All Things for Our Good Q&A
27 Jul 2010
1) I've always had people say to me that they don't believe in God because there is still pain and suffering even though God is all loving and all caring. They say “how can God love when there is so much suffering?” How can we as believers explain to non-believers the concept that God loves everyone and His hand is in everything, suffering or not?
This is a very difficult question!
There were a series of essays in the Times newspaper some 100+ years ago, responding to the question, “What’s wrong with the world”. G. K. Chesterton, an English writer, wrote the following to the paper:
“Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton”
I have found it helpful to remember that the problem of evil in the world that causes so much of the suffering that we observe, isn’t all ‘out there’ in the world, it is also ‘in here’ – ‘in me’. So for God to wipe out all suffering; is to wipe out all evil; is to wipe out all people. What response is there from God to all this pain? Is he simply sitting on a heavenly throne, blissfully unaware of and immune to the pain that’s all around?
In the cross we find our answer: God not only entered into a hurting/ suffering world but suffered, immensely. He would have been very justified in taking action to thoroughly do away with all evil by wiping out all humanity. The cross is God’s radical and costly alternative, the cross is mercy triumphant over justice, the cross is the response of a loving, caring and holy God to evil and suffering.
I found this observation by the Christian Apologist Michael Ramsden very insightful. He comments that as he travels the world, the places where he is never asked about suffering as a reason against the existence of a loving God are the places where suffering is most extreme – where people are poor, oppressed, persecuted. He goes on to say that it is only in ‘comfortable – western contexts’ where this question is frequently asked. He made the following reflection on this pattern:
“Maybe we struggle with suffering so much in the West because we are so comfortable most of the time that we feel we don't need God. We don't rely on Him on a daily basis, and so we don't really know Him as we should. When suffering comes along, therefore, it is not so much that it takes us away from God, but that it reveals to us that we haven't really been close to Him in the first place.”
There is hope in suffering, because God suffered and won! Why suffer in isolation when there is a fortress to enter:
“We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”
Recommended books:
Ravi Zacharias – “Can Man Live Without God?”
C.S Lewis- “The Problem of Pain”
2) How do I hear the Holy Spirit?
In a nutshell:
We don’t hear God speaking to us in an audible way (it can happen, with God 'all things are possible', but it is rare). Regrettably when I have time in devotion, there is no thunderous voice bouncing off the walls revealing what my future holds. We are able to discern God speaking to us however in several ways:
I) Through his word which is a ‘lamp to our feet and a light for my path’ (Psalm 119: 105). The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the word of God and so as you read the scriptures with an open heart to ‘hear’ God speak, you’ll be amazed at how directly the text appears to relate to your circumstances.
II) Through prayer. Prayer isn’t meant to be a ‘one way’ conversation, but a dialogue. As you pray to God expect Him to speak to you. Again this is unlikely to be in an audible way, but more by way of impressing upon me his counsel – perhaps it’ll be a conviction of sin (that would lead me to repent), or a deep sense of peace (that He would have me trust Him with whatever it is I’m going through), or it might be a deep sense of His love and so on.
III) Through the counsel of others. God can speak to us through people, perhaps a word of encouragement, or a prophetic word, or a sound piece of advice: “Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future” (Proverbs 19:20).
3) There are different translations of Rom8v28 with different outworking. Some translations suggest that IN all things God works. Others say that all THINGS work. What response would you give to these?
In Romans 8:28-29, Paul provides us with a breathtaking picture of God’s sovereignty over all things, good and bad, righteous and evil. The emphasis is directed towards the purposes of God in our individual lives as Christians, that through all things, He intends to bring about our good: conformity into the likeness of his Son. Most translations would line up with this emphasis, including the King James, ESV, NASB and NIV. These are the translations we are most comfortable with, and consider to be excellent and accurate scholarly works.
Tim
 
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