Tough Questions - Why does God allow suffering?

Devotional

Day 1: God’s loving, powerful, and all-knowing nature.

The reality of suffering in our world can feel at odds with the God we read about in Scripture. We believe in a God who is defined by love, who holds all power, and who knows us intimately. These truths about His character are the foundation upon which we build our understanding, even when our circumstances seem to contradict them. We can hold these truths as anchors for our souls. [01:39]

God is love. 1 John 4:8b (NLT)

Reflection: When you consider a current hardship, which of God’s attributes—His love, power, or knowledge—is the most difficult for you to trust in this situation? Why do you think that is?

Day 2: The gift and consequence of human free will.

God, in His love, created humanity with the profound gift of free will. This freedom allows for beautiful expressions of creativity, love, and innovation. However, this same freedom also permits the possibility of great evil and pain, as people choose to act outside of God’s good design. The suffering we often see is a result of this misused freedom, not a lack of care from God. [08:10]

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)

Reflection: Where have you recently seen the positive results of free will in your life or community? Where have you seen its negative consequences?

Day 3: Living in a good but broken creation.

The world God created was declared “very good,” but it was not designed to be a perfectly safe paradise. Natural processes, while good in themselves, can come into conflict and cause what we know as natural suffering. The biblical narrative tells us this brokenness entered creation as a consequence of humanity’s separation from God, fracturing the original harmony. [10:43]

Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! Genesis 1:31a (NLT)

Reflection: How does understanding that the world is both “good” and “broken” change your perspective on a natural disaster or an illness you or someone you know has faced?

Day 4: God enters into our suffering through Jesus.

God’s ultimate response to suffering was not a distant philosophical answer but a personal entry into it. In Jesus, God experienced the full depth of human pain, rejection, and sorrow. He is not a detached observer but a compassionate companion who truly understands our grief from the inside. [16:14]

He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Isaiah 53:3 (NLT)

Reflection: In what area of your life do you most need to feel that Jesus understands your pain? How can you intentionally bring that pain to Him today?

Day 5: God’s promise to restore and make all things new.

The story does not end with suffering. God’s response culminates in the promise of restoration through Christ’s resurrection. A future is coming where God will dwell with His people, and every tear will be wiped away. This certain hope assures us that our present pain is not the final word and that God is making a way for all that is broken to be healed. [18:13]

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. Revelation 21:4 (NLT)

Reflection: What is one specific loss or brokenness in your life that you long to see restored in God’s new creation? How does this hope change how you walk through today?

Sermon Summary

This exposition wrestles with why a loving, omnipotent, and omniscient God permits suffering and what that means for faith and practice. It frames the problem honestly: suffering is universal—illness, loss, injustice—and appears to conflict with the character of God. Two biblical lenses are set forward as primary explanations: human freedom and the brokenness of creation. Human beings, made in God's image, are granted genuine freedom; that freedom makes love and responsibility possible but also allows choices that produce moral evil. Likewise, the created order, though originally declared “very good,” now bears consequences of separation from God; natural forces intended for good can interact in ways that produce pain.

Philosophical objections are addressed, with a reminder that the existence of suffering does not automatically invalidate belief in God. The argument that a good God would never allow suffering is challenged by noting that finite agents sometimes permit pain for greater goods—training, healing, forming character—and that one cannot assume there are no sufficient reasons God might allow suffering. Yet philosophical answers alone are insufficient for the person in the midst of grief.

The decisive response is twofold: God enters suffering personally in the person of Jesus and God promises final restoration. Jesus experienced real human pain, rejection, and a violent death; in that solidarity he knows suffering from the inside. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God both confronts the power of sin and points toward a renewed creation where tears, death, and pain are wiped away. This hope is rooted in Revelation’s vision of a new heaven and new earth in which God dwells with people and makes all things right.

The practical implication is an invitation to trust: not a naïve acceptance of unanswered questions, but a posture of reliance on a God who is present in suffering and committed to ultimate healing. Those who suffer are encouraged to look to Jesus’ solidarity and the promise of restoration, while the faithful are called to participate in alleviating suffering now. The overall tone is pastoral conviction: the problem remains mysterious in many details, but God’s character and acts provide a compelling basis for trust and hope.

Key Takeaways

1. Suffering challenges assumptions about God Suffering exposes tensions between divine goodness, power, and knowledge, forcing a deeper theological excavation rather than quick dismissals. The question is not merely intellectual; it presses the heart to reckon with how God’s attributes cohere with real pain. Honest attention to the contradiction sharpens faith, clarifies doctrine, and prevents facile answers that flatten human experience. [00:50]
2. Free will makes love meaningful Genuine moral agency—people created in God’s image—renders love authentic but also permits choices that inflict suffering. Freedom is not a flaw to be revoked but a necessary condition for relationship; it explains why evil can be humanly produced without indicting divine benevolence. This insight reframes responsibility: moral evil is a human problem that requires repentance, justice, and mercy. [06:15]
3. Creation’s brokenness produces natural suffering Natural suffering arises from a world now marred by separation from God, where originally good structures can clash and cause harm. Such pain is not evidence of cosmic cruelty but of a creation no longer sealed in Edenic harmony; it points to a structural disorder requiring restoration. This perspective invites stewardship and lament rather than blaming God for contingencies intrinsic to a non-paradisal world. [08:56]
4. God entered suffering through Jesus Divine solidarity is decisive: God did not remain aloof but assumed human weakness in Christ and endured rejection, pain, and death. That solidarity validates human grief—the divine heart is acquainted with deepest sorrow—and reframes suffering as something God shares and heals from within. This truth offers existential comfort: one follows not an absent deity but a companion in the cruciform life. [15:23]
5. Resurrection promises cosmic restoration The resurrection reorients suffering within a teleology: present pain is not final because God intends a renewed creation where death and tears are removed. Revelation’s vision grounds endurance in eschatological certainty, making hope communal and cosmic rather than merely personal. Holding that future shapes present action: it motivates care, justice, and patient trust. [17:15]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:50] - The Question of Suffering
[04:28] - Biblical Explanations Overview
[06:15] - Free Will and Human Choice
[08:56] - Natural Suffering and the Fall
[12:20] - Philosophical Response (Plantinga)
[15:23] - God Enters Suffering in Jesus
[17:15] - Resurrection and Final Restoration
[19:30] - Invitation to Trust
[21:10] - Prayer and Practical Resources

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
Revelation 21:3–4 (ESV):
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

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Observation questions

According to Revelation 21:3–4, what specific changes will occur in the new creation?
How does Isaiah 53:3 describe the experience of the suffering servant? [15:23]
What two broad categories of suffering are explained in the biblical narrative? [04:28]
What does Deuteronomy 30:20 highlight about the relationship between choice and obedience? [06:15]

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Interpretation questions

How does the reality of human free will help make sense of moral evil in the world, without attributing it to God? [07:41]
In what ways does natural suffering (like disease or disasters) point to a creation that is “fundamentally broken” rather than intentionally cruel? [08:56]
Why might philosophical explanations for suffering feel inadequate to someone experiencing deep personal pain? [14:33]
How does Jesus’ suffering reframe the question “Where is God when I hurt?” [15:44]

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Application questions

When have you struggled to reconcile God’s goodness with the presence of suffering in your life or the world? How can the truth that God entered into suffering himself shape your response? [16:14]
How does the promise of a future restoration where “every tear is wiped away” affect the way you face grief and loss today? [17:40]
In what practical ways can you participate in God’s work of alleviating suffering—whether through compassion, justice, or presence—in your community? [21:10]
Where do you find it most difficult to trust God’s wisdom when you don’t have answers? How can looking to Jesus’ life and resurrection strengthen that trust? [19:30]
How might you walk alongside someone in pain differently, knowing that God doesn’t always explain suffering but promises his presence and final restoration? [20:29]
What is one situation right now where you need to remember that God is not distant but has entered into suffering with you? [15:23]

Sermon Clips

To god says that everything he's created was good. Everything from, you know, sharks to volcanoes, those things that are sometimes dangerous and terrifying. God says, actually, those things are good too. Alright? God's created this good, ordered, and beautiful world, but nowhere does it say that it's safe. Alright? If you read through Job chapters 38 to 41, you'll be struck by how god highlights these two dangerous creatures, the behemoth and the Leviathan, to make that exact point to Job. He says, god's world is good, but it's not designed to prevent suffering, [00:08:46] (38 seconds) #GoodButNotSafe

And so the gospels, they they confirm this by telling us about Jesus' life. They tell us that he was born into poverty. He was a a refugee. He experienced thirst and hunger. He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. He was betrayed. And then when he came to tell people about God's kingdom, he was despised. He was rejected by so many people. And in the end, he was he was mocked. He was humiliated, tortured, and left to die a very painful death on a cross. [00:15:50] (29 seconds) #JesusSharedOurSuffering

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