Some thoughts on suffering.

Friday 11:00am
Recently I have been asked several questions about why suffering exists in our world.  It seems like people are asking these questions related to the earthquakes in Haiti and those dealing with personal tragedy.  Why does God allow earthquakes, hurricanes, cancer and terrorist attacks?  Why does God allow people and believers to suffer?

These are good questions and should be asked.  We must have a solid theology of suffering based on scripture because we all will encounter suffering at some point in life.  If we don’t understand what the Bible says, then the tendency is to blame God and walk away.

Romans 8.20-23a “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. (See Genesis 3) But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.  For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.” NLT

This text clearly states that all creation (the physical world) is currently under the curse of sin and longing to be freed from death and decay.  At the time of the fall God cursed the ground and it was at that moment that natural disasters became a reality.  It was not God’s original plan for his creation to war against itself, but that is the case because of the real effects of sin and the fall.
We, too, are still subject to the effects of sin and suffering, yet we have a great hope.  Our hope is in Him, that we will one day be given “full rights as his adopted children” (Rom. 3.23b) Our bodies will be made new, free from the effects of sin, deat,h and the curse: free from disease and sickness, cancer and decay.  We look forward to the “new heavens and the new earth” (Revelation 21.1-5a), a place without natural disaster, where we will live forever with glorified bodies having full rights as His children.

Our hope is in Christ! In this world there will be suffering, but we look to a time when all sin, suffering and tragedy is eradicated completely, what a day that will be!
Pastor Bryon