If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer?
Apr 1, 2011
The Base for Grace - part thirty-five in a study of the book of Hebrews
By Mike Gaudet
If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer?
“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.” Hebrews 12:4-7
When exposed to chronic difficulty, first century Jewish Christians reasoned that God had abandoned them. It’s natural to attribute the presence of suffering to the absence of divine activity. At some level we all feel abandoned and deserted when we’re left in painful places.
These discouraged believers are advised to “endure hardship as discipline.” This doesn’t seem very helpful does it? What good does it do to place difficulties under the heading of divine discipline?
The word translated “discipline” literally means, “to be with a child.” When we are God’s sons and daughters He disciplines us. The focus of this discipline is the future. The motive for this discipline is love.
Properly administered, the focus of discipline is on what a child will do right, not on what the child has done wrong. This is always the case with God’s discipline.
It’s important to distinguish between the focus of discipline and the focus of punishment. When someone is punished, he or she is subjected to harsh treatment in order to balance the scales of justice. The focus of punishment is on past misdeeds. The focus of discipline, however, is on future correct behavior.
Moses told the Israelites that their 40-year “wilderness wandering” was an expression of God’s discipline. “Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.” Deuteronomy 8:4-5
Moses went on to assure the Israelites that God had good purposes in mind when He caused them to face hardships and challenges. “He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” Deuteronomy 8:16
When God leads us through wilderness times, He does so “so that in the end it might go well” with us. The difficulties we face are intended to build us up, not tear us down.
God doesn’t send painful reminders in order to “teach us a lesson.” While our choices do bring natural consequences, it is a mistake to assume that God causes us to suffer in order to “keep us in line.” God is our Father. He isn’t our Godfather. He doesn’t make us suffer in order to “pay us back” for doing something wrong. The punishment for sin is death, not difficulty. If God is going to “get even with us” for disobeying Him, we won’t live to talk about it.
Another important difference between discipline and punishment concerns motive. The motive of punishment is wrath and justice. The motive of discipline is love.
Dealing with material, social and physical hardship was a way of life for first century Jewish believers. It wasn’t hardship that drained their spiritual strength though; it was the belief that God no longer cared about them.
When life becomes difficult we are tempted to believe that God has abandoned us. We assume that God will never lead us to a place where we experience hunger and hardship. Forgetting that God “disciplines those he loves” causes us to react in one of two ways; we either “make light” of our circumstances and pretend that we are “fine,” or we “lose heart” and become discouraged.
When Jesus went without food for 40 days in the wilderness, He neither denied His hunger, nor demanded that God satisfy it . . . He endured it. He didn’t need God to remove the physical or emotional discomforts of hunger in order to prove that He was still there. Jesus trusted that even though hunger and hardship was with Him, His Father was with Him as well.
When we walk with God, we will find ourselves facing hunger and hardship . . . because we are His children. Remembering this won’t make our hunger disappear. It will, however, enable us to endure it.
It’s the fear of not being cared for that makes hunger intolerable. When we hold our hunger and hold God’s hand at the same time, He gives us the power to persevere.