1Peter 2:19-20 says, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God”. There is a suffering common to man; we have a name for those things like natural disaster and cancer. Then there is the sort of suffering we endure because we worship the Lord, we are hated by many and most importantly by the god of this world. We have to understand different types of suffering in order to deal with it. Where along the way did we become surprised by suffering, we act as though it should not be happening to us. Since we have chosen
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So the problem can be when we do not properly examine what sort of suffering we are enduring and what the cause of it was. Another misconception as noted by Adam Hamilton is the well-meaning encouragement of “everything happens for a reason”. The idea that God has a purpose in and through all things is correct, but that statement can be tricky. Hamilton reasons, “When we say that everything happens according to God’s plan, and that God wills everything that happens, this cannot be true. When we say that it is true, then I think we misrepresent the nature and character of God. When non-Christians hear Christians say things like “everything happens for a reason” and “it must have been the will of God” they are left with an impression of God that is hardly loving and just, but instead a picture of God who wills evil and suffering in the world”(7). I personally believe that it is through the fallen nature of man and the wrecking of Satan that suffering infiltrates but I also believe that God is in control and working all things out for our good. The attack from the Muslims that Christians endure in South Sudan was not willed or spoken into nature from the Lord but he is more than capable of redeeming and winning the hearts of
So the problem can be when we do not properly examine what sort of suffering we are enduring and what the cause of it was. Another misconception as noted by Adam Hamilton is the well-meaning encouragement of “everything happens for a reason”. The idea that God has a purpose in and through all things is correct, but that statement can be tricky. Hamilton reasons, “When we say that everything happens according to God’s plan, and that God wills everything that happens, this cannot be true. When we say that it is true, then I think we misrepresent the nature and character of God. When non-Christians hear Christians say things like “everything happens for a reason” and “it must have been the will of God” they are left with an impression of God that is hardly loving and just, but instead a picture of God who wills evil and suffering in the world”(7). I personally believe that it is through the fallen nature of man and the wrecking of Satan that suffering infiltrates but I also believe that God is in control and working all things out for our good. The attack from the Muslims that Christians endure in South Sudan was not willed or spoken into nature from the Lord but he is more than capable of redeeming and winning the hearts of