4 Reasons Why God Allows Christians to Suffer

Many people have written in recently asking “Why does God allow Christians to suffer?” There are many reasons why Christians suffer hardships in life, but for today’s lesson I’m focusing on 4 reasons listed below.

1. We have an enemy in Satan.

Once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, Satan does everything he can to make our lives miserable and to damage our testimony for Christ. He could care less about the lost. Once we are saved he and his demons go to work trying to destroy us.

1 Peter 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

2. We live in a lost world.

Once sin entered the earth through Adam and Eve, man has no longer lived in the perfect world God created. Before sin, there were no hardships, pain or death. But after man sinned, that perfect world changed completely.

We were born into sin and live in a fallen world. God saved us from the death of sin through His Son Jesus Christ, but we still suffer the consequences of sin while we are here on earth.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned–

3. It draws us closer to God.

No one wants to go through hard times, but often we learn many valuable life lessons through them. As Christians we must make an effort every day to connect with God and to continually grow. But many times, we try to make decisions on our own, to handle problems on our own and we don’t include God—and that is when troubles begin. God allows us through free will to make our own decisions and waits patiently for us to come to Him. Sometimes we have to get to the point of no other options but God, before we turn back to Him.

Psalm 145:18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.

4. We make bad choices.

Because of sin, we are not perfect and thus bad decisions are made. Sin is a stronghold and has a very powerful draw. Many times, we give into fleshly desires—sins we know are wrong, but we either enjoy them too much and are not willing to stop, or we are too weak spiritually to resist them.

It is a decision to hang around the wrong people. Our associations are crucial! There is a famous saying “We become who we hang around.” If we hang around people who are not Godly, we start acting un-Godly, if we hang around believers, we act more like God. We have choices, but often we make worldly choices instead of Godly ones.

1 Corinthians 3:3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

These are just 4 reasons why God allows suffering. We must remember that God loves us and has our good in mind. He is a good, good father.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

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