Follow Up: How could a loving God allow pain and suffering?
Last Thursday at the weekly meeting, Stephen Haddenhorst tackled the difficult subject of the problem of evil. How can a good and loving God allow pain and suffering? We want to give a space for you to explore this question in greater depth and wrestle with what the Bible has to say on this topic.
Big Idea: Suffering doesn’t disprove God, but can actually point us to Him. In fact, God knows and cares about our suffering because He Himself experienced it directly.
Main Points and Scriptures:
- Evil/suffering isn’t evidence against God, but for Him (Genesis 50:19-20)
- The suffering of God (Isaiah 52:13,14b; Isaiah 53:3-5; Matthew 27:46; John 3:16)
- God knows, and God cares (Hebrews 4:14-16; Matthew 11:28-30; John 16:33)
Reflection Questions:
- Are there ways in which you still struggle with believing that God could be good in the midst of suffering?
- How are you tempted to run from God instead of toward Him when suffering hits?
- What is a step you could take toward God, wherever you are at in this journey?
Additional Resources:
- Where do we get the idea of just and unjust, good and evil? This article may be helpful.
- Pastor Tim Keller, a primary resource for Stephen’s talk, addresses the problem of evil here.
- A short devotional on finding hope in the midst of suffering can be found here.
- A website dedicated to providing answers to many of life’s toughest questions, Every Student.com.
- Check out this video on how to process through your own personal grief.
- Check out this video coaching series on how to be a good friend to someone walking through suffering/grief.