Think about these facts.
Fact #1- everything that was made exists for the glory of God. In fact, everything we do, eat, drink or say is all to be done for the glory of God.
Fact #2 – God who is all knowing and all powerful, created a world that he knew would rebel against him and be filled with evil. Couple that fact, with the first fact, and you can only conclude the third fact.
Fact #3 – there must be something about evil and suffering that can glorify God.
Listen to this verse in psalm 50 “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. ” (Psalm 50:15)
I would agree that if the most important value in life is our comfort, our well-being, our welfare, our health, our prosperity, then suffering and evil make absolutely no sense whatsoever. But, I submit to you that the supreme value in the entire universe is the glory of God and that is why the apostle Paul could put everything in perspective when he said in Romans 8:18, “.For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Nothing in this world is more important than the glory of God – nothing.
If you believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all powerful, all knowing God who never makes a mistake and who cannot do evil, then you have to believe that all suffering, every tragedy, every disaster somehow can be used by that God for his glory.
I am going to put it very simply to you. If you focus on the problem of suffering you will never come to a satisfactory answer. God does not call us to focus on the problem of suffering; he calls us to focus on the promise of suffering. The promise of suffering is it is temporary, it can be used to strengthen our faith, there is a purpose behind it and ultimately God if we will let him will use both it and us for his glory. That is why when bad things happen to us instead of asking “why is it happening to us,” we need to be asking, “Lord what do you want to do with it?”
How do we apply this to our daily life? We do it in two ways. First of all, we remember whenever suffering, heartache, tragedy and disaster strikes us, that behind that disaster is a loving God who will walk with us through it, give us victory in it, use it for his glory and one day will permanently take both us away from it and it away from us. Remember this: the existence of evil does not eliminate the possibility of God. It is the existence of God that guarantees the elimination of evil.
Second, we don’t allow suffering to weaken our faith, but to strengthen it. God has promised that the blessing and the reward that awaits us in heaven that is permanent and unending is far greater than any suffering and sorrow we will experience on earth that is only temporary. Our all wise and all loving and all knowing God sees the current trial, but he also sees the end result. If he decides that on our behalf the current trial is worth it, then we accept it, believing he will use it for our good and ultimately for his glory. Then we will be able to say what another man in the bible, named Joseph, said about his own questionable suffering, “ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Genesis 50:20)–James Merritt
