How Can a God of Love Allow Pain & Suffering? | Trusting God in Our Struggles

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Let me ask you a question. Are you eager to make a difference in the spiritual lives of others? When you give to Harvest, you become a part of our mission to make God known through unique avenues like television, radio, and large-scale evangelistic events.

Support us today at harvest.org slash donate and help us to continue to spread the gospel around the world. Sometimes in tragedy hits, people say, I lost my faith. Hey, the faith that cannot be tested is the faith that cannot be trusted. When everything's going well, it's easy to have faith, but Pastor Greg Laurie says real faith gets us through the tough times. Your faith should not be on everything going circumstantially well because it won't. Your faith needs to be in Christ and he will never let you down. He will never abandon you. He can be fully trusted. That's the faith you need.

Only the people who've had a car crash can give a testimonial of how well their seatbelt works. How can we give a testimony of how God has delivered us from our trials if we haven't had any trials? Well, we all have trials. Even Jesus said, in this world we would have tribulation. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us learn to put more of our faith and trust in the God who makes a way out of no way. As we do that, we'll see that actually strengthens our faith. So we're in our Hot Buttons Issue series and we're going to be in the book of Job, chapter one.

So why don't you mosey on over there. And I want to look at the story of a man who suffered greatly. He's sort of the poster boy for someone who suffered.

And his name, of course, is Job. This is a man who in one single day had the bottom drop out in life and every bad thing that could seemingly happen, happened to him and maybe even a little bit more. So the story begins where someone comes into his family that are having a meal together. And they say that a group of marauders just stole all of our animals and killed our farm hands. And before that person can finish speaking, another comes in and says, well, the fire of God fell on your sheep and on your shepherds. And then another one says, hey, the camels were just stolen and more farm hands were killed. And then it went from bad to worse. And we pick our story up in Job 1, verse 18.

I'm reading from the New Living Translation. While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news. Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's house. Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert, hit the house from all sides, and the house collapsed. And all your children are dead.

I'm the only one escaped to tell you. Job stood up. He tore his robe in grief. And he shaved his head. And he fell to the ground before God.

Wow. I'll tell you all the things that Job experienced, the loss of his livestock and other calamities, none of it compared to losing his family, losing his children. And I know this pain because, as you know, it happened to us when our oldest son, Christopher, was killed in a tragic automobile accident. You know, sometimes when tragedy hits, people say, I lost my faith. You know, this happened to me.

It's not fair. I lost my faith. Okay. Maybe that's good.

What? Hey, the faith that cannot be tested is the faith that cannot be trusted. Your faith should not be based on your emotion. Your faith should not be on everything going circumstantially well because it won't. Your faith should not be on everyone always being the perfect example for you to follow. Your faith needs to be in Christ. And He will never let you down. He will never abandon you.

He can be fully trusted. That's the faith you need. Character is not made in Christ. It's revealed.

It's revealed. It shows what your character is. It shows what your faith is in, or I should say rather, who your faith is in. So let me give you just a few thoughts on why God allows suffering.

If you are taking notes, here is point number one. God sometimes allows suffering and sickness to get our attention. He allows it to get our attention. Maybe you are rebelling against God.

And you are going the wrong direction. And the Lord wants you to pay attention. This happened to Jonah. God told him to go and preach to the Ninevites. Jonah said, no I am not going to do it.

And got a boat going in the opposite direction. To sum up the story of Jonah, God said go. Jonah said no. God said oh. See God will always have the last word.

And because Jonah was his child, his prophet, he chastened him. The Bible says the Lord chastens every son that he loves. So have you ever been out somewhere maybe in a restaurant and kids are behaving really badly.

Very disrespectful. And you would like to go over there and tell them to behave themselves. But you can't because they are not your kids.

And if you do try you might get arrested. That is not your privilege. Your privilege and your responsibility I might add as a parent is to control your children. Because often it is more of a commentary on bad parenting than bad kids. You see a well behaved, respectful child. That is good parenting. Because these kids are not born that way.

None of us are. And so as a good loving parent you say no you are not going to do that. No you don't speak to people that way. You don't speak to me that way. That is all part of parenting. And God is the ultimate parent. And if we start to go astray He says I love you so much I am not going to let you keep doing that.

So sometimes the Lord will use difficulties, trials, hardships, etc. to get your attention. Maybe something has happened recently and just boy got your attention fast. Maybe your marriage failed. Maybe your parents divorced. Maybe your boyfriend or girlfriend dumped you. Maybe even your dog walked out on you. And your cat too. But don't they always walk out on us? I mean do we really even own them?

We just feed them and they go live their crazy cat lives right? Well whatever it was it got you to wake up and if you are a real believer you will turn to God. Here is something to remember. God is in control of all circumstances that surround the believer. God is in control of all circumstances that surround the believer. The word oops is not in God's vocabulary.

Would you be alarmed if you heard God say whoops. What? What? You dropped a planet? A galaxy?

What happened? No He has a plan and He either does it or He allows it. So whatever happens in your life is either done by God or it is allowed by God ultimately for your good and for His glory. And there are things that happen that I will acknowledge do not make sense at all. But when a real believer faces crisis he or she will turn to God and a non-believer will turn against them.

It shows what you are made of. I don't know about Job's wife. I mean here is poor Job. All these bad things have happened to him and her. It is her family too. Her livelihood too. And then poor old Job is covered head to toe in massive boils.

Have you ever had a boil? Imagine having them everywhere. And Job's wife just looks at him and says why don't you just curse God and die. Thank you for those comforting words Mrs. Job. How would you like to get a card like that? You know on the cover it says I heard you were sick. Open it up.

Curse God and die. Wow. That was Mrs. Job's card to Job. And so was she a believer?

I don't know. But that was not encouraging news. But Job did the opposite. He turned to God during his difficulty. You are either going to turn to God or you are going to turn against God. And as a result you are either going to be better or bitter.

Let me say that again. You are either going to turn to God or you are going to turn against God and as a result you will either be better or bitter. Number three. Suffering helps us grow spiritually and makes us stronger in the faith. It helps us grow spiritually and makes us stronger in the faith. It takes our faith from the realm of theory to reality.

Job 42.5. Job says I had only heard about you before but now I have seen you with my eyes. In other words I knew these things but now I have seen them. You know they were conceptual. I believe them. They were and are true. But I hadn't experienced them yet. But now I know.

I have seen it. You know sometimes parents will say oh we have raised such wonderful children and we will tell you how to do it too. Ok. How old are your kids? Two and three. You don't know what you are talking about.

Come to me after you have survived raising a teenager and we will talk again. You know so maybe they are applying good principles but the truth is this. You have to experience certain things to become maybe an authority on them we will say. And Job certainly had experienced all of this.

He was transformed and he wrote in Job 23.10. He knows the way that I take and when he has tested me I will come forth as gold. See there are some things that will only come through times of testing. I talked before about going to the gym. And you go to the gym to break muscle down in order to build it back up. And trials are like God's gym that make you stronger not weaker. You are broken down to be built up.

James 1 says listen when troubles of any kind come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy for when your faith is tested you will have a chance to grow. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix.

We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope and much more. Then we have our television program daily devotions and much more.

So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well Pastor Greg is offering some insights today on why God allows suffering. He continues now.

Number four suffering can be used to prepare us for a special task. And this is shown beautifully in the life of Joseph. Another godly man and a young man at that.

I mean his brother sold him into slavery and he ended up in the house of a guy named Potiphar and through his hard work and diligence and godliness he was running the whole place and then Potiphar's wife hit on him. She was the original Mrs. Robinson. And only four people got that joke. That's a very dated reference. Let's just say she was the original Cougar. Does that make more sense?

I don't know. But she hit on young Joseph trying to entice him sexually. He resists her advances and she falsely accuses him of rape and he is sent to prison. But through the providence of God he ultimately was able to save a nation from starvation. And he said to his brothers later I know you meant these things for evil but God meant them for good to save many people alive. A perfect illustration of Romans 8.28 that says God causes all things to work together for good to those that love God.

Another called according to his purpose. So there are things that we learn in trials we don't learn anywhere else. And it gives us an ability to minister to people in a unique way.

Paul put it this way. 2 Corinthians 1 he says he comforts us on all of our troubles so we can comfort others and when others are in trouble we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. So you can be sure the more we suffer for Christ the more God will shower us with comfort through Christ. Ok so when you go through a hardship it gives you a credibility in the eyes of other people to perhaps help them. As an example let's say that you are a cancer survivor and thank God for that. And then one of your friends finds out they have cancer and they are just so worried and full of fear and you say let me talk to you about how God helped me through this. You have a credibility that nobody else would have because you have been there and done that. Or let's say someone loses a loved one and they know you have just lost a loved one.

Perhaps a child. And you say here is how we got through it. Here is how we get through it. And they want to hear from you. You know it has been said success builds walls and failure builds bridges. Does that make sense? Success builds walls.

Failure builds bridges. You know if you are having the perfect life or at least you want to have people think you are living the perfect life. If they follow you on Instagram here you are with your awesome car in front of your awesome house with your amazing family and everything is perfect. And don't they wish they were living a perfect life like you. And in reality you are not living the perfect life. But you put it out that you are. And now you are going to tell them something.

I don't want to listen to you. But then they know someone else who has had suffering and difficulty and they have overcome it with faith. They want to talk to that person. See that is how failure in a sense or struggle will say. It builds a bridge.

Oh you are just like me. See so there is something God can do with this. Don't waste your pain. I wish we could live pain free lives. But we are going to have pain. So what are we going to do with it? Are we going to let it destroy us?

Are we going to use it as a tool and use it as a weapon? You know one thing I found especially in the immediate aftermath of our son going to be with the Lord was it helped me when I helped others. When I would just think about myself and feel sad for what we were facing I could get very depressed about it.

But then maybe I would meet someone that just had it happen to them one week ago. And I began to speak to them and told them as Kathy said to me in so many words it is going to be ok. Meaning you are going to survive this.

You are going to live through this. And you are going to see your child again if they died in faith in Christ because your child or your loved one is not just a part of your past. They are also a part of your future. Because I would minister to other people. It would minister to me. So it is back to what Paul said.

Comforting with the comfort I have been comforted with. This is so very important for us to understand. Don't waste your pain. Well the story of Job ends. It seems like a good ending. Everything he had has now been replaced. He has double what he had before. But the problem is those kids, those children were all gone. Now he had other children but the original children are gone.

You can't replace them. And so there was still a great sense of loss. But he lived a long blessed life. And God worked in this life. Warren Wiersbe, a great commentator, quotes a professor of history who said quote if Columbus had turned back nobody would have blamed him.

But nobody would have remembered him either. And then he concludes if you want to be memorable sometimes you are going to have to be miserable end quote. So you might be going through something that makes no sense to you but God will give you the strength to handle it. And as I share some of these things some of you say I don't want any of that to happen to me.

Okay I get that. And chances are maybe it won't. And for others maybe it will.

Whatever that something will be in I don't know. But God will give you what you need when you need it. Sometimes before never after. He will be sufficient for you no matter what you face in life. So maybe you are suffering or maybe something has happened to get your attention. What do you do at a time like this? You turn to Jesus.

Jesus is the answer for everything. Because we ask the why question. Why? That is a hard one to answer. Virtually impossible.

So then we pivot to the who and the what. Who do I turn to? I turn to alcohol. That won't help. That will make it worse. I will turn to prescription drugs. That won't help. I will turn to people.

They may bring some help but limited. I will turn here. I will turn there. You need to turn to Jesus. He has suffered. Jesus knows all about suffering. And He can help you during your time of suffering.

The Bible says He is well acquainted with suffering and able to help in time of need. Right? So that is the who. And the what? Now what do I do?

How can I use this pain? How can I use what I have gone through to help other people? Let me loop back to a question I raised earlier. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well that only happened once and He volunteered.

Does that make sense? Why do good things happen to good people? Well that only happened once and He volunteered. There has only been one truly good person that has ever walked the earth and that was Jesus Christ. And He volunteered to suffer and die in our place.

Right? He paid the price for all of your sins so you could be forgiven and not have to walk through life alone. Going back to Psalm 23 David says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why David? You are with me. See the Christian has God in their life. Do you have God in your life? Is Christ living in your heart?

Well yes. You know I believe He lives in every heart. We are all the children of God. No we are not. You are not the children of God. You are the created being from God. God made you. You are loved by God. But the only way you become a child of God is through rebirth.

Rebirth. Jesus said you must be born again. The Bible says for as many as received Him to them He gave the power to become sons of God. That is how you become a child of God. You say Jesus I am a sinner. I am sorry for my sin. I turn from it now and I ask you to come into my life and forgive me of my sin. Have you done that yet?

If not would you like to? So we are going to close with a prayer. And I am going to lead you in this prayer where you can ask Christ to come into your life to be your Savior and Lord. And maybe I am talking to a prodigal.

Son or daughter today. A Jonah. You know you have been running from God. It is time to run back to God. And He will welcome you with open arms. Let's pray. Father I pray for every person here.

Every person watching wherever they are. If they don't know you yet. If they have not asked you into their life yet. Let this be the moment they believe or recommit themselves to you now. Now for you that want to make that commitment or recommitment to Christ I am going to pray a prayer. And I am going to ask you to pray this prayer after me out loud. In fact I am going to ask everybody to pray this prayer out loud as a sign of support for those that are praying it for the first time. So again as I pray just pray this after me.

Everybody. Pray these words. Lord Jesus. I know that I am a sinner. But I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus come into my life.

I want to follow You. I repent of my sin. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Pastor Greg Lory leading the most important prayer of all. Today on A New Beginning he is praying with those who are making a change in their relationship with God. And if you've just prayed that prayer and you've meant those words sincerely we want to first welcome you into the family of God.

And then we want to help you get started. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's a special edition of God's Word tailor-made for those who've just become believers.

So many study helps for new Christians. We'll send it free of charge upon request. Just ask for the New Believers Bible. You can call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. And then let us take a moment to thank you for praying for this ministry and for supporting it through your generous donation. It's an investment in kingdom business. Isn't that right Pastor Greg?

Yeah, it's really true Dave. And I believe it's so important because you know the Gospel saves lives. It saves eternal lives because when a person believes in Jesus according to scripture they pass from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God. And then of course that changes the course of their future.

That impacts their children and their children's children. The Gospel changes everything and thousands and thousands of people respond every single year. Thanks to the Lord. Also thanks to you for your investment in this ministry enabling us to reach people wherever they are. So if this is something you care about I encourage you to make a financial investment in A New Beginning and Harvest Ministries.

Yeah, that's right. And we really do appreciate your support. Thanks for partnering with us today.

It can make a real difference not just for today or this week but for eternity. So get in touch with your support today by calling 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org. Well next time, important insight on the right biblical view of our financial resources. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.