Is God Good
Why would God allow suffering
If God is good, then why is there so much suffering in the world? It’s a question that can be a real roadblock in our pursuit of God, but I want you to know that a whole bunch of us have been there too.
Instead of addressing this question in the typical way, I thought I’d share a story with you. It’s about a young woman who grew up going to church on Easter, wearing fancy dresses and memorizing Bible verses. She loved God as a kid and knew that He loved her. Her family would sit around the dinner table, bow their heads, and say, “God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for our food. Amen.”
Fast forward 20 years, and she’s sitting on a musty old couch in a rundown apartment, alone with her sleeping baby. She starts to wonder, “Is God really great and good?” Her life has been filled with pain and suffering. Her little brother died of leukemia when he was just nine years old. Her mom turned to alcohol and left her to fend for herself. Her dad? Well, let’s just say he did things no father should ever do.
She struggles to reconcile the hope she feels in her heart with the reality of her life. She comes across a book called “Disappointment with God” by Philip Yancey, and it resonates with her. Disappointment happens when our expectations exceed our experience. She’s been there.
She works hard, gets a scholarship, and starts college, but the questions keep coming. Why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people? It just doesn’t seem fair.
She’s not alone in asking these questions. Even the prophets in the Old Testament, like Habakkuk and Jeremiah, asked God why the wicked seem to prosper while the righteous suffer. And then there’s Job, a good man who lost everything in one day. He asked, “God, if you’re so great and good, then why all this suffering?”
Some people say that the answer is simple: there is no God. Atheists point to evil and suffering as proof that the God of the Bible doesn’t exist. But I think you can look around and see all the incredible good in the world and make the exact same argument. And where do we get our sense of right and wrong, good and bad, if not from a conscious giver?
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Others say that maybe God exists, but He’s weak or doesn’t care. But that doesn’t line up with her experience either. Despite all the tough things in her life, she can see the good too. The love she has for her child is stronger than anything she’s ever known.
It’s not until she goes to church on Easter that she starts to find some answers. And those answers come from an unexpected place: the cross of Jesus Christ.
You see, the cross reveals that we all live in a toxic, unfair world, and sometimes the most innocent get caught in the fallout of our collective sin and rebellion. We tend to point fingers at God and say, “It’s your fault,” but the truth is, Jesus willingly chose to suffer for us. He took on all the evil and suffering of the world so that we could be made right with God.
The cross is the answer to the question, “Why don’t you do something about evil?” He did. Jesus, the most innocent person who ever lived, was beaten, mocked, and nailed to a cross because of our sin. That’s how much God loves us.
And if we embrace a God like that, we’ll have the strength to face all the brutal realities of living in this sometimes unfair life. Those who have suffered the most are often the most deeply touched when they grasp Christ’s suffering for them.
Why Does God Allow Bad Things To Happen
That’s what happened to her that Easter. She came face to face with a God so good that He would choose to suffer for her sins, and a God so great that He could conquer sin and death once and for all. Hope started to rekindle in her heart, and she began to know God as someone acquainted with her grief and suffering.
Do we still have questions? Absolutely. We all have serious questions that make us doubt our faith sometimes. Can we answer them all? Probably not on this side of eternity. But we can open up our hearts and minds to fully know God and begin to trust His character as we navigate this confusing and often unfair world.
Life isn’t fair, but God is great. Life can hurt but God is good. And because of that, we can live in this world full of the same kind of love that sent Jesus to the cross and the same power that raised Him from the dead. We can make a difference by bringing hope, love, and light to those who desperately need it.
So let’s lean into God, knowing that He has a better view from above, a deeper love than we can imagine, and wisdom beyond our understanding. Let’s trust Him and follow Him all the days of our lives, even as we walk through this broken world.
And let’s never forget that the cross is the lens that zooms in on just how much we are loved by God. Life may not be fair, but God is always great and always good. Hold onto that truth, friends. It’s the hope we need to keep going.
Our team has compiled some of the most challenging, difficult, controversial, frequently asked questions we get about faith and Christianity as it relates to life, morality, current events, the end of the world, sexuality, and more. Week by week we’ll unpack seven of these questions in ways that I think you’ll find fascinating and informative. These questions are often the roadblocks for people when it comes to faith and Christianity. We’ve even titled the final week of the series, the subject you thought we would skip and not have the courage to address. You can check out all the messages at eastside.com/you-asked-for-it.
Author: Mike Breaux
Eastside Christian Church
Anaheim, CA
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