings death, not because God voluntarily wills death on people who commit sin, but because any vine that is separated from the root withers and dies. God is the source of life. Whenever we separate ourselves from the source of life, we die, too. What we see in the story of the fall of man, is the separation of creation away from the creator as the God-ordained rulers of creation, Adam and Eve, chose to welcome sin into paradise.

Natural evil and moral evil may seem like two totally separate dilemmas, but in reality they are closely connected. The connection doesn’t always appear obvious, but with a little introspection their connection becomes clear enough. For instance, it’s been scientifically proven that the ingredients put in our food cause cancer, multitudes of diseases, obesity, diabetes, and infertility just to name a few. Generally, people would not consider these causes of suffering to be rooted in moral evil, but the truth is greed has caused corporations and businesses to cut corners and find cheaper ways to make food at the cost of humanity’s health and wellness, and that’s just one small example. When you start digging you begin to see the connection between moral evil and natural evil everywhere.

Humanity’s greed has caused entire people groups to starve because we wiped out forests to build cities and harvest lumber. Horrific, unnatural diseases are created in labs and released into the population where they cause world wide devastation. The recent evidence released revealing that Covid was not natural, but was created by scientists and released into bat caves is a perfect example. There’s currently tons of research being done to investigate the possible carcinogenic, reproductive and damaging neurological effects of exposure to radar traffic devices, wireless communications with cellular phones, radio transmission, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The companies that stand to profit from these technologies ignore these studies and continue to plough forward despite the damage they are aware it could cause.

Many scientists have concluded that our entire atmosphere is now different than it was in ancient earth due to mankind’s pollution. This corrupted atmosphere has now affected our weather and caused natural disasters that presumably didn’t exist in earth’s original state. I could keep going, but you get the point. Once I began to ponder things from this line of thinking, I tried to come up with even one form of “natural evil” that didn’t have any connection to moral evil, and I was unsuccessful. From cancer and disease, to global hunger, to tornadoes and floods, if human’s hadn’t corrupted God’s original creation with greed and sin, none of these natural evils would exist.
Why can’t God destroy evil?
If all pain and suffering in the world is ultimately due to humanity’s moral evil, then why doesn’t God just wipe out the evil people to protect the innocent people? One, that is a trick question. There are no innocent people. Two, there are many times throughout history where God has intervened to judge and cleanse the world of violent cultures.

For instance, the rescue of Noah and the future of mankind with the global flood; The rescue of Lot and and his family at Sodom and Gomorrah; and the rescue of innocent children with the commanded conquest of Canaan are just a few quick examples, but there are many more all throughout the Bible. I’m sure there are many interventions that happen in modern times as well that we just don’t know about.

Unfortunately, oftentimes, when God does intervene to rid the earth of evil, people get upset and label God mean for doing so. Then, at the same time, they label God mean for not wiping out all evil people in the world. However, there is a very good reason for why God hasn’t already destroyed all the evil people in the world.

God is a holy God. Perfect. Whole. No flaws or blemishes. Creation also was perfect before sin entered the scene. Now, if God were to start destroying all people who commit evil in the world, at what point does He draw the line? Obviously, we’d want all of the murderers, rapists, abusers, and kidnappers taken out. That’s a no-brainer, but at what point do we want God to start turning a blind eye to immorality? Is it the white lies that should get a free pass? Maybe those that had a lustful imagination should be allowed to stay? What about unforgiveness? If a judge is perfect, how could that judge sweep any injustice under the rug and still remain a perfect judge?

My point is that if God were to start cleansing the earth of every person that has committed evil He would have to get rid of you. No one is perfect. In our minds, we consider ourselves innocents living in a world corrupted by monsters, but is that really accurate? If you are truly honest with yourself, you know that there is someone throughout your life that you have hurt. You’ve made a selfish decision at some point in your life that caused another person pain, and maybe even suffering. Should God give you a free pass? Not if He wants to be perfectly just. He would have to compromise His perfect judgment to do so.

That’s why He sent Yeshua to the cross. It was the only way to be perfectly just and perfectly merciful at the same time. Yeshua took the punishment that you deserve. Justice was served, but mercy was extended to you. God hasn’t destroyed all evil doers in the world because he would have to destroy you to do so. He loves you, and has instead chosen to redeem you. Just like He chose to redeem, rather than destroy, Adam and Eve.
Shifting the paradigm
Once more, let’s review the traditional argument for the problem of evil and suffering:
1. A good God would destroy evil.
2. An all powerful God could destroy evil.
3. Evil is not destroyed.
4.Therefore, there cannot possibly be a good and powerful God.

Once you understand God’s commitment to allow us to be free moral agents capable of understanding and engaging in sincere loving relationship with Him, you realize the more accurate description of our current situation here on earth is this:
1. God is good and is able to destroy all evil.
2. But in doing so, he would destroy humanity, which is precious to Him.
3. Evil is not destroyed because of His love for us. Instead, He sent His son to take our punishment and redeem us.
4. God’s infinitely good nature is revealed in using His all-powerful might to redeem us rather than destroy us.

Of course, those that choose to reject the free gift of Christ’s sacrifice will face justice in eternity for their evil.
The glorious end of it all
I’ve endeavored to make the case that evil and suffering is not God’s handiwork, but rather is the result of mankind’s evil actions. I’ve explained that God could remove the ability of mankind to commit evil, but then we’d be nothing more than robots without the ability to sincerely love. Without love, all of the beautiful and wonderful parts of life would also be taken from us along with the evil parts, and God doesn’t want to take the best parts of living away from us. I’ve also highlighted the fact that God could wipe out every person that does evil to cleanse the world, but that would mean wiping out every single one of us, as we are all guilty.

Thus, I’ve concluded that God has instead opted to give us free will to make our own choices. He’s also given us a glorious means to redemption. Christ’s sacrifice guarantees a path back to face-to-face communion with God in a restored Garden-of-Eden type paradise for all eternity. Free will was the only path to love, but justice was the only path to righteousness. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross made both love and justice possible at the same time for us. Now, even though our free will has led to our moral imperfection, we are still granted righteousness and a perfect eternity with God. This free gift is available for anyone who wants it and chooses it.

This idyllic existence was God’s plan all along, and the serpent’s deception and mankind’s rebellion has not thwarted that plan. Although the fall of man was not something that God desired or orchestrated, He did know it would happen. God had already set a plan for the complete restoration of mankind before He ever breathed life into Adam. From the very beginning, even with the fall-of-man detour in view, God knew He would restore us back into an eternal, blissful existence full of love and free from all death and suffering. That blissful existence is where every single sincere Christ follower will spend eternity.
Hope for the suffering
Hopefully at this point you are convinced that God is all powerful and all good, and is not the source of your suffering. However, how is that supposed to help you with the overwhelming pain you are currently facing? Regardless of whose fault it is, the pain and suffering are very real. Here are three points I believe will bring encouragement in the midst of your suffering.
1. Yahweh promises an eternity without mourning or pain
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”’
Revelations 21:4 NIV

I’d like you to remember what God told me about my daughter’s future when my wife and I were trying to decide whether or not to bring a baby into this broken world. We felt God say, “The bliss of eternity with Me outweighs any pain she will have to go through on earth.” This goes for you, too. No matter how overwhelmingly painful and difficult your life may be, this temporary torment can’t even begin to compare to the bliss you will revel in for eons to come.

Besides, to allow suffering to drive you away from a belief in God does not make the suffering any easier. On the contrary, atheism does nothing to remove the suffering; it only removes all hope. If there is no God, the suffering in the world is just the natural way of things, and it is absolutely pointless. If there is no God, there is no morality, so there is no crime or injustice because there is no right or wrong. Therefore, justice will never be dealt to evil doers or the people who have wronged you. Most importantly, there will never be any healing, restoration, or eternal joy. This bleak outlook on life only makes suffering more unendurable.

On the contrary, although belief in God doesn’t make your suffering immediately disappear, it does promise that it will most certainly eventually disappear. Unrepentant evil doers will be dealt justice, all pain and sadness will be wiped away, and loved ones will be reunited for all eternity. This pain is only temporary. “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5 KJV)

Luke 6:21 says, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (ESV). Life may be difficult and it may seem impossible to find a reason to smile, but soon you will laugh and the pains of this world will only be a distant memory.
2. God understands and relates to your current suffering
I know you may have gone through a lot, but have you ever been betrayed by those closest to you, lost all of your closest friends at once, been excommunicated from the society you came to save, been whipped within an inch of life and then nailed to a cross to slowly die an excruciating death for a crime you didn’t commit? Jesus has, and He did it all for you. His Father had to watch His beloved son endure all that. Being a father myself, I’m not sure which one of them had it worse. I can’t fathom the pain that either one of them went through.

God is not indifferent to your suffering. In fact, He endured all that suffering specifically so that you wouldn’t have to. He understands betrayal. He understands loss. He understands crushing mental stress. He understands physical torment and unendurable pain. He understands it in the way that only someone who has experienced it can understand it. He went to the brink, and over the edge, of what a human can endure so that you would have a savior who can relate to every part of what you’re going through. He did it so that you wouldn’t ever have to feel alone or misunderstood, and so that you can spend eternity eternally separated from that kind of torment.

God didn’t just experience betrayal when He walked the earth as the man Yeshua. He still experiences rejection and betrayal daily from the very ones He suffered so much to save. His ability to love is far greater than ours, and thus His ability to hurt is much greater than ours. God is still experiencing rejection, and yes pain, still to this day. We see evidence of mankind’s ability to affect the emotional heart of God in the scriptures as the Bible is filled with stories of mankind breaking God’s heart. Yet, His love for us is unchanging. His love for you is unchanging. Even if you’re angry. Even if you’re sad. You can unload your emotional baggage on God. He wants you to be honest with Him, and He is the safest place for you to reveal your genuine feelings, no matter how fierce and raging those emotions may be.

You have never been alone. Every time your heart was broken, His heart was broken. When you shed a tear, He shed a tear. Knowing that we are not alone in our suffering, and that we have a God that genuinely understands and deeply cares is a profoundly comforting thought.
3. God has given us miraculous explosive power to change our circumstances
God has not abandoned us helpless in this brutal world. He’s given us everything we need to live a life of victory, not only in eternity, but in this world now.

2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV)
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

When this scripture says that the spirit God gave us gives us power, the Greek word used is dynameōs and it’s where we get our word “dynamite”. It refers to mighty miraculous power. God does not expect you to roll over and play dead as a helpless victim to tragedy. He expects you to use the mighty miraculous power and authority that He has given to you to change your circumstances. As long as there is breath in your lungs there is hope, and you possess the mighty miraculous power to turn that hope into a reality. It’s time to shake off the hopelessness and once again stir up your faith.

Daniel could have gone into the lion’s den hopeless and trembling, but instead He put his faith in God, and the mouth of the lions was miraculously shut (Daniel 6). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could have shrunk back in fear when threatened with death in the fiery furnace, but instead they boldly proclaimed their faith in God and they miraculously came out of the fire untouched (Daniel 3). Joseph could have easily given into depression while unjustly chained in prison, but instead he continued to honor God, and through a miraculous turn of events, rose to become the most powerful man in Egypt, second only to Pharoah (Genesis 41). For Lazarus, not even death was able to keep him down when the miraculous power of God got involved (John 11).

All of these Bible characters had one thing in common: Their natural situation was hopeless, but because they kept their faith, the mighty miraculous power of God had the final say. I could write an entire volume of books on the miracles recorded in the Bible. We’re not even scratching the surface in this chapter, and we know that it is still God’s will for His children to continue wielding the mighty miraculous power of God on the earth. Not only did Jesus regularly perform miracles, but He also sent His disciples out to “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” (Matthew 10:8 NIV) Romans 8:11 tells us that the same power of God that raised Christ from the dead lives in us and gives our bodies life.

Right now, with whatever difficult situation you are facing, make the decision that you are putting your faith in God and choosing to wield the mighty, explosive, miraculous power that God has given you to turn that situation around. Choose to earnestly believe that your best days are in front of you. Choose to believe that God’s promises in the Bible are true, and if you don’t know what God’s promises are, then commit to learning them. If you aren’t familiar with the BIble, start by reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts and take notes of all the promises that are made to believers in those books. Memorize them, choose to believe them, and act on them and your world will change. God desires for you to wield His mighty miraculous power to shape your destiny.
My hope for you
I hope that this chapter has reassured you that God is not the author of evil and suffering. I hope you are comforted by the fact that God understands your pain as He Himself suffered tremendously in order to rescue humanity from the devastating effects of evil. I hope you are reminded that you have been granted the authority and power to live a life of victory on the earth, and I pray you are filled with hope at the thought of one day being ushered into eternal bliss where every tear is wiped away.

Next time someone attempts to accuse God of being a moral monster because He hasn’t eradicated evil in the world, you will know that it is actually God’s love for humanity that stays His hand, and His omnipotent power that has orchestrated such a magnificent story of both love and justice that He has welcomed us into.