Why do I have to suffer? This is the question that every person on this planet has asked. If God is all loving and all powerful why does He allow His creatures to suffer?
God created angels with the freedom of choice. Lucifer rebelled against God and declared that he would set up a new government with “better” laws and more freedom. Had God destroyed him then, all the other celestial beings and angels in the universe would have questioned God and worshiped Him out of fear.
Then God created humans in a perfect world filled with peace, love and happiness. Sadly, humans used their free will to follow the devil. This resulted in the suffering and death we see in the world today. We can’t blame God for our decisions.
Today, God is allowing the devil to unfold his plans. Everyone in the universe will have to see the full extent of sin and what it will do before God destroys it forever.
So, it is not God’s wish that men should suffer. God does not tempt man (James 1:13). Man has brought this condition of affairs upon himself by his disobedience (Genesis 1:27). Since this is the case, God uses these experiences to develop human character according to His will (1 Peter 4:12, 13). When men are tempted, therefore, they should remember that the temptation comes, not because God sends it, but because He permits it.
God took upon Himself the redemption of mankind. God sent His innocent Son, who did no sin, to die on our behalf to save us (John 3:16). What infinite love that the Creator of all will redeem His fallen creatures. The most one that really suffered through the sin problem was God Himself.
Very soon, God will end up the sin problem and take the redeemed to live forever with Him in eternal happiness where there is no suffering. Looking at my “suffering”, I’m actually embarrassed comparing it with what He really went through to save me, when He didn’t really need to.
The scriptures declare that “…God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13. And if rightly met, in the strength God supplies, temptations may be the means of accelerating the Christian’s growth in grace.
