Problem & Power of Pain Series

God has solved the problem of pain through the death and resurrection of Jesus, but not on our timeline or in the way we would choose. Pain that is misunderstood and mismanaged can drive us away from God, and the pursuit of comfort can choke out faith just as surely. Scripture names five sources of suffering: spiritual evil, other people’s sin, our own sin, God’s loving discipline, and disease, disaster & accidents in a sin-infected world. Telling them apart keeps us from blaming God for what we caused and from blaming ourselves for what we did not.

The answers to life’s hardest questions often won’t come until after the grave, so don’t let confusion in your pain cost you eternal life. Job was blameless, yet he lost his wealth, children, and health in a spiritual war he never understood. God gave him no explanation, only a reminder of how finite we are and how far His purposes reach. Job worshiped anyway, and God used his suffering to show mercy to others and restored him with more than he lost. Job points to Jesus, who gave up everything, suffered without sin, prayed for those who wronged Him, and now intercedes for us. Present sufferings can’t compare to the glory to come. Receive Jesus’ forgiveness, worship God in the dark, and trust Him with what you don’t yet know. 

God created you to be something and do something, and He uses pain to place you, prune you, and perfect you for that purpose. Suffering will come, but how you interpret it decides whether it becomes a setback or a plot point in God’s story. He used betrayal, slavery, and prison to place Joseph where many lives could be saved. He prunes even fruitful lives to bear more fruit, as with Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Through trials He builds endurance, character, and a hope that does not put us to shame. That hope starts at the cross, where Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Receive Jesus as Lord, stop treating yourself as the main character, and ask God what He is doing through your pain.