Quotes on Why Suffering
"Child of God, do you sometimes ask, " Why this cross? Why this bereavement? Why am I perplexed by this dillema? Why is this difficulty piled like a barricade across my path?" You do not have the answer now, but you will. Until then, settle firmly in your faith that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose". Romans 8:28 - CH Spurgeon
“When belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to turn away from Him; but in heaven’s name to what?” The Christian does not deny that a meaningful answer must be found, but has the one who denies God found a better answer to the problem of evil? With a touch of humor, and in recognition that many answers come close but not close enough. Chesterton went on to say, “My problem with life is not that it is rational, nor that it is irrational…but that it is almost rational.” Just when we are able to form a cohesive framework, someone or something pokes a hole in it, and we take a step back." GK Chesterton
"God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist." St. Augustine (provided by friend Kristen Martin)
"Asking why is ok - - - Jesus did - - "My God, My God, why have your forsaken me?"
"The real issue is not why is there evil....The real issue is how could a Holy God crush His own Son, who was without sin, to forgive the evil in my heart? That is the mystery and the truth of the Gospel" Pastor Bob O'Bannon
"When suffering goes on and on and we grow weary and impatient, read Psalm 37 with its star-promise (v4) "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. " John Calvin
"If God is not in some sense responsible for bad things, then he is not responsible for good things either. If we do not "blame" God for death, we should not praise God for life. We cannot have it both ways." Joseph Hill
“Why does evil continue? - - - 2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
“The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in very generation. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair. Sensitive spirits ask if it can possibly be reconciled with God’s justice and love.” John Stott
"There is a mind-set in the prosperous West that we deserve pain-free, trouble-free existence. When life deals us the opposite, we have a right not only to blame somebody or some system and to feel sorry for ourselves, but also to devote most of our time to coping, so that we have no time or energy left for serving others." (John Piper, The Roots of Endurance, p. 18)
"So many people are mad at God and so many pastors say it's ok......It is never ok to be mad at God.......but if you are mad at God, don't be a hypocrite...admit it........The only way not to be mad at God is to have your faith in his sovereign goodness so massively grounded, that when the waves break over you, you have categories in your mind and affections in your heart that can handle that......." John Piper
"Where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him...you will be, or so it feels - welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.......You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence becomes." CS Lewis (in the midst of deep grief after his wife's death from cancer)
"How can you get to know God without suffering - - you can't !” Charles Stanley
"When sorrow comes, we have no right to ask "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question when joy comes our way." Irene Bargmann
"In answering the question Why Me? one must feel and understand that the circumatances of life may be beyond our control. But when it comes to what to do about the situation in which we find ourselves, we frequently have a good deal of control. Life is like a game of cards in which we have no say over the hand dealt us. We do, however, have control over how we play the hand. There's no point blaming the dealer for a bad hand. The trick is to play it with all the skill and determination at our command. That is, taking responsibility." Pesach Krauss in the book Why Me?
"If you have a why to live for, you can bear with any how." Nietzsche. (Victor Frankl, Jewish psychiatrist, author and Nazi concentration camp survivor studied this in the concentration camp. He noticed some people died, others didn't - - and it was tied in no way to physical strength. Frankl concluded that the most important driving life force for man was the search for meaning. Every human being has to have a task, it doesn't matter what it is but it must be his own. When he finds it, he can keep his dignity with a sense of hope and can transcend even the most desperate circumstances. Pesach Krauss, Why Me?)
"WHY ME?, WHY THIS?, WHY NOW ?" All who suffer, (As stated by David McKenna, The Whisper of His Grace)
"It is not my business to think about myself. My business is to think about God. It is for God's business to think about me." Simone Weil
"In the presence of Christ's cross, our own crosses are less colossal. Our thorns in the flesh are as nothing when laid side by side with the nails and spear." Charles Spurgeon
"The time of suffering is not a time for speech upon the ultimate problems of the universe. It is a time for upward look and trustful silence. Some people are so strong in faith and so sure of God, that they can praise Him in pain, and pass through the valley of the shadow with songs on their lips. But they are rare souls. For most people, it is a time for mute obedience. To fashion a philosophy in such an hour is surely a mistake. If we make it for ourselves in our own tragedy, it will border on despair; if we make it for others, in the hour of their grief, it is likely we shall treat their sorrow too light." William E. Sangster
"Lord, how can you consider my troubles light and momentary? I will never run or walk again. I will never use my hands. I've got a leaky leg bag...I smell like urine.....my back aches....Maybe you see all of this achieving an eternal glory, but all I see is one awful day after the next in this stinking wheelchair." A young Joni Eareckson Tada
"I challenge anyone to write down the effects of suffering in their lives and then count the number of times I, me, and my appear in a negative context. As children of God, why have we not discerned that the power behind suffering is not about us but rather about Him working in and through us - - incredibly - for our own good?” Tim Doyle
‘“When your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, an orderly list of "sixteen good biblical reasons as to why this is happening" can sting like salt in a wound. You don't stop the bleeding that way. A checklist may be ok when you're looking at suffering in a rearview mirror, but not when you're looking at suffering in the present tense. When people are sorely suffering, people are like hurting children looking up into the faces of their parents, crying and asking, "Daddy why?" Those children don't want explanations, answers or reasons why, they want their daddy to pick them up, pat them on the backs, and reassure them that everything is going to be okay. God, like a father, doesn't just give advice. He gives himself;
He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isa 54:5)
He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isa 54:1)
He becomes the father of the orphaned (Psalm 10:14)
He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isa 62:5)
He is the healer to the sick (Ex 15:26)
He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isa 9:6)
This is what you do when someone you love is in anguish; you respond to the plea of their heart by giving your heart." Joni Eareckson Tada
The lyrics to Everybody Hurts - by REM
When the day is long
and the night,
the night is yours alone,
when you're sure you've had enough
of this life,
well hang on.
Don't let yourself go,
everybody cries
and everybody hurts
sometimes.
Sometimes
everything is wrong.
Now it's time to sing along.
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
if you feel like letting go,
(hold on)
when you think you've had too much
of this life
well hang on.
Everybody hurts.
Take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts.
Don't throw your hand.
Oh, no.
Don't throw your hand.
If you feel like you're alone
, no, no, no,
you are not alone
If you're on your ownin this life,
the days and nights are long,
when you think you've had too much
of this life
to hang on.
Well, everybody hurts
sometimes,
everybody cries.
And everybody hurts
sometimes.
And everybody hurts
sometimes.
So, hold on,
hold on.
(Everybody hurts.
You are not alone.)
