Sadly, many Christians have seen their faith crumble when hit with severe trials and suffering. For the believer it is so important to understand that as Christians we are not immune to suffering and in fact God will often use these difficult trials to help build our faith and draw us nearer to Him. Unfortunately, many Christians falsely assume that once they turn their lives over to Jesus, that trials and tragedies will lessen. And sadly, when they don’t, they either get disappointed with God or grow bitter toward Him. And, my friends, this is why having a solid understanding of why God allows evil and suffering, is critical to helping keep our faith intact.
As some of you may know, if you have read my bio on my website, at age 64, I received my master’s degree in Christian Apologetics from Biola University in California. One of my favorite, and I might add important courses, that I took was called: Why does God allow evil. One of the main reasons, I believe, Christians lose their faith in God, and non-Christians choose not to follow Jesus, is this whole area of suffering. Through this course at Biola, I learned a lot about the why’s of suffering and how to not get bitter at God when I have to go through the valley of despair, but to actually get better and improve my relationship with the Lord.
The Christian that can offer insight into this whole area of suffering, to an honest seeker of truth, can often remove one of the greatest obstacles in helping them come to faith in Jesus. Dennis Prager said it well: “The believer in God must explain one thing, the existence of sufferings; the nonbeliever, however, must explain the existence of everything else.”1
May I leave you with two quotes that I pray will help you in your own struggles with trials and tragedies:
“When the world asks if there is any hope, we can say absolutely! No one is exempt from tragedy or disappointment – God himself was not exempt. Jesus offered no immunity, no way out of the unfairness, but rather a way through it to the other side.”2 – Philip Yancey
“While Western atheists turn from belief in God because a tsunami in another part of the world caused great suffering, many brokenhearted survivors of that same tsunami found faith in God. This is one of the great paradoxes of suffering. Those who don’t suffer much think suffering should keep people from God, while many who suffer a great deal turn to God, not from him.”3 -Randy Alcorn
1 Apologetics Quotes | Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, etc. | Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, etc. (alwaysbeready.com)
2 Top 30 PHILIP YANCEY famous quotes and sayings | inspringquotes.us (inspiringquotes.us)