Take Comfort
Be Strong, Be Well — Thursday, May 21
Atheists have long argued that suffering in this life proves there is no God. They reason: if God is loving, He would not allow people to suffer. And if He is all powerful, He certainly would do something about it.
But God does exist. He is all-powerful and He is all-loving and compassionate when it comes to human suffering. One great truth about God is, He cares.
No one can say they completely understand the problem of suffering. There are so many things we don’t understand (Romans 11:33). So who dares to appeal to some kind of standard of suffering without God in the picture.
There are many reasons why people suffer, but the most prominent hinges on the nature of this world we live in. In the beginning sin entered the world and caused God to curse His perfect creation. Pain and suffering have been with humanity ever since.
The greatest answer to the problem of suffering is Jesus Christ. He came to show us just how much God loves us and understands what we go through. He is able to help us to endure with courage and trust. Imagine, the Son of God (God Himself) came because He loved us so much (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). And He wanted us to know, one day there would be an end to our pain and suffering.
Take comfort in these passages of scripture.
Jesus, “who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:7-9).
“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:21-24).
“For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
There’s nothing more powerful than the Scriptures to help us though pain and suffering, grief and sorrow. —Chris