At some point everyone has asked why life is so hard. The question has been asked by believers from the beginning. The greatest thinkers of the ages have wrestled with this—and not just writers like Job, Sartre, and Descartes. Even pop pundits like Woody Allen have summed it up by saying, “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering—and it’s all over much too soon.”
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No theologian, pastor, or grief counselor has all the answers, but God understands everything better than we do. He resides in His holy temple and reigns on His heavenly throne. He took all the suffering in the world, boiled it down to its evil essence, shaped it into the form of a cross, and sent Jesus to take care of it.
In the shadow of Calvary, an eternal answer arrived to the problem of pain. Because Jesus faced adversity, He defeated the adversary, Satan. Because He defeated the adversary, we can trust Him with adversities in life. His grace is sufficient.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). The Word of God is brutally honest about the reality of life. Every child of God feels the sting of adversity. But you can trust that everything that happens to us will become a platform for the glory of Him who “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11).
Many teachers today say that if we love God and we walk with Him, we will never suffer from sickness, poverty, or hardship. That doctrine is not from the Word of God. Jesus Himself said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Adversity is no respecter of persons. Jesus always did the right thing, yet He suffered violent, life-ending injuries and excruciating pain at the hands of His enemies in order to carry out God’s will for His life (Philippians 2:8-10).
- “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
- “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
- “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
It is not the absence of suffering but the response to suffering that makes Christians unique. The Bible cannot make trouble disappear, but it can give us assurance that it is transitory and “not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
God has the answers to the questions you—and your loved ones—are asking. In Ten Questions Christians Are Asking, Dr. Jeremiah reveals each biblical answer with clarity and assurance.