Faith amid suffering
It’s the oldest question in the book: how can God allow suffering? Over the centuries, Christians have turned to the Bible and found answers to this dilemma; but the persistence of the question suggests that on some level, we’re just not able to wrap our minds around God’s reasons for allowing evil and suffering. We can firmly believe in God’s goodness and love, and yet still find our faith deeply challenged when tragedy strikes our own lives.
William Stuntz, a professor at Harvard, can speak about this with authority—because nine years ago, his life went from “normal” to “nightmare” in the course of just a few harrowing months.
From a crippling injury to chronic, constant pain to relationship breakdowns and finally to a cancer diagnosis, Stuntz has experienced suffering… and he’s written down some of his observations about living through suffering while believing in Jesus Christ. In his essay, he talks about some of the misconceptions Christians have about the purpose and nature of suffering. Here’s one of his points:
Christians err when we imagine that God is supposed to heal all our diseases. That is not promised to us, not in this life. More the opposite: Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble†— not “might have,†but “will have.†But while God does not offer to take my cancer or my pain away, He offers something even better: that good will come from those illnesses, and that the good will be larger than the suffering it redeems. Romans 8:28 says that “in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.†Cancer and chronic pain remain ugly, killing things, enemies of all who love life and beauty. But try as they might, those enemies do not get the last word. Our pain is not empty; we do not suffer in vain. When life strikes hard blows, what we do has value. God sees to it. That is an enormous mercy.
It’s an excellent essay, and makes a good companion read alongside Jim Watkins’ recent writings about suffering, which we highlighted last week.
I enjoyed reading this statement, but I actually expected to see the word “sovereign” associated with Romans 8:28. A very enjoyable & informative website. Thanks.
Well done, I think that a large number of Christians actually believe that when they become a Christian their life is going to be smooth sailing from then on. This clearly is not true, as shown by some of the verses here. Life with Christ will be full of suffering and pain but the faith we have in Him will help get us through.
I Believe Christian Life is Suffering & Pain,cause our Christ suffered,& thats why we are saved by his precious Blood,Amen.As written in Col,chapter 2.verses 12-13 Regarding dying & living in Christ,and by a true faith we have new Eternal life in christ. Love lots of God Blessings.
Derek Joseph (GFNM) Gate for Nation ministry Pakistan.
Jesus said, “in this life you will have trouble but be of good cheer I have overcome.”
While I don’t think life is supposed to be all good, I do find myself reading this essay carefully as a lit major should. I often get nervous when someone cuts off a quote in the middle and ignores the rest of the quotation.
Who knows what Jesus meant by “trouble” or what he meant us to take from the knowledge that he had overcome. Did he mean we would also overcome? Didn’t he say “when the son of man comes, will he find faith in the earth?” Is it possible that we “accept” more suffering than we are supposed to? Is it possible we are able to overcome as Jesus did? The construct of Jesus sentence might imply Trouble from persecution and not trouble from illness. It might imply that we should rejoice in victory, not in submission to the sorrows as God’s will (as in Islam) and not surrender to them (as in Buddhism)
ore and more I’m encountering folks who say stuff like this: “God gives us hard times to make us better.”
The Bible tells us to “count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations.” It also says “Don’t say when you are tempted that God is tempting me because God tempts no man.” It also states that “God chastises his children.” But it does NOT say that God gives us hard times. Nor does it say sickness is a blessing. We must rightly divide the word of truth or we will fall into a subtle kind of unbelief.
We are called to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, to preach the good news of the kingdom to the poor. We are called to occupy til Christ comes. But the subtle unbelief among god-loving Bible-believing Christians that A) Bad trials bring blessings and B) nothing happens unless God wills it THEREFORE a hard time must have been allowed by God to bring a blessing… is iffy theology. A) God does NOT control everything that happens to us. and B) God is often more willing and able to get us out of trouble than we are to able to believe.
This idea of the sovereignty of God has a lot to do with A) folks not really understanding how they have opened their lives to disaster and B) folks not believing in the devil C) folks not believing that their sin will find them out and D) slip-shod reading of the Bible.
How many Christians for instance know that bringing an idol from another religion (a Buddha, an ankh, a Yoruba carving of a God) into their house brings a curse? How many Christians know that it’s not legalism to avoid eating pork, shellfish, etc? How many Christians know that one is actually cursed if they have sex outside of marriage? How many Christians know that to mock the handicaped (even lovingly, I suspect) brings a curse? This is not legalism. And yes, I know Jesus took the punishment of all these curses upon us. But does that mean we should presume to do what God has told us we should not do? So folks open their lives to trouble and develop heart disease of other health issues…and the next thing out of their mouth is this blasphemy: “God brought this on me so that I might grow and really appreciate Him.” Oh please! It’s almost as if they’ve mixed up islamic “submission” with buddhist “surrender” and totally forgotten that as Christians we’re supposed to overcome evil with good.
Another problem is slip-shod reading of the Bible. The Bible tells us:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 It doesn’t say God makes bad things happen. It says God can take those bad things and make them good.
IF you abide in me and my words abide in you, THEN you can ask what you will and you will receive.
If you abide in me and my words abide in you, THEN you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
When someone is sick we are NOT to say it brings a blessing.
Sickness is always viewed in the Bible as a curse. If a person has sinned a sin unto death, we are not to pray for them. (And Proverbs and the Bible shows us many sins that lead us to death and poverty.) But for the most part, we must pray. We are not to go around telling people the sickness brings a blessing. The Book of Proverbs challenges us on this idea of bad times brings good blessings. What Satan meant for evil God is able to turn to good. . . if we fight the good fight and resist the devil. But how can we resist the devil of sickness, sorrow, etc… if we start nursing the thought that perhaps, maybe God gave it to us as a blessing so we could learn better. It’s silly to sit around saying, “God’s will is so mysterious I don’t know if I should be praying for freedom from this” when God himself has told us that Who the son sets free is free indeed! The Books of Proverbs, Psalms, and the gospels tells us that bad times that we fall into might tempt us to fall away from God if we suffer too much or if we are blessed with too much. How many people have fallen away from God because of suffering? A lot.
We are warned not to “limit the holy one of Israel.” We are called to go from glory to glory, and to “only believe.”
Why then are so many loving Bible-believing Christians trying to comfort afflicted people by urging people to be content with the sorrows of life. Is that true Biblical comfort…to say that God brought sorrow into your life so you could learn something? I even heard someone say that if Adam and Eve had never fallen they would never have learned how much God loves them; they would’ve taken everything for granted. Oh please! Folks are gonna take stuff for granted whether or not life is good or bad for them. One-third of the angels fell into sin. The other two-third didn’t.
So unbelief shouldn’t disguise itself as comfort and respect for the sovereignty of God. It’s a bad theology which makes us think we’re helping folks when what we’re doing is blaspheming against the goodness of God and discouraging folks from seeking God for Biblical guidance on how to be freed from their afflictions. IT also excuses the so-called comforter from praying for the sick or arranging for the praying for the sick. We pray every day for President Barack Obama but when was the last time we really set out to pray with all our hearts for some normal Christian.
1 John 3:18 NRSV: Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
Sometimes it’s so easy to speak so-called comforting words. But let us beware of platitudes that rob the precious gospel and that rob the believer of the miracles we are called to walk in.
9 years of suffering — no matter how bad– does not compare to 22 years of suffering or to seeing one’s child suffer for 19 years. But at least I have hope for a miracle. I haven’t accepted that my demise will be soon and will be painful…as the writer of the essay seems to have assumed about his life.
well said, Amen
question, if we sin and disobey but are still christians, are we then cursed christians, what is our hope after repentance
Jenny, There is the need for us to confess as soon as we realize that we have sinned. We also need to repent and we have been told in the Bible – 1 John 1:9 that IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
So! we still have hope. Our duty is to confess, repent and BELIEVE that we are forgiven. We grow on a daily basis when we keep in touch with Jesus and TRUST him.
I trust the Holy Spirit will help you to understand it better and to apply it too.
Luv in the Lord
Carole,
that was the most well written understanding of God’s purpose for us. I thank you because you are so right, the devil does tempt us to believe that God wants this suffering for our own good. And christians do receive curses because of sin, however, we also have the opportunity everyday to repent of these sins. It doesn’t mean that the curses are immediately lifted, but it does mean that we have grown in our understanding of God’s purpose for our lives. Remember, God took Isreal from their land for 70 years. During that time, there was much reptentance, but they still had to deal with the consequences of previous decisions.
Thank you for this.
For God is first a good of truth. He does not work in lies for any reason. Death is not of Him.
thank you very much for the topic by Carol McDonnell it has really helped me in understanding that the facts on beliefs should be 100% bibles based. we have to believe in God right from the word, and that’s why Jesus when teaching about prayer said: when you pray…..let your kingdom come…in heaven there’s no sickness, no pain no hatred etc.. i beg to differ a little with the writer Stuntz that we ought not fully accept bad situations to overcome our lives. but allow good to overcome evil.
Jenny,
The problem between man and God is the fact that man would not acknowledge his sin and repent. Even as Christians, we can still sin and lose our salvation because man is weak; many examples abound in Scripture…Peter, etc. God requires us to do our first works (of salvation) again. When we repent, God gladly forgives us as if we’d never hurt Him. Do you know why God called King David “a man after mine heart”? Because he always acknowledged his sin and repented every time he backslid.