When hardship comes, everyone struggles. Moses in his old age confessed that life is filled with toil and sorrow (Psalm 90:10). Henri Nouwen wrote that suffering is so woven into daily life that instead of treating it as something foreign, we should receive it almost like a familiar companion. To live well throughout our lives, we must learn how to face suffering and how to interpret it. The Old Testament book that teaches this with particular focus is Job. How we understand suffering is one of the most important forms of wisdom.
Atheists often point to the amount of suffering in the world as their main reason for denying God’s existence. If God truly loves us and has the power to do anything, why is there so much suffering? They argue that the presence of suffering proves that God does not exist. In other words, suffering becomes the biggest reason people struggle to believe in God. For many, this is not only a rational barrier but an emotional one. People distance themselves from God by repeatedly asking, “Why would God let this happen to me? Why does he not help me?”
Yet when we consider God’s original intention in creating humanity, suffering is not a reason to run from him but something that reveals his deep care. Scripture teaches that God created us to make us his children (Ephesians 1:5). From the beginning, he made us in his image (Genesis 1:27). When we believe in Jesus and his Spirit comes into us, we immediately gain the awareness of being God’s children and cry out to him as our Father (Romans 8:15).
Although we are lovable as his carefully crafted creation, God always intended us to be sons and daughters who resemble him. This is why he gave humans a level of freedom no other creature has. That freedom meant we always had the possibility of falling, and unfortunately our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, chose that path. Because of their representative decision, all of us who belong to their lineage experience suffering we never wanted. Yet God sent his one and only Son to become the second Adam, bearing the full punishment for human wrongdoing and restoring what was lost (Romans 5:19).
When we willingly receive Jesus as our Savior, salvation is given freely, and we become God’s children just as he planned from the beginning (John 1:12). God then treats us as his true children. Like a wise parent who could provide everything but intentionally raises children to grow in responsibility, God allows us to live with a level of independence. He knows the number of our hairs and even the thoughts before we speak them, quietly helping us in countless ways. Yet in most situations, he chooses not to take away the part we must do ourselves.
Because we fail to understand this severe yet loving consideration, we often pour out complaints, asking, “Why are you not helping me?” A cynical attitude that belittles the world and glorifies suffering is wrong, but it is also foolish to think that God, like the genie from Aladdin’s magic lamp, should solve all my problems and grant all my wishes. Neither view is wise. “Help me know the Father more deeply.”
