Hope for the lonely

Suffering—invasive, destructive, tormenting, painful—comes to everyone. Generation after generation, we try to understand our pain. After all, if God loves us as much as He says, why do we suffer?

Even a righteous man like Job suffered horribly. He lost everything: wealth, family, health. Why?

Job's friends had an answer: "Bad things don't really happen to good people. Therefore, people who suffer trials are really bad. Since Job is suffering, he needs to repent," they reasoned. Presto. Problem solved.

Job knew his friends were wrong. He knew that, as far as he was able, he was a righteous man.

So why did he suffer if he was righteous? Job came up with his own answer: "God must be unjust." Presto. Problem solved.

Not quite.

God's only answer to Job in the midst of his suffering was that God, not Job, created and controls the universe. Job would have to accept the trials without understanding why for the time being.

Sometimes this is the only answer we can have in the midst of our own trials. We simply have to trust that God is so powerful and so good that He will ultimately accomplish His purpose to make all things in the universe right.

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And we simply have to trust that God loves us so much He uses whatever means necessary—even His Son's suffering and our own—to make us right with Him. Thank God that He's in charge and His purposes will be accomplished.