Suffering is an unfortunate reality for believers and unbelievers alike. No one is immune to it, nor can anyone avoid it by “having enough faith.” Instead, suffering results from living in a sinful, fallen world.
Suffering is never easy to endure and can be excruciatingly painful. People often struggle to understand why God allows it, and they almost always reject it as His will for anyone, at any time, under any circumstances.
There are two categories of suffering that everyone experiences during their lifetime: justified and unjustified.
Justified suffering is God's direct and deserved discipline to teach people not to sin. This type of suffering is like receiving a painful burn after sticking a finger into a fire. Therefore, justified suffering is a cause-and-effect model, with sinful choices as the cause and God's loving discipline as the effect.
Unjustified suffering is the undeserved pain that results from another person’s actions or an event out of their control. This type of suffering is understandably the most challenging kind to endure. Its ultimate source can be traced back to the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned, causing sickness, disease, violence, evil, decay, bondage, corruption, natural disasters, and physical death to enter the world.
Regardless of what God allows in believers' lives, two truths about unjust suffering are irrefutable. First, Jesus is acutely aware of it and, with loving compassion, uses it to "perfect and complete" believers so they lack nothing (James 1:3). Second, Jesus uses it to accomplish His ultimate purposes in each life affected by it (Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:29-30; John 15:1-2; Romans 5:3-4).
Finally, it should be noted that any suffering believers experience on earth will come to a screeching halt in heaven, never to be endured again. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
I hope this information is helpful regarding suffering. Click here for more Scripture references on this difficult topic.
