Originally Posted By: travlin'easy

Well, if God was so good and gracious, why did God allow that tiny baby to convulse and die from the crack cocaine the mother continued to ingest on a daily basis during pregnancy? Why didn't God prevent all those beautiful, brave babies I held in my arms from contracting cystic fibrosis in the first place? Why did HE allow those children to be born with congenital heart defects that destroyed their tiny bodies? If HE was so great and merciful, creator of all in this universe, why is he allowing, in the name of religion, jihad to rain down thousands of missiles on the Israeli children?


Hi Gary, I'll give you my take. Firstly suffering in this world is a reality. Even for Jesus, who not only is God in human form, but also did nothing to deserve what happened to Him (like those blessed children). The Bible also gives us the story of Job who, we are told, was blameless, a man of complete integrity. Yet he suffered tremendous loss and personal suffering.

The reality is that we live in a fallen world. God gave us free will. We were created to live in relationship with God; if He had wanted robots He could have created them. When Adam and Eve made the choice to disobey God, sin entered the world and we suffer still to this very day. We very often suffer because of the sin of others, like those poor children who are dying in the Middle East.

Also we forget that there is another force at work in this world; Satan. Satan’s ultimate goal is to get us to doubt and lose our trust and hope in God. Satan tried this with Job, but he could not get Job to give in. He has substantial power however, and is doing a better job with many others in this world!

Thirdly, the scriptures make it clear that the testing of our faith develops perseverance and perseverance develops character. I believe that the times in which we grow and learn the most about God is during our trials and hardships. So, maybe, some of our hardships eventually have a positive aspect on us, and help prepare us to be the people God wants us to be in eternity.

What people need to know, and what we need to internalize is that God is still God even when there is trouble, even if people do not believe in Him. And, although we, on our own, are so easily disobedient to His will, He still loves us and He put in place a plan for us to finally be in that place of joy, with no more suffering, no more tears, no more death! God loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son, to die a brutal death on the cross as punishment for our sins, so that, by faith in Him, we can be made clean and holy to stand in the presence of God, and live with Him eternally.

Praise God for that!
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