Suffering

In the beginning God made man sinless and perfect, in the image of Himself. He wanted man to be His friend. He wanted man to love Him freely. He wanted to share with love not by force. He wanted a loving freewill man not a robot. He gave us freedom of choice which meant a choice of being with Him or away from Him, also the choice between good and evil.

God had made all kinds of trees. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then God said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:9, 16-17)

Through the deceit of Satan towards Adam and Eve in the garden, all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. They chose not to obey God, we all today have the choice of obeying God or choosing our own sinful way. Sinful way, because sin is not just stealing, murder or what ever you consider to be evil, sin is also ignoring God, denying God.

With the fall of man, sin came into the world, death also came into the world. All creation became effected, corrupted, cursed because of man’s sin.
(Genesis 3:1-24)

The earth is wearing out (Isaiah 51:6). As our bodies decay, become diseased so is the earth. Can we blame God for a Tsunami, and ask how can He let this happen?

All over the world people build their homes in areas which are dangerous such as near to volcanoes. Is it God’s fault when the volcano explodes and destroys their homes and people? They knew the dangers and yet they chose to live by the volcano.

God loves all people even those living by the volcano. Most people ignore God today. If you love someone but that person ignored you, what would you feel? With all your heart you would want to help them but because they ignored you, your efforts would be futile because they wouldn’t recognise you. If someone hated you would you want to help them? You may love them but their hate would reject your help, so to bother may save them but it wouldn’t stop them rejecting you because they don’t recognise your help.

Suffering is not from God, it’s through someone somewhere choosing to go their way rather than God’s way. God can prevent suffering but people would still ignore Him and not recognise Him and His love for them.

God wants His family united with Him. He wants that unity with love not by force. God hates sin and it blocks the way to Him. It’s a selfish thing to expect a person to help you in your suffering and not return the thanks and love they deserve. People expect God to do so much but for what? Love is giving and receiving. Why should God give but not expect to receive?

God loves us so much that He gave His most precious gift, through His Son, Jesus Christ. The way is open again to knowing God but we can’t do it ourselves, only through Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. He suffered more than we ever will and yet was completely innocent. He took all our sins on His shoulders and was crucified for showing nothing but God’s Love.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6