Where Is God in Our Suffering?

Suffering is hard.

Suffering is hard. We are all going through something.

But suffering is suffering. And it’s hard on everyone. And everyone experiences it in different ways. Your suffering is real and does not need to be compared to anyone else’s suffering. What we are all going through is tough, on each of us.

Sometimes in suffering we turn our backs on God or question who he is or if he’s really good and worthy of our love.

Is it okay to question God, we wonder? And likewise, is it wrong to question God?

We wonder if he has caused this. If this is a judgment. How long this will go on? We wonder how could God let this happen. We wonder how God can be good and allow this suffering.

In my own journey, I turned my back on God after my father was killed by a train. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it and I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

Other times in suffering, we reach out and draw near to God.

Some of us seek out God in our suffering. We draw near to God by going to church and re-connecting with our faith.

After 9/11, I went to the first service I could in New York City. And after that I learned the value in joining a small group. From there, and with some excellent biblical counseling, I began to trust God again. I began to learn more about who he was and how to view what had happened to my dad and what was then happening to the world around me.

We all respond in different ways.

Some of us literally cry out to God, “WHY?,” and others draw closer to him.

I’ve been in both places.

But during the pandemic, with church doors across the world shuttered, those who would be searching for help by going to church were left without that option. So they had to search online. And thankfully, there were many wonderful offerings online and many pastors answering questions like “Where is God?” in their sermons.

In order to know where God is in our suffering, we must know who God is.

The question of where is God in our suffering is as old as faith. There are so many responses and so many attempts to answer the question or to solve it once and for all.

Can God be good and allow suffering? That seems to be the crux of the question.

The truth is though, that yes, both can exist in tension. One does not negate the other in this world we live in.

We must use scripture to answer these questions, because in scripture, God tells us who he is.

God is not the author of evil.

He is not the author of disease and illness. He is not the author of the Coronavirus.

We live in a broken world. It is a world marred by fallenness and brokenness. Things just don’t all work out right.

We can’t truly comprehend this, but we know that when God created this world, he said, “it is good.” But then brokenness entered through the temptation and fall of humanity in the garden.

We know that there were angels who broke away from God, led by Satan.

Evil does exist. But we know that God is not the author of evil.

God is good. God is love. He is near. He is with us.

God tells us God is good. He tells us that he is with us in our suffering.

He entered into our sufferings by becoming man (Jesus) and dying on the cross. So, he knows our pain and our suffering intimately.

He knows when you hide in a closet or in the bathroom to cry with the door locked to keep your children out. He knows because he is there with you. God is Immanuel, which means “God with us.”

Because he has suffered, he can walk with us in our own suffering.

The days and weeks we are living in are unlike anything we’ve ever known in our lifetimes.

I have a neighbor who is 92, lived through World War II and said he’d never seen anything like the 2020 pandemic. And he’s seen a lot.

What can we do?

But pandemics (or anything you’re suffering right now) are not new. Our ability to handle it may be improved. Our ability to fight it may be better. But God is still with us in the midst of it.

Cry Out to God

First, we can cry out to God. In fact, the psalmists do that regularly.

But when we cry out to God, we must speak the truth of who God is back to ourselves.

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Wrestle with God

Next, when the psalmists cry out, they are wrestling with God. But they always come back to hoping in the Lord and putting their trust in him.

And that’s what God invites you and me to do: to put our hope and trust in him during this time.

Let us not be anxious. Let us not be afraid. The Lord God of hosts–that means of the heavenly armies–is fighting for us. And the Suffering Servant (Jesus) knows deeply what you are going through and longs for you to reach out and seek him.

Finding comfort in God

Furthermore, one of my favorite passages of comfort in suffering is Isaiah 43(click for a short devotion on Isaiah 43). In it, God says,

He is with us when we go through deep waters, when we walk through fire. He is with us and the waters will not sweep over us, and we will not be burned. We are precious and honored in his sight and he loves us.

Paraphrase of Isaiah 43:2-4

This Isaiah 43 Bible verse brings me great comfort when my life feels like it’s spiraling out of control. Or when my emotions overwhelm me. I am precious and honored in God’s sight. And he loves me. He loves me. And he loves you.

God loves you in the midst of your suffering. He loves you when you doubt him, when you question him, when you just can’t take it anymore. He loves you and he is with you. One of God’s comfort verses is:

My comfort in my suffering is this:

Your promise preserves my life.

Psalm 119:50

Know that God will comfort you.

God is with us.

Finally, as we navigate these uncharted waters in the days and weeks ahead of us, let us hold fast to God’s promises that the waters will not sweep over us and that God is with us. May God comfort you.

Above all, remember that he is with us in the midst of our suffering. He is good and he loves you. Draw near.

How do you find yourself dealing with this current crisis and time of suffering? Comment below.

For other posts addressing fear and turning to God in suffering, check out:

• Where Do You Turn When Life and Faith Collide?
• How I had to do something subversive when everyone else was panicking
• What I Do at Night When My Mind is Racing
• A simple way God gives us to get peace in our lives
• Strength for life’s trials