When Suffering Meets God’s Will: Finding Hope in the Midst of Pain

One of the most challenging and persistent questions in Christianity is also one of the most deeply personal: If God is good, why does He allow suffering? It’s a question that can rattle the foundation of faith and cast long shadows of doubt. I have wrestled with this question throughout my life, but never with the raw intensity I felt when my mother was diagnosed with a terminal brain disease. 

Over the course of a single year, her rapid decline left her unable to speak, walk, or even feed herself. She communicated through pain-filled screams, agonizing moans, and tears. Watching the woman who had once been so full of life and vitality wither before my eyes, I found myself asking, “Why, God?” Why would he allow such suffering, not just in my mother, but in the world at large?

This struggle isn’t just mine. Many of us, at one point or another, have questioned how a good and loving God can allow such agony. But behind this question are common misconceptions about both God and suffering that are important to recognize because Scripture offers hope that suffering is never the end of the story, and despite its deep pain, it is woven into God’s loving and redemptive will for our lives. 

The First Misconception: We Were Not Made to Suffer

In the gospel of John, Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation….” (Jn. 16:33a). This may be difficult to accept, but Jesus never says to Christians that their life will be one of ease. Never. In fact, he promises the exact opposite. Jesus promises tribulation. The reality is that this life will include suffering, sometimes in deep and unimaginable ways. 

That doesn’t mean that God does not give us seasons of reprieve and restoration woven in and out of the hardship, but we need to start with the understanding that because sin entered the world (Gen. 3), the consequence is a fractured relationship not only between humanity and God but also with the created world, leading to pain, disease, and death. 

The Second Misconception: Suffering is Pointless

The above feels utterly hopeless unless we understand that our suffering has a divine and loving purpose. We can find examples all throughout Scripture that reveal God’s amazing plan and miraculous work in the path of tribulation. 

Job’s story illustrates how suffering can be a test of faith and a means through which God demonstrates his sovereignty and faithfulness. Many can testify, including myself, to better understanding God’s comfort, nearness, and love in times of personal suffering more than any other. 

We can’t always see or fully understand how God is working, but he works in profound and miraculous ways in our suffering. I love the way The Message explains Ecclesiastes 11:5:  “Just as you’ll never understand the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman, so you’ll never understand the mystery at work in all that God does.”  Suffering is not an end, but it is a means to make you more like Jesus – to show you in powerful ways his indescribable goodness. 

The Third Misconception: God is Not Involved in the Bad Things 

Revelation 4:11 says, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

If God is not involved in the trials of life, then he is not in absolute control. But the Bible tells us otherwise. God is sovereign over all things. Because this is true, he is not absent from our suffering. 

All that takes place – read that again, all that takes place – is under the hand of our loving and wise Heavenly Father. God is love. It is who he is, so no hardship happens outside of that unending and unfading love. God is in perfect control, and while our perception is often one of chaos, God sees and knows how all things – including the hard – will come together for our good and for his glory (Rom. 8:28). 

The Fourth Misconception: Suffering Has the Final Word

The last two months of my mom’s life were too difficult to describe. An onlooker might shake their head and see mere suffering as marking her end. But that’s not what the Bible says. Because she believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, her life continued into glory where she is now experiencing unimaginable joy and perfect completeness.  

The life of Jesus did not stop at the grave, believer in Christ. The rest of John 16:33 says, “…Take heart; I have overcome the world.” Yes, in this world there will be pain and hardship, but, Jesus says, there is reason for peace and assurance amid the suffering. Not only is God using it for a purpose, but ultimately, there is no hardship that has the final say. Jesus has defeated all evil that is, was, and that ever will be. 

He has conquered all of it. He is the victor. When his enemies put him to death by crucifixion, not even the grave could overcome him. Friends, suffering is never the end of the story for those who trust in God. There is a hope of redemption, restoration, and a future free from suffering in the presence of God (Revelation 21:4).

Yes, suffering is a painful reality in this life. But it invites believers into the precious opportunity to trust in God’s purposes, to discover God’s love in ways not previously understood, and it forces us to look forward to a future where suffering will be no more.

Thanks be to God for all that is good… and for all that is hard.