Seeds Of Hope Daily Devotional: Why Do We Suffer?
Many of us, from time to time, ask ourselves the age-old question: “If God is God, and if God is a great God and if God is a good God and if God is a powerful God, why does He allow bad things to happen to me and others who have good intentions and want to please Him?”
Deep down we
do believe that He is a good and great and powerful God. But that question
still nags at our innermost thoughts and feelings and from time to time challenges
our faith with subtle doubts.
He certainly
does have everything under His control, and He does desire our very best. But
not all things, such as sorrow and suffering, seem good while we are going
through them.
I remember
very well my mother’s homemade bread. I would return home from school, l and
the entire house would be filled with the aroma of fresh baked bread waiting
for some butter and homemade strawberry jam.
But by
themselves, I did not like flour, yeast, shortening or baking soda. But when
Mom mixed them together, allowed them to “rise” and then baked them in a hot
oven, the results were amazing and wonderful.
Is that not
how God works? Some pain here. A lot of suffering there. A time of grief. Sorrow
for a season. Financial problems.
Discouragement over a loss. That’s God’s mixing everything together for our
good and His will.
Prayer:
Father, give us grace and courage to look at our lives the way that
You look at them - knowing and believing that everything works for our good and
Your glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Scripture For Today: And
we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who
love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28