Is God Still Good in Times of Personal Suffering?
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Suffering is a universal and personal experience. We see it by reading the headlines, hear it when loved ones share their pain, and feel it when it affects us as individuals.
The question “is God still good in times of personal suffering?” proposes a number of considerations. Firstly, that there is a God. Secondly, that God is good. Thirdly, it asks if this goodness changes in times of suffering. Fourthly, it addresses personal suffering, which brings with it the worldview and experiences of the individual.
We can agree that we all go through pain and loss in varying degrees, but our experiences may be very different in how we perceive and address suffering. As we contemplate this question, I will also share my own story of knowing Jesus through great trials in the hope it may be of comfort or help.
The Existence of God in a Suffering World
From the outset and a spoiler alert: sometimes we are not given answers to our “why?” questions. We may never know on this earth why suffering has affected one person more than another, or why a disease kills one, yet spares another. The book of Job makes it clear that suffering happens to good people in catastrophic ways. It also shows that suffering can be connected to what is going on in the spiritual realm. There are forces at work behind what we see which we have no idea about. Job did not receive answers to the “why” of his suffering, but instead he worshiped God in the midst of deep pain (Job 1:20), and acknowledged God’s power and majesty when God did answer him (Job 42).
For many, suffering may be a reason to dismiss God’s existence completely. The very existence and prevalence of suffering may cause us to think if God is all-powerful, then why does He permit suffering? However, if we rule out the existence of God, we have no one to bring our anger and frustrations to or address our pain.
Where does this sense of injustice toward suffering come from? As people are made in God’s image, we have an understanding of what is morally right and wrong (Genesis 1:26). C.S. Lewis said, “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.”
We need to think about our idea of who God is. Is this the same God as revealed in the Bible, or is it an image of God that we have fabricated? Sometimes we have a false understanding of who God is which can shape how we view our suffering. Is God distant and disinterested, somewhere in the heavens? Is He angry and desiring people to obey Him or else? Does God care about you and me in a personal way? Can He be known or does He conceal His identity so no one can truly know Him?
What we think about God matters. If we believe that He is capable of stopping evil, but allows it, then why? What is the reason?
Ultimately, God does not have to give us the reason. However He does something far greater. He gives us Himself. Jesus Christ, being both fully God and fully man, came into our suffering world as a baby. He was born in a lowly place, under a king who slaughtered baby boys under the age of two in the hope that Jesus would be killed. Jesus would live a life misunderstood, rejected, and tempted by the devil himself. He would be beaten, mocked and crucified. He was humiliated by the people that He came to save. Jesus knew what it meant to suffer and He went to the grave, abandoned by His followers and separated from His Father as He bore the sin of His people on the cross.
We have a suffering Savior. This is a comfort for those who follow Jesus because we have a “merciful and faithful high priest” who was made like us and who atoned for our sin (Hebrews 2:17). He is able to help us when we are tempted to doubt God’s existence or goodness in our suffering because He was tempted, yet without sin (Hebrews 2:18). He meets us in our suffering and walks with us through it. We do not need to face any suffering alone.
An Unchanging God in a Hurting World
There was a guy in the church youth group I attended as a teenager who would enthusiastically wake us all up by shouting “GOD IS GOOD!” We were then meant to shout back “ALL THE TIME!” and then he would say, “ALL THE TIME!” and we would finish “GOD IS GOOD!”
That was fun and I would still say it’s true, despite not shouting it as loud these days. However, a few years after the exuberant shouting, I was diagnosed with cancer. I was 19, had started university only a few months earlier and had to pull out for six months of chemotherapy. It was during this painful time that I started blogging. My aim was to tell others that I still believed God was good, even in the face of this suffering. After the treatment, I was “cured” and went back to university with the advice from the consultant to “live my life.”
That turned out to be wise advice because ten years later, I was diagnosed with the same cancer for the second time. I had not thought about the possibility of the cancer coming back, which was a mercy. In those ten years I had gained a university degree, married a wonderful man, had two beautiful children, won an award for my blog and just kept living my life.
Being told you have cancer is not easier the second time around. I was more scared. I had a family. I was thinking deep, frightening questions about my faith. They were questions I thought I had answers to until it felt like death was staring me in the face. “Where are you God? What happens when my life just ends? I’m scared to die. Please don’t take me away from my family.”
It was standing on the truth of God’s word and His unchanging character that enabled me to walk through more chemotherapy, and a stem cell transplant, whilst caring for a new baby, a young son, a home to run and grieving the loss of a family member at the same time. I turned to simple verses that spoke deep truth. Psalm 56:3-4 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise — in God I trust. I will not be afraid.”
I would place my trust in the God who has been with me throughout my life. This psalm says “when I was afraid,” and I was afraid. But I took that fear and trusted God to see me through. It was Jesus sustaining me through the trial.
Is God Good All the Time?
The Bible says that He is. Nahum 1:7 declares, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” God is good to all because it is who He is. When God created all things, He said that it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
However, we know that there are things in this world that are not good. Suffering is a part of our experience. It entered this very good world that God had made through the schemes of Satan. Satan wanted to be like God and so great was his fall from the heavens to the earth. He deceived the first humans into doubting the goodness of God. Right from the start people have questioned God’s goodness, because the enemy of God is a cunning liar saying, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1). The disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden brought a curse upon the earth which we are still feeling the effects of today.
But none of this was a surprise to God. For He had a plan to redeem and restore His creation by sending Himself, in the person of Jesus, to cover the penalty of sin which is death. If God is good and merciful, He has to be just and deal with sin. If we doubt the goodness of God in our suffering, we need to look to the cross. The Judge of our sin became the Justifier and paid the price: the guilty go free. None of us deserve God’s goodness and mercy. We receive it by His grace displayed most incredibly at the cross.
Suffering will one day end for those who trust in Jesus. There is a glorious day ahead where there will be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain (Revelation 21:4).
A Personal Note for the Suffering
For those of you who are wrestling with deep questions and pain, I hope that you will take comfort knowing that there is a Savior who loves you. He knows your thoughts and your heart, and understands your pain and questions. Ask God to speak to you in your pain and meet you in your anguish. Cry out to Him. Read the Psalms which give a language of lament if it is hard to find the words.
Even if you cannot say a word, be reassured that He is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). Have an audience with the Lord and King of heaven and earth. Remember this is possible because of Jesus. You may not find the answers to all of your questions, but you can know His peace, presence and purpose for your life, whatever circumstances you are enduring.
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