BUILDING BLOCKS
for a Transformed Life
The Gospel Truth
Paul J. Bucknell
Index
The Gospel Truth | Video and Study Questions
Check the D2 Digital Library for the full resources!
So why do people doubt God's love?
The reason many unbelievers and believers doubt God's love is because of the existence of sin. It is as if people think God is to blame for the suffering when really, if we study the first couple chaptes of Genesis, it is mankind's fault.
The suffering goes on, but that is because God redeems the difficult situation to bring about a greater good. If the Lord closed the door to any suffering at any point prior to this, we would not be living nor a host of other people.
1 Peter 5:8-10
“8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Peter 5:8-10 NASB).
The above section of scripture from 1 Peter 5 allows us to note many things about suffering. Read through the whole chapter and you will see the context of bringing up the evil one is that God's people are suffering. When we see suffering, our hearts are taken aback and the evil uses such times to "devour" us.
That attached video shows about five key truths to take from 1 Peter 5:8-10 before giving a final answer to why so many people have lost confidence in God's love.
If God is loving, why does He allow suffering?
There are many different approaches to understanding suffering. We are not trying to be oversimplistic here, but, on the otherhand, we also recognize that half-confident is not much different than half-doubt.
Most of those that despise the biblical picture of God have a very distorted notion of Him. They believe their so-called God is much better to worship, but in many cases, like the mainline Protestant denominations, they have cursed themselves by worship a selfish love and ending up with delusion. Much of Europe precedes America in this path of terror. Yes, they will say they worship a really loving God because He doesn't allow suffering. But if He doesn't allow suffering, then He is stripped from His mighty power for He does nothing about it.
I as a father would not want my children to suffer. I understand this pull on the heart as you the reader. This approach, though, inadequately describes our era. If we could summarize god's purpose as only protecting a small community of God's people from suffering, then we can understand why people would cast stones at God, but God has a purpose larger than protecting us from suffering.
As 1 Peter 5 states, God has a larger purpose of allowing suffering for a little while. His purpose is to sacrifice Himself to help others out of their plight. If we understood this matter, we would never impugn guilt to God f6or He had His own Son, Jesus Christ, suffer for our sins so we could become the chldren of God. Without suffering, then there would be no rest, peace, and salvation. Isn't a little suffering better so that a greater good could be accomplished. And if He allows His Son to display His love, would he withhold our opportunity to prove that we too are sons of God and care for others more than our own pleasures?
God has a greater purpose for suffering and therefore is willing for it to exist for a brief period. When looking back from the eternal shores, certainly this era of pain will look like a brief moment. Again, there are many ways to approach the problem of suffering, and yet, this one approach discharges the hatred against God and begin to humble our misled attacks against the One who cared enough to suffer for us.
What about you?
So do you doubt God's love? How do you handle the presence of suffering in this world? Has the evil one to some degree devoured part of your confidence so that you lack confidence in God's glorious person and ways?