Answer: Your question is as old as this earth’s history. The best answer I’ve discovered still doesn’t bring suffering and pain to an end until Jesus returns. In the meantime, I need faith to trust that Jesus will put a stop to all suffering and pain eventually.
Suffering and pain come in many forms—rejection from somebody important to you, physical injuries from accidents or attacks, abuse, war, terrorism, disabilities, death.
Why do
esn’t God do something? Well, here’s what God did before it began: He warned Adam and Eve about what would happen as a result of living apart from Him. In Genesis 2:17 God said, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”After both Adam and Eve chose their own way instead of God’s, suffering and pain began on this earth. The blissful couple went from the Garden of Eden to life outside of the ideal (see Genesis 3:23), which included pain (see Genesis 3:16, 17). And in the very next chapter—Genesis 4—the first murder on this planet is recorded.
Right now we’re living between the beginning and the end of suffering and pain. And until the new earth begins, God is doing the following three things about suffering and pain:
1. He identifies with those who are suffering and in pain. In the parable of the sheep and the goats (see Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus explained that ministry to “the least of these” is ministry to Him. And failure to respond or minister to those who suffer is a failure to respond to Jesus.
If you are suffering and feel pain, Jesus identifies with you. He knows suffering and pain—firsthand (see Hebrews 4:15; Matthew 26:75; Mark 15:15; Matthew 27:46).
2. God has chosen to relieve suffering and pain by ministering through us. You and I are the avenues for God to do something about the suffering and pain we see on this planet. When we ask God, “Why don’t You do something about all of the suffering and pain?” we can expect that He’ll ask us the same question, since He’s equipped us to do something about it (see Ephesians 4:12).
Do something about suffering and pain where you are (see Matthew 25:34-40).
3. God has taken the results of sin on this planet—suffering and pain—and has transformed them into instruments to reach people with His good news of salvation. Paul wrote that there’s no comparison between our sufferings and what God has prepared for us (see Romans 8:18). This is the guy who was struck blind so he could see Jesus for who He was (see Acts 9:1-9).
It was Paul who also wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10).
Suffering and pain will be with us until God makes everything new. Until then, God identifies with those who suffer, He relieves suffering and pain through you and me, and He becomes more real and the only hope for those who do suffer.
That’s what God’s doing. What are you doing?
