Why Suffer?

Nobody likes to suffer, and the truth is that pain hurts. The question is why do we go through what we go through? The answer is probably never the same. Many times, we go through hurtful situations because of bad decisions we’ve made. There may be several reasons we do this. One may be that we didn’t spend time seeking the Lord beforehand. Then, there are times we know the decision we are making is totally against God’s will, but we do it anyway and hope for the best. Then we are surprised when the suffering comes.

Another reason we suffer is simply we live in a broken, sinful world, and living in this world suffering will come. We also must deal with the consequences of bad decisions made by others that affect us. We deal with broken relationships and broken bodies. Sometimes none of this is a result of bad decisions, but just living life.

Yet, through all the reasons, no matter what they are, the Lord can use it all for His grand purpose in our lives. In Psalm 13 we see David questioning God on this very subject. We read this in verses 3-4, “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.” I find it refreshing that the God of all creation allows His flawed created being to question Him, to complain to Him. Here we see David afraid that his enemies would triumph over him to the point of taking his life. The question David asks is, “Where are you, God?” “Why are you allowing this to happen to me?”

Another interesting part of this text is that I do not read anywhere that the Lord answers David. But, if we were to continue in this text, we would read in verses 5-6, “But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.” In this, we see that although God does not answer David, what David is going through has brought him down to his knees to earnestly seek God.

Could it be that the Lord allows suffering in our lives to simply drop us to our knees and seek Him, to get desperate for His voice, for His presence? We so easily get sidetracked in this world and forget to seek our Lord daily and it is only when we are faced with a horrible situation that we are driven to our knees and get serious about seeking God.

In the end, David was reminded about the goodness of God, and how much David trusted Him. May I suggest that we all stay in prayer before God, always seeking so that when tragedy does strike there will be no doubt where our God is through it all.