10 Reasons to Believe in a God Who Allows Suffering
- Suffering comes with the freedom to choose.
- Pain can warn us of danger.
- Suffering reveals what is in our hearts—
It has a way of revealing what is in our own hearts. Capacities for love, mercy, anger and pride can lie dormant until awakened by circumstances. Strength and weakness of heart is found not when everything is going our way by when suffering and trials test our character. The human heart is revealed and developed by enduring the pressure and heat of time and circumstance. Strength of character is shown not when all is well with our world but in the presence of human pain and suffering.
- Suffering takes us to the edge of eternity—
If death is the end of everything, then a life filled with suffering isn’t fair. But if the end of this life brings us to the threshold of eternity, the most fortunate people in the universe are those who discover, through suffering, that this life is not all we have to live for. Those who find themselves and their eternal God through suffering have not wasted their pain. They have let their poverty, grief, and hunger drive them to the Lord of eternity. They are the ones who will discover to their own neverending joy when Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Pain looses our grip on this life—
In time, our work and our opinions are sought less and less. Our bodies become increasingly worse for the wear. Problems loom larger and larger while options narrow. Each new pain makes this world less inviting and the next life more appealing. In its own way, pain paves the way for a graceful departure.
- Suffering gives us an opportunity to trust God.
- God suffers with us in our suffering.
- God’s comfort is greater than our suffering.
- In times of crisis, we find one another—
Natural disasters and times of crises have a way of bringing us together. Suddenly we remember our own mortality and that people are more important than things. Each time we discover God’s comfort in our own suffering, our capacity to help others is increased.
- God can turn suffering around for our good.
Extracted from http:/patriot.net/~alleluia/suffering/index.htm