I’ve been a pastor for over 40 years, and I can tell you without hesitation: this is the question that keeps people up at night. It’s the one that makes believers doubt and skeptics dismiss faith altogether. “If God is good and all-powerful, why does He allow suffering?”
Over the years, I’ve sat in hospital rooms with parents watching their children die. Additionally, I’ve held the hands of cancer patients who served God faithfully their entire lives. Furthermore, I’ve counseled marriages destroyed by betrayal, families shattered by addiction, and good people crushed by circumstances they never deserved.
And honestly? I’ve asked God this question myself—more times than I can count.
So let me give you the most honest answer I can, not as a theologian with all the answers neatly packaged, but as a pastor who’s walked through the valley with real people facing real pain.
The Question Nobody Wants to Hear
Here’s the truth that makes people uncomfortable: I don’t have a complete answer.
Neither does any other pastor, no matter how confident they sound from the pulpit. We see through a glass darkly, as Paul said. There are mysteries about God’s ways that won’t make sense until we’re standing before His throne.
But that doesn’t mean we’re left in the dark. God has revealed enough for us to trust Him, even when we can’t trace Him.
Let Me Tell You About Sarah
About fifteen years ago, a woman in our church—I’ll call her Sarah—came to me after losing her third baby to miscarriage. She was angry, hurt, and struggling to understand why God would allow her to endure that heartbreak again.
“Pastor,” she said through tears, “everyone tells me God has a plan. Everyone says He’s in control. But if that’s true, then He chose this. He chose to take my babies. How am I supposed to worship a God who does that?”
I didn’t have a neat answer that day. What I did was sit with her in that pain, acknowledge the weight of her question, and point her to the only place I’ve found real answers: Jesus on the cross.
What the Bible Actually Says About Suffering
Let’s start with what Scripture clearly teaches, because too many Christians have been given bad theology that makes suffering even harder to bear.
Suffering Didn’t Come from God
When God created the world, it was perfect. No death, no disease, no disaster. Suffering entered through sin—humanity’s rebellion against God. We broke the world, and now we live with the consequences.
God didn’t design cancer. He didn’t create divorce or depression. These things are the result of living in a fallen world where everything is broken and groaning for redemption (Romans 8:22).
Think of it like this: If you hand your teenager the keys to your car and they wreck it, you didn’t cause the wreck. But you did allow them the freedom to drive—and with freedom comes the possibility of destruction. God gave humanity real freedom, and we used it to rebel. Now we all live in the wreckage.
Not All Suffering Is the Same
The Bible shows us different types of suffering, and understanding this matters:
1. Natural Consequences Sometimes we suffer because of our own choices. You cheat on your spouse, your marriage falls apart. You abuse your body, your health deteriorates. This isn’t God punishing you—it’s the natural result of living in a world governed by cause and effect.
2. The Fallout of a Broken World Earthquakes, hurricanes, diseases—these happen because creation itself is fallen and groaning. A child getting cancer isn’t God’s judgment or some cosmic lesson. It’s the tragic reality of living in a world corrupted by sin.
3. Spiritual Warfare Job’s suffering came from Satan, not God. There’s a real enemy who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We’re in a war zone, and people get hurt in war.
4. Persecution for Faith Jesus promised His followers would suffer for following Him. If you’re taking heat for your faith, you’re in good company. The apostles rejoiced that they were “counted worthy to suffer” for Christ’s name (Acts 5:41).
5. Redemptive Suffering Sometimes—not always, but sometimes—God allows suffering that produces something beautiful. Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Joseph’s slavery and imprisonment. Christ’s crucifixion. Suffering that leads to greater glory, deeper faith, or the salvation of others.
What Suffering Is NOT
Let me clear up some theological garbage that’s been passed around:
Suffering is NOT always punishment for sin. Job’s friends thought this, and God rebuked them for it. Jesus explicitly addressed this when His disciples asked whose sin caused a man’s blindness. “Neither,” Jesus said (John 9:3).
Suffering is NOT a sign God doesn’t love you. Ask any parent: love doesn’t mean protecting your kids from every hardship. Sometimes love means allowing pain that produces growth.
Suffering is NOT meaningless. Even when we can’t see the purpose, God is working. Romans 8:28 doesn’t promise that everything IS good—it promises God WORKS everything for good for those who love Him.
Suffering is NOT the end of the story. This world is temporary. Our pain is temporary. Eternity changes everything.
The Only Real Answer: The Cross
Here’s where I finally got somewhere with Sarah, and where I always land when I’m wrestling with this question myself:
God doesn’t just allow suffering—He entered into it.
When Jesus hung on that cross, God the Father didn’t spare His own Son from the worst suffering imaginable. An innocent man, tortured and executed. The Son of God, abandoned and crying out “Why have You forsaken Me?”
If you want to know what God thinks about suffering, look at the cross. He didn’t philosophize about it from heaven. He came down and experienced it Himself—betrayal, injustice, physical agony, emotional torment, spiritual separation.
The cross tells us three things:
1. God understands our pain. He’s not distant or indifferent. He knows what it’s like to suffer unjustly.
2. God uses suffering redemptively. The worst day in human history became the best day. The instrument of torture became the instrument of salvation. God took the most evil act ever committed and used it to save the world.
3. God promises victory through suffering, not escape from it. Jesus didn’t come down from the cross. He went through death and came out the other side resurrected.
What This Means for You Right Now
If you’re suffering today, here’s what I want you to know:
Your pain is real, and God sees it. Don’t let anyone minimize what you’re going through. Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb even though He knew He was about to raise him from the dead. Your tears matter to God.
You don’t have to understand it to trust Him. I’ve stopped trying to figure out God’s specific reasons for every hardship. Instead, I’ve learned to trust His character. He is good, even when life isn’t.
Suffering is temporary; glory is eternal. Paul said our “light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17). When you’ve been in heaven for a million years, the hardest day on earth will seem like a fleeting moment.
You’re not alone. The same God who walked with Job through his trials, with Joseph through his prison, with David through his caves, with Paul through his beatings—that God walks with you.
A Word to Those Who’ve Lost Faith
Maybe you picked up this article because you used to believe, but suffering destroyed your faith. You prayed and nothing changed. You trusted and got betrayed. You believed God was good and then something happened that shattered that belief.
I get it. I really do.
But let me ask you this: What other worldview makes better sense of suffering?
If there’s no God, suffering is just random, meaningless chaos. You’re alone in your pain, and it serves no purpose whatsoever. Is that more comforting than believing in a God who promises to work even evil for good?
The atheist has no hope. The Buddhist says suffering is an illusion you need to escape. The Muslim says Allah’s ways are unknowable. But Christianity offers something radically different: a God who suffers with you, promises to redeem your pain, and guarantees that one day He’ll wipe away every tear.
Sarah’s Story, Continued
Remember Sarah, the woman who lost three babies? I wish I could tell you she got pregnant again and had a healthy child, but that’s not how her story went.
What happened instead was deeper. Over time, as she wrestled with God—really wrestled, like Jacob at Peniel—her faith didn’t just survive; it deepened. She and her husband eventually adopted two children from foster care, kids who’d been through their own trauma and needed parents who understood pain.
Years later, she told me something I’ll never forget: “I wouldn’t have chosen this path. I still don’t understand it all. But I’ve met a version of God in my suffering that I never knew in my comfort. And I’ve been able to comfort others with the comfort I received from Him.”
That’s 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 lived out in real life.
The Bottom Line
Why does God allow suffering? The complete answer is beyond our pay grade. But here’s what I know after four decades of ministry:
God is good. The world is broken. Jesus entered our suffering and conquered it through resurrection. And one day—maybe sooner than we think—He’s coming back to make all things new.
Until then, we walk by faith, not by sight. We trust God’s character more than our circumstances. And we hold onto the promise that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
That’s not a neat answer. But it’s an honest one. And it’s enough to keep me going when nothing else makes sense.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” – Romans 8:18
FAQ: Common Questions About Suffering
Q: If God knows we’re going to suffer, why did He create us? A: Because He also knows the joy, love, and eternal glory that awaits those who trust Him. Parents know their kids will experience pain, but they still choose to bring them into the world because life—even with suffering—is worth living.
Q: Why doesn’t God just stop all suffering right now? A: If He stopped all suffering immediately, He’d have to stop all sin immediately—which means stopping us. God’s patience in allowing this broken world to continue is actually mercy, giving more people time to turn to Him (2 Peter 3:9).
Q: How do I pray when I’m suffering? A: Honestly. David cried out “How long, O Lord?” Jesus prayed “Take this cup from Me.” God can handle your questions, your anger, your doubt. Just keep talking to Him.
Q: What about people who suffer and never come to faith? A: This is one of the hardest questions, and honestly, I don’t have a satisfying answer. I trust that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Genesis 18:25), and I focus on sharing the hope I have while I can.
Q: Does suffering make me stronger? A: It can, but it’s not automatic. Suffering can make you bitter or better—the difference is how you respond. With God’s grace, suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3-5).