Why Does God Allow Pain?

For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6

In October 2016, I found myself in another hospital waiting room. My husband had surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon. It was his second surgery in as many years, and he couldn’t walk or drive for six weeks. You don’t plan for these things. They just happen.

Sometimes they happen more frequently than others.

That year had been a challenging one, with many precious family members and other loved ones spending hours and days in hospital rooms. I had been fortunate enough to just take up space in the waiting areas. But while my heart ached with and for them, these people I love felt it physically.

Pain. Nausea. Discomfort. Weakness. Weariness. Fear.

In those moments of heartache and pain, we naturally grasp for an answer to a tiny yet profound question. Why?

And in this world where Christianity is often touted as a direct link to blessing and prosperity, believers can be tempted to doubt God’s promises.

I get it. I’ve been there myself, wondering if God’s Word could really be true—wondering how a loving God could allow hard things like pain, suffering, and loss. The events of recent days could keep our hearts questioning God’s intentions for us if we don’t truly know His heart.

But I’d like to take a few moments to look at difficulty from God’s perspective. Jesus said in John 16:33,

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Beloved, scripture confirms something you and I already know. This world is hard. We’re going to face pain, and there’s no way around it. We live in a world that rejects the love we were made for and lives from fear instead. But Jesus came and conquered through the cross so that you and I could experience His victory. In Him, we can also overcome. Romans 8:16-17 says it this way:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Dear one, with or without Christ, this world produces suffering. But in Christ our suffering has purpose. Suffering with Him provides the means to establish us in our inheritance—to take hold of the promises available to us in Christ as co-heirs of all that God has given us.

You see, our promises aren’t just meant for heaven. We’re supposed to experience them here. And adversity provides the opportunity for us to do that.

Stick with me here. Ephesians 1:3 promises that God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” But God wants those blessings lived out “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). He wants our heavenly position to be evident on earth as He reveals His glory through us.

God’s glory becomes evident when we do what Jesus did: We face the darkness on this earth and overcome.

Beloved, every spiritual blessing available to us in Christ remains a theory if we don’t grab hold of it and use it. Our trials provide an opportunity to reveal our heavenly position and manifest our blessings on earth.  We conquer fear when we face it and choose faith in spite of it. We’ll only experience the peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7) when we face circumstances that rob our peace.

Our suffering allows us opportunity to encounter and know God in ways our hearts never would without it.

Everyone will hurt and suffer in this life. But in Christ, God has granted us a glorious opportunity! In our struggles, we can experience God and overcome, establishing victories we didn’t know we had in us and putting our enemy firmly under our feet.

David offers a good example of this in scripture. The Philistine army had the Israelites trembling in fear because of Goliath. The giant defied their God and challenged a man to fight him. If he won, Israel would serve the Philistines.

But David knew the Word of the Lord. Intimately. He knew God’s character and the inheritance available to him as His child. So, he didn’t let the appearance of his circumstances overpower him. He drew on God’s promises, faced Goliath head on, and established his spiritual promise of victory as his earthly reality. (See 1 Samuel 17)

Our opening scripture reveals an important truth: living water bursts forth in desert places. If God has allowed suffering in your life, dear one, it isn’t because He has abandoned you or doesn’t love you. He’s closer than ever. And He has provided an opportunity for you to take hold of Him and bring some good out of  the enemy’s evil.

Without the suffering of recent years, I would never have experienced the miracle of His peace. I would not have discovered deceptions hidden deep within my own heart, and I wouldn’t have learned how to pray from my position in Christ and see heaven move. I wouldn’t have known the joy of my Comforter, or watched spiritual chains fall from my loved ones.

God is for you, beloved. He offers you Himself, and your suffering provides an opportunity to experience His presence and be held in His love. And when glory reveals itself, suffering fades. And you experience the wonder of resurrection life.