Why does God allow suffering? We have all asked this question. Have you ever noticed that God sometimes allows adversity to transpire in our lives to give us a “wake-up” call to turn and focus on Him? Often our prayer life and spiritual walk with God is the closest and deepest when we are in the middle of a trial, when we are at the bottom, and the only place to turn is to Him.
In
February, Legacy participated in a benefit sing for a precious baby by the
name of Stephen James Gardner. He
was born with only 10% of his brain, as a result of a condition known as
Alobar HPE. This baby is
literally a living miracle in the way he has survived and responded to
stimulus in his short life thus far.
What is even more miraculous, is that through the necessity of this
benefit sing, many people and ministers in song were brought together, who
otherwise would have not have been at this gathering had Stephen not been
born with this condition. At
the end of the service, the highlight of the night was when two precious
souls gave their heart to Jesus!! Praise
the Lord!!
We
often forget that in the beginning, God did give humanity a perfect world
with no suffering. God also
gave us the free will to choose obedience or to sin.
When we chose to sin, suffering and adversity came into the world.
God sometimes allows events such as 9-11 to show the world the pure
ugliness of sin if left unchecked. What
we also learned is that a tremendous amount of good has come out of that
tragedy, which is in keeping with God’s promise in scripture: “….all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 KJV)
When
trials and suffering come, we may not understand the reason, but know that
God loves us, and there’s both a purpose and a master plan.
When injustices come, remember Jesus went through the greatest
injustice of them all when he was beaten, mocked and crucified for no
reason other than showing pure love. He didn’t get mad. He
didn’t vindictively get an “attitude”.
He merely said with love in his eyes, “Father forgive them, they
know not what they do”. My
pastor taught me some important lessons we can learn from trials: 1) God never promised us freedom from trials, but He did
promise He would be there to walk beside us through them. 2) He comforts us in our time of need, so we can comfort
others in their time of need. 3)
When trials come, His grace in shown so we can show that same grace to
others. 4) Other people comfort us through their trials, we comfort others
through our trials, but Jesus can comfort us greater than anyone else
because of what He went through. He
created us and He can sympathize with us.
He knows us better than any other person.
He loves us……and will…..forever and ever!! Amen!!
Tim Perry for Legacy