Explanations for PainSample

God is bad

“Why, God?” That is the most natural and dangerous question to ask when you are suffering. When your dad dies while you’re in grade school, or you live with depression for decades, or a car accident kills someone you love, it is instinctive to ask why. Why did this happen?

While some people look in the mirror and blame themselves, other people look up at the heavens and blame God. After all, God is all-knowing and all-powerful; he is the Lord who once said, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). It would be easy for God to snap his mighty fingers and cure your cancer, fix your family, and pay off every dollar of your debt.

So when God doesn’t, it is logical to wonder if God is as loving as he claims to be. How can he look down on his own children in their pain, do nothing, and claim to be good? This is the question that causes many people to question the goodness of God or deny him altogether.

But “God is bad” falls just as short as “I am bad” when explaining pain. What about the blessings God has given? What about the grace God has shown you? What about the Son that God sent for you?

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10).