Is Suffering a work of God?

How many people around the world today are suffering from different types of problems, whether health, relationships, and financial? I know there are more than we can imagine. But the real question is why such a perfect God allows this suffering with his loved creations?

There are many views why God allowed such horrid experiences happen even to the most pious follower. My theory and perspective maybe unorthodox. This is not according to the doctrines of the church where I belong, but this is how I saw it from my own feelings.

I based my argument on the book of Job. Job was a righteous man that no matter what, he never ceased to praise God. The devil caused his afflictions to force him to curse the Lord, but to no avail. Many commentaries have been written about the story but their center was on discussing the causes of suffering. Try to read Cliffnotes summary of Job and commentary. I view it differently.

When God allowed humans to dwell on earth His major purpose is to have them glorify His name as shown in many passages of the Bible. When human suffers there are two possible reasons, because he have sinned (a lot of stories are available in the Old Testament: King Saul's fall, David's suffering, others) or because of the working of the devil (as the case of Job).

In the first category, suffering out of sin can be personal or God allowed it to happen as a consequence of sinning. Personal inflicted sufferings are like lethal injection out of criminal offense. Sickness out of abuse of somethings could be one also. Meanwhile, God flooded the earth because of the sinfulness in Noah's time. God even outlawed the rebellious angels because of their evil ambitions. Let Adam and Eve out of the garden or Eden because of not following Him.

In the second category, the devil finds its way to harm people even the most religious one to test his faith, to push him to the limit in order that he would defile his God and loss his soul to Satan. In some cases, people die out of this suffering with faith still intact. And God rejoices in this case, because the devil doesn't win. We know death in this particular instance is not a curse but a point where victory is claimed. A point where the most glorious moment of the spirit is reached. Material life and existence is nothing compared to heavenly life. Another situation wherein the sufferer do not abandon his faith and recovered from suffering. Many would agree if I say God has a plan for this person, to use him for His own purpose.

But what if our faith crumbles along the process of suffering? The result is either God intervenes with miracles (you may not agree with me, but a lot of miracles happened even the faithful defiled God, either openly or within his mind, while suffering). God's interventions always have purpose which are far beyond our comprehension. If the person dies defiling God, then the devil wins. But in most cases, at the point of death this person still would ask God for forgiveness, either openly or within his thoughts, therefore in most cases God wins when there is death in suffering. This is the reason why the devil don't need death but tries to make the suffering more severe in order for that person to give up and defile God and make evil disciple out of him.

This is how I look at sufferings. And staying with God despite severe difficulties is a good virtue. During this moments of your life, you should remember that in dying with God, you win against the devil.

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