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SUFFERING, WHY ME? NEW!
By Dr. Larry J. Waters
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Product #: 32311 |
Tract Information
Language: English |
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Tract Text
Why do people get cancer?
Why do earthquakes destroy entire cities? Why do people have to work so hard just to have enough to barely feed their families? Millions of individuals in the United States
are disabled. According to the United
Nations, 650 million people worldwide live
with disability. The mortality rate of disabled
children is 80 percent.
Parents get divorced. A young girl gets
abducted. A relative gets cancer. Children are
abused. Something isn’t right here. Something
is really, really wrong. Is this how life is
supposed to be?
Why do people suffer?The Bible gives a basic answer to the
question “Why?” But it is not the
answer that most people like to hear.
The world is the way it is because it is
the world we asked for.
Instead of taking responsibility for
our decisions, we blame God. We say,
“God can’t be all-powerful and allloving.
If He were, this world wouldn’t
have suffering!”
Why doesn’t God intervene?Remember the story of Adam and Eve? They
were tempted to become “like God.” They
believed Satan’s lie that there was something
more valuable than God Himself.
Their story is the story of us all,
isn’t it? Who hasn’t said or thought, I
think I can do this without God. I’ll just
take over my life and do it my way. We’ve
all tried to make life work without
God. Why do we do that? For different
people it’s different things, but the
mindset is the same: God is not what
is most important in life.
What is God’s response?God told Adam and Eve, “Cursed is the
ground because of you; through painful toil
you will eat of it all the days of your life. . . .
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your
food until you return to the ground, since
from it you were taken; for dust you are
and to dust you will return”
(Genesis 3:17,19).
In this fallen world . . .
Life is painful. Life is difficult. Horrible things
happen to people all the time.
We have to work to survive. Rather than working
for pleasure, we work out of necessity, to feed
ourselves and our families.
We die. Whether at age 7, 17, 67, or 107,
we all die. No one escapes death.
The world was never meant to be this waySo that’s the world we live in: pain,
having to work to survive, then death.
But why is that kind of a world such
a problem? It is a problem because it was
not meant to be that way. The Bible says
that God has “set eternity in the hearts of men”
(Ecclesiastes 3:11). We know, in our hearts,
there must be something better.
But many try to make the world work
without God. They tough it out, work hard,
endure the pain, and face death fearfully or
with indifference. People expend all their
energy having as much “fun” as possible,
pretending sin and accountability to God
does not exist.
God sees everything and is concernedGod sees every rape, every car accident, every
hungry person, every cancer victim, every
abandoned child. God sees all of this and
more. He is much more concerned about the
condition of this world
than we are. That’s why
He sent His Son to
redeem the world, “For
God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have
eternal life” (John 3:16).
What is your response?
There are no easy answers to the “why?”
questions about suffering. But these “why?”
questions should drive us to God, confessing
our need for Him. God graciously gives us
time to make the important decision to believe
in Him. Will we choose to have a relationship
with Him or not?
“God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not
have the Son of God does not have life”
(1 John 5:11–12).
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”
(Acts 16:31).
Will you now place your trust in Jesus
Christ and receive Him as your Savior?
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