How we think about suffering will radically affect how we see God and the world around us. If you believe God should always bless you and your loved ones with material abundance and good health, you are setting yourself up to lose your faith. Actually, you should lose that faith, because it’s false. Replace it with true biblical faith.
Trials are an opportunity to jettison false ideas about God and ground ourselves in who He reveals Himself to be in His Word. Only faith in the true God can pass, and even find strength in, the most formidable of life’s tests.
Suffering will come; we owe it to God, ourselves, and those around us to prepare for it.
I did a podcast episode with Davey Blackburn from Nothing Is Wasted Ministries, and one of the questions he asked me was, “Why is a proper theology so imperative to us being able to walk through pain and suffering?” (Davey has experienced much suffering himself; read his story here.)
Listen to or watch our entire conversation:
Randy’s book If God Is Good brings fresh, realistic, and biblical insight to the subject of suffering and evil. Also see his devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness, book The Goodness of God, and booklet If God Is Good, Why Do We Hurt?, which deals with the question and shares the gospel so that both unbelievers and believers can benefit.Photo: Unsplash
