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The God who loves us and allows us to suffer a little bit has suffered in ways we will never understand. He is not some lofty, distant, transcendent God who doesn’t get it. He is also an immanent God who has been there and who has suffered in ways that allow Him to understand what we might go through.
Hebrews 2:17-18 says this about God’s first-hand perspective of human suffering:
17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters,[h] so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.
Then, over in Hebrews 4:15, it says this in regards to the God that loves me and I love, and His merciful understanding:
15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
So, whatever I might be facing, He has faced much worse FOR ME, so that He could pay the penalty for MY SIN and purchase my salvation. The great news for us is that the God who cursed the world came to the world and became a curse for us.
Finally, in regards to our personal suffering, the Bible tells us that God can bring good out of bad. All the difficult things that we may go through in life can be redeemed. The Bible offers us good news in what I believe to be one of the most encouraging verses and also one of the most abused verses in all of Scripture:
God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to His purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)
Now, that’s encouraging! No matter what you go through, God can bring good out of it. But that doesn’t mean that what you are going through is good. If it’s sin, if it’s evil… it’s bad. However, in the midst of the bad, He can bring about good. The suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross was bad. But He brought about redemption. He took the worst thing that has ever happened and brought out of it the greatest gift and blessing that has ever been given.
Yet, I also believe that this passage is the most abused verse as well. It does not say that everything that happens is good. It actually acknowledges bad for being bad. Secondly, it does not promise that God will always allow us to see the good right away or even at all. Some of you may have gone through a tremendous loss or suffering and look at Romans 8:28 and think, “That verse isn’t true at all! I don’t see any good result whatsoever in what God allowed to happen in my life.”
Still, that doesn’t mean that the verse isn’t true. It may mean that you won’t be able to see the good until years down the road. In fact, you may never get to see it in this life. Yet, it is still a promise from God that He will bring about some measure of good out of the bad things that we face. We just need to live by faith and say, “God, do your thing. Bring some good out of this and maybe someday I’ll see it; and if not, in heaven I’ll understand it.
Thirdly, this verse does not promise that God will bring good out of bad for everyone. It actually only references those who “love God and are called according to His purpose”. So, this is a promise only for Christians. But for people who reject Him, His protection, and His promises, there is no guarantee that good will come from their suffering. What we can say to those people is, “Turn to God and this will begin to come true for you.”
You see, Romans 5:3-5 says that God uses pain to deepen our character. Granted, sometimes the pain goes far beyond what we believe we need for any character development. But, in a general way, God does use these things to shape us into being better people. He also uses painful experiences to reshape us into His sons and daughters, as the Bible says in Hebrews 12:10 –
God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
God also uses pain in order for us to have a more spiritual and eternal perspective, as we see in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
He can also use pain to protect us, even from ourselves. As a metaphor, consider the disease of leprosy. In Biblical times, people believed that lepers simply lost pieces of their body. But what science has proven is that actually what happens is that they lose their sense of pain in their appendages. Therefore, they often end up doing things that cause damage to their limbs without even knowing that they are hurting themselves to the point of permanently damaging or losing their fingers, toes, arms, etc. They don’t feel the pain of a burning surface, or the muscle pain of an overly exerted arm and so they continue doing something until their flesh burns off or their muscles, tendons or bones snap. They simply don’t have the “gift” of pain. So, as much as we might say, “I don’t want to have pain in my life, it is a gift that often prevents us from hurting ourselves. It sensitizes us to greater dangers.