Why does God allow suffering?

Transcript

so as was mentioned I chose the topic that I wanted to um the Bible up and discuss with you tonight on the very tough question and sometimes um you know almost taboo topic of why does God allow suffering and I did so with um the thought in mind of you know a lot of the things that your equation has been going through in the prayer request that we've been getting regarding some of the tragedies that you guys are are dealing with the Heartbreak that everyone's working their way through so I wanted to try to offer this as a as a scriptural help to really kind of get back to the nuts and bolts of you know looking Beyond just the impact that sorrow and suffering can have but like what's the what's the big picture so as we know even though we might be sheltered here in America we are acutely aware that there is a massive amount of distress that is felt all over the globe you would agree with me that this ongoing pandemic all the news headlines about natural disasters we have current new threats of terrorism the increase of War not to mention economic instability that's now making the cost of food at an all-time high all these things on a macro level and then especially down to a personal level of dealing with anxiety living with depression perhaps living with a disability or stress over money stress over family issues we almost feel some sense of hopelessness as we see how the world is falling apart and that there are so few answers to be had sometimes and as I mentioned I asked brother Nate if this topic might be appropriate or perhaps even a bit too much because I know that your Ecclesia is going through um just it feels like trial after trial I know that there's an immense amount of prayer that needs to continue to be had for the families that you mentioned and individuals that you mentioned and we do pray that our God hears these prayers and allows his angels to answer them swiftly to intervene from my own experience when you start exchanging stories between ecclesias about who's on your prayer list and um you start learning about other people that you didn't even know needed to be included in prayers it can get pretty harrowing pretty quickly um when you comprehend the consequences of some of these requests um you know particularly I believe brother Tom Cannon just how much lives both can and will change just in an instant and it can make your heart sink in your chest crying out for answers and it feels like these days if it's not something that's particularly impacting us then it's something else that's too close to home I Know Myself personally um back in the spring with the Uvalde shootings that was something that really really struck a chord to me because I was still teaching at the time and um just feeling for what that school must have been going through every week we keep hearing about more mental health related suicides more mass shootings the key word behind all of it is suffering human suffering we might have a tough time dealing with this accepting why is it that people have to go through such affliction what good is it doing um I think the question that can come to most people's minds is that cliche why do bad things happen to good people I think that this question in particular has driven people both Believers and non-believers alike into three different camps so I think there's really three different ways that people have chosen to try to answer this question and that's what I've got on the screen at the moment the first is to just flat out say that there is no God that we just suffer for no reason that the events that unfold in our personal lives as well as to nations in general are just random chaos and that's like the heartbreaking equivalent of saying you know what I'm really sorry that your daughter was killed by a drunk driver I'm really sorry that your country is running out of clean water tough luck the second view would at least acknowledge that there is a Divine something that created the world and its inhabitants but that now events would just unfold on their own um much like a clock that's been wound up and is now just ticking away once again this kind of answer would say that we just suffer for no reason there's nothing to stop it there's no hope of intervention so obviously the third point of view that I'd like to express this evening is what I hope most of us believe in that there is a personal and involved God that both created this Earth and still controls it still intervenes in this world but yet we still suffer so then there has to be a reason for it I think the first step in understanding why God allows suffering begins with understanding and perhaps accepting as well our position before him the Bible tells us that we are but dust that our egos need to be left behind we were not created to be waited on hand and foot but in turn we were made to serve him and to give him the glory it says as as uh hopefully you can see on the screen in Isaiah 64 verse 8 but now oh Lord you are our father we are your clay you are our Potter and we are all the work of your hand and on a similar note in Romans 9 . what ill what is molded say to its motor why have you made me like this has the Potter no right over the clay I think that something we're all familiar with and hopefully um you know something we can accept and another obvious thing that I believe needs to be said right off the bat is that a hard burden of Affliction is not our Maker's fault as some would carelessly suggest is in fact our own the Bible also tells us this that the suffering that we understand is a direct correlation so the consequences of our own sin that in the beginning God did create the Garden of Eden as a paradise with the most ideal conditions there was no disease no injury no disaster no crime no pollution these things did not exist we did not understand stress violence death they were not experienced by mankind God said that he saw everything that he made and behold it was very good we know that Adam and Eve's Disobedience introduced uh a separation between us and our master from them being so easily persuaded away from obeying God they chose to change things mankind no longer dwelling in harmony with God's laws we have Disobedience and affliction introduced to our human experience and I think most of us would probably also agree that it if it were not Adam and Eve it would have been us it would have been myself making those same poor decisions thinking of the lust the eyes the lust of the fresh the pride of life Yahweh fairly told them in Genesis 2 verses 16 and 17. that the consequence of their Disobedience would be death says you may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die so today is the result of that 6 000 years of Disobedience willful Rebellion against God so it's clearly evident why this existence of suffering is something that's so entrenched in our existence that it's so Perpetual that even though we have your babies and young children that have not chosen yet to disobey God born in them is a nature to even disobey parents just because that's that's the the downfall of the flesh this is the long-term effect of being removed from righteousness and if you went back to our three answers and you went back to answer number one and you said well you know there is no God and we just we just suffer random once again there's no hope then there's no intervention and if you say again that answer number two there has been a Divine creation but that was just at the beginning things just almost go like a clock now once again we're looking for what is that answer of why is there suffering is there any reason behind it it's interesting to note also that it says that God does not force us to act against his will that displeases his righteous character he would wish that we would fear his name and in fact the scriptures indicate that mankind is generally determined to oppose the wisdom of God in Ecclesiastes 8 and 11 it says because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil and in chapter 9 verse 2 it is the same for all since the same event happens both to the righteous and the wicked to the Good and Evil the hearts of the children of man are full of evil and Madness is in their hearts where they lived and after that they go to the Grave so I lay these things out really really just to push the issue why should we question the presence of evil and suffering when Humanity we're told despises the very means of its solution which is to obey God all the horrible things around us that we could point to famine War disease these are all a result of Mankind's greed are insatiable appetite to please ourselves the lust of the eyes and flesh mankind given the responsibility to write its own destiny has just brought us to this point which is ignoring the Bible ignoring the advice of God ignoring her recognization of a Creator and a need to respond to that creator so this would then be a fair time I think to insert the tough question well if that's the case why doesn't God intervene if God is truly benevolent if he truly loves us if there is a reason why is he let it go so bad I think there is um there's a point in emphasizing some say that God could remove all these Dreadful circumstances from our our Earth from our existence and he could he could there there's power in admitting that brothers and sisters we believe in a god that is able that is able to end all things in a moment and he does allow suffering to continue but we know that if God came in and fixed everything that we had wronged they would just validate the mischief and sin that we would get up to God has told us from the beginning he hasn't purposed he wants to accomplish with us which is to fill the whole Earth with the knowledge of his glory and to produce a people for his own name a people that are called out to represent him so I think it stands to make a point that we should be thankful that our God does not change that he is righteous he is right he stands by that same principle throughout time he does not Bend our circumstances but it's that we should bend to his even to the point of being humbled even to the point of being broken um there's a number of different scriptural characters that we'll reference um the Apostle Paul job as well the honest truth is that without suffering we would not then know the relief of the mercy and love of God it's an understandable point to say you know without a in a perfect world you wouldn't see a need for God if there was not trouble and discomfort we would not cry out for him we would not cry for help we would not ask for guidance we would not seek answers to these things if there was not Affliction we would not have any need to draw close to a god that we saw any need of and that's unfortunately where you've got people who've answered those three questions with the answers of number one and number two assuming that if there is no Divine creator that is intervening on their behalf then they just look past any hope of ending reflection and that's the exact problem with what happened with Sodom and Gomorrah the days of Noah it's the humanistic thinking that well you just live for it today eat drink be merry and one day you'll die and people I guess just accept suffering is just part of that existence something I wanted to bring up this is a little bit of different thought that I had let me pull this screen up for you guys this just came to me recently but I was thinking about the instance of when Jesus healed the man who was lowered in through the roof this is one of my favorite um healings because of how unique it was for a lot of different circumstances but you'll note that this is the only person that received technically two different blessings from Jesus he famously forgave his sins which then shocked the room but then he also to prove that he had the power to forgive sins insisted that he would also heal the Man's legs and he gave him that healing as an additional I think it's important to note here that was not part of the original plan presumably Jesus only sought to forgive what he felt this man needed the most in order to better his life and to return closer to his God which was to forgive his sins Jesus did not intend to heal this man's physical calamity something that most people would assume was his main point of suffering presumably Jesus would have left the man lame if not for the murmuring of the Pharisees who questioned him it reminds me of a similar circumstance with Paul in second Corinthians 12 Paul mentions praying for his Affliction to be removed from him multiple times but yet it was it wasn't and in both instances the fact that Jesus presumably would have left this man with his physical um disability as well as somebody like Paul praying that a simple bodily Affliction would be removed from him and in both instances it was going to be allowed to remain that might be a little bit of an insight to us into how and why God sometimes has the ability to reverse the situation but chooses not to Paul writes in that reference from second Corinthians 12. starting at verse 7 through verse 10. so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn was given me in the flesh messenger of Satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited and three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me but he said my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness and so therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ May rest upon me for the sake of Christ then I am content with weakness I'm content with insults hardships I'm content with persecutions I'm content with calamities because it is when I am weak then I am truly strong but it's when we see I think suffering especially suffering that we feel is undeserved from people that we're close to that we always wish that it goes away we always wish that our our you know prayers are heard I think it can be brothers and sisters one of the hardest things to square away in your mind when you pray fervently for someone to be healed especially if it's drawn out over a long time and then it doesn't happen and people can fairly question why weren't our prayers answered did did we not pray enough why is it that some people recover and then we see others only get worse foreign we are very prideful as humans we get very uncomfortable when we feel weak when we feel that we don't have the control over a situation and I think if we get angry about this very easily we despise an awareness of being limited we despise feeling weak we say How could a merciful god let this happen how am I supposed to trust God if if grief and suffering remain in my life if I continue to have to deal with this burden people say God has abandoned me so I'll abandon him and people Curse God in their heart we make an enemy of our own maker but yet all these things don't do anything to take away the pain that doesn't stop a loved one from dying that doesn't blunt regret people will leave the thought of God behind because they despise the idea of being left in our weakness such as Paul was asked to do remain without full capabilities have no control feeling like they're being made to suffer and that the fact that there could possibly be a reason for it but that is not being shown that's how people come to think that there is no God and that we just suffer for no reason and I don't mean to be cheap when I say this but some people want the crown but are unwilling to carry the cross some people want to be glorified with Christ but are unwilling to suffer with him we're told though that key verse from second Corinthians 12 it is through weakness that God shows his glory in us our ability to trust in him and let go and and allow ourselves to be limited and to be weakened to be vulnerable it is in our sufferings that the love of God is made perfect that he's willing to take all these things away if we trust him if we show our faith but of course I say that fully aware that it is a really sad thing when righteous men and women especially ones that are close brothers and sisters close family it is tremendously sad when we're seeing them subjected to tremendous grief trials burdens that we feel that even they cannot bear as I mentioned in the beginning I'm sure even Beyond this past couple weeks I'm sure many of us that our lives have known faithful loved ones who went through very tough times despite their love of God if maybe it frustrated us that's okay it is okay to be frustrated and be upset it is okay to question God why should Yahweh permit even his own beloved people who he has called to still suffer the effects of evil actually I just want to check in because I'm not looking at my zoom screen can everyone still hear me and see my screen okay everything looks great okay we can hear you just fine thank you so one of the big things I think hopefully most of you know and I assume because this is what you were just talking about before we started our class but the job phenomenon is one of the key pieces of understanding the role of suffering for a believer a lot of the times it's for someone's development it could be your own personal Spiritual Development it could also be a way to help others understand the reason for suffering you can't go over the concept of suffering without mentioning job he's the poster child for it despite having that righteous attitude the very first first of the very first chapter his introduction describes him as a man that was blameless and upright he was a man who feared God he turned away from evil and you would think that surely of all people he would be protected by the God that he served from the experience of suffering but Yahweh saw that there would actually be benefits gained by job personally and by those like him in every generation after if in that moment he were indeed tested job wisely did not condemn his Lord for his anguish recognizing that all he possessed came from God originally and belonged to him famously it says in Job 1 21-22 he said excuse me naked I came from my mother's womb naked shall I return the lord gave and the Lord is taken away and all these things blessed be the name of the Lord and we're told that in all this job did not send a did not charge god with wrong okay there's another interesting Bible character that came to me recently thinking about this aspect and that's Jacob Jacob had a very tumultuous life for a lot of different reasons but when I think about his suffering I think primarily about losing his son Joseph it caused him such grief broke his heart because Joseph was his favorite son would it have been better in any circumstance for him to instead lose one of the other 12. one of the other 12 that was born to one of the handmaids and not to Rachel one of the other 12 that he very clearly loved less than Joseph we know that it caused a great amount of animosity between the family to the point that the brothers wanted to kill and get rid of Joseph because of their Envy because of the emotional damage and Trauma that clearly they suffered from understanding that their father loved them less than he loved Joseph from Joseph's sorry from Jacob's perspective losing his favorite son caused the most amount of suffering than it would have the others but from God's perspective any son lost should be cause for tremendous suffering would it have really been better just hypothetically but just want to put this thought out there would it have really been better that he instead lost Reuben or Judah or Simeon and then perhaps not been as upset because well thankfully still got Joseph that's not the kind of heart that our Lord wants to create in US God cherishes all of his children equally life is precious to our God and perhaps this is the hardest lesson to handle we asked the question the cliche the cliche question why do bad things happen to good people but the parallel concept you could say why do good things happen to bad people there's something wrong with that kind of mindset and this is why I I think it included this as part of the teaser and this has been something I've been thinking about in the past couple years we should not want for only good things to happen to good people because the inverse is not glorifying God whatsoever we should not want for only good things to happen to good people and only bad things to happen to the bad people because where is that any salvation then for those who we feel are bad or those who were less fortunate those who've been mistreated those who've never had the good things in the first place one of the very impactful things you learn from being a teacher is that you can't punish a bad child because a lot of the reasons that they're probably already acting out is because they've been neglected because they need positive reinforcement there is a quote that is such a true quote and they'd say it every year which is the kids that are hardest to love are the ones that need love the most okay so it's important sometimes for us to take a step outside of our own thought about suffering and think about we shouldn't wish that we don't have to deal with the suffering so that someone else has to because it's not that anyone else deserves the suffering more than us I'll give you an example it can be easier I find this is just pure I'm emitting this myself it can be easier to tune out the horrific news I hear about places that I'll never go or people that I might already look down on it's easier for me to tune out suffering when I hear about another famine in Africa or another news clip about a drive-by drug shooting in downtown Philly I could just say well that's just how it is they must just be in that position due to some bad decisions that's what you get but then how does God feel about that suffering that Affliction that loss of life we wanted to be different to God when it's our own precious child that has cancer we're looking for answers why should why should my family suffer why should my my innocent child you know be diagnosed with cancer well in God's eyes yes you and your family are just as precious as that poor family that lost someone to a drive-by drug shooting or that Village in Africa that's still running out of food along those same lines to God Judas was just as cherished as Jesus was of course Jesus was his own beloved Son who did no wrong and Judas betrayed him but it's important to take a step back and say that death is not something that is pleasing to the god of life Our God that we Love Takes no pleasure in our suffering what he does look for his hearts that acknowledge how limited we are how thankful we are that when things are plentiful and when things do go well in our life when we do have joy that we trust him God wants us to trust him holy and not necessarily that we should be willing to lose all things but that in faith that he will provide for us no matter what Affliction we may be going through that it will be enough just another example from scripture is the Widow of Zarephath from First Kings 17. the Prophet Elijah comes across a widow and her son who we come to understand have been in such a state of Affliction that they've been starving to death she literally has just enough food for what she says she assumes will be their last meal and after that she proclaims that she expects to die through God Elijah makes it so that the jars of flour and oil that the cake was made from never run out so coming from their moment of desperation God teaches this family to trust and have faith that even at the point of having such intense suffering he can still through weakness show his love and Glory well that son of her still died that Widow still did lose her son but once again God by his Mercy through Elijah raised him back to life the point being that she still had to experience that suffering that fear perhaps that worst fear she could have ever had having already lost her husband losing her own son but nothing is beyond the power of our God when we lose something or someone dear to us it'll always hurt more to look inwardly to dwell on what I have lost it will always be harder to think outwardly and think of the rest of the world around us and have empathy say man you know I may have just lost a dear family member who suffered for a long time but man others must have also lost someone as well this must be so hard for all of us I think there's a lot of healing that can go into looking Beyond ourselves and thinking of a general need for the return of Christ and to ask God to to implore God to help us have whatever it is that we need to carry on again it can hurt to dwell on who or what we have lost but some of us some people have never even had those same blessings at all we have people in our Collegiate who throughout the course of their life have developed crippling disabilities that now leave them as basic prisoners inside their own bodies you hear about children who are born to drug addicted mothers work in the school system long enough you'll see plenty of broken families it may be hard to hear but any blessing you have is a blessing blessings are blessings having healthy family members clean food safety and shelter these are things to be praising God for recognizing there are people around the world that don't even have these things that grow up without any family structure grow up without easy access to clean food and water grow up knowing that their body is severely disabled so again there can be a lot of healing and just appreciating and praying and testifying to God for his Mercy and praying that others may have these same Comforts may have the same Joy so like job we need to be careful that we don't blame our Master for any trouble that might come our way because it may in fact be his means of perfecting our character the thing that we fear going through the most maybe the thing that's preparing us for the greater purpose that he is in store for us I've been told this before and I like reminding people that faith begins at the edge of our comfort zone and our moment of Sorrow that can end up being your final test of faith are you willing to trust God even through this this last affliction for Jesus that was his moment on the cross to the last test so will we rely on God to see us through or when suffering comes do we curse the day that we are born which is what job's friends told him to do well the result of job's trial was that by his faithful endurance his three friends also came to a knowledge and love of the lord and there was by his strength it changed not only his life but even the lives of those who witnessed his great loss this is something that really sticks with me because it's something I felt like I suffered and witnessed firsthand um there's two dear friends of mine years ago when I was living in Detroit I'm sure you've heard of both of them um Mary bobus and Grant Anderson one that eventually lost her Battle of cancer and another who survived and near fatal car accident but will be permanently brain damaged until God restores both of them and we were completely floored by the tragedies that came upon these faithful young believers I mean we're all in our young 20s but it witnessing it it was by both of their tremendous strength and their faith in God even through their suffering dying from cancer or waking up from a coma that God's glory was shown all the more brighter because of their faith and that's sometimes how suffering can be a greater benefit to the people around them based on how the individuals handle it how others perceive it showing that even in your weakness even in being limited even in being without answers still having faith testifying that God is in control long after someone passes that can be the lesson that someone learns for the rest of their life and we're told at the VIN in job 42 that his latter end was even more Splendid than his beginning God blessed him to such a greater extent than he even had and all these things he recognized that it was the Lord who gives and the Lord who takes away this is a parallel to what Paul tells us in Romans 8. Paul says I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in US Paul understood that suffering is part of Human Condition it's a key part of our trials and in fact it's essential to the aspect of a life in Christ second Timothy 2 18 the saying is trustworthy for her if we have died with him we will also live with him if we endure we will also reign with them and first Peter chapter 2 Peter writes this is a gracious thing that when you're mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering and jostling for what credit is it then if you sin and are beaten for it and you endure but if when you do good and suffer you endure this is a gracious thing in the sight of God for to this thing you've been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving an example said you might follow in his steps foreign as we move towards our conclusion that's obviously our confidence and our example though he did no sin or cause any harm to his fellow man Jesus the Christ suffered greatly at the hands of evil Godless men who hated him because his righteousness was a living rebuke to their wickedness so of course we could say why should a sinless man be subjected to such unwarranted suffering and persecution and we are told plainly in Acts chapter 2 it says his death was according to the definite plan and for knowledge of God he had to die he had to die to show that God was righteous in the beginning from the very beginning for allowing mankind to suffer and die for their sin Jesus being morally sinless Rose from the grave opening the way for us to follow his example with the hope of eternal life that is free from the bonds of affliction Our Savior refused excuse me refused to conform to the sinful way of life surrounding him he now provides for us a blueprint on how to stand apart from the world even though yes it may bring about difficulty yes it may bring about persecution he gave us a model on how to endure through sufferings in order to obtain up our prize our crown of righteousness even just a hope to see life restored and God can and will do those things that says we have a high priest who is not unable to sympathize with our weakness one who in every respect has been tempted just like we are yet without sin so we know that suffering now prepares us we I would never choose to go through some of the things that I've talked about some of the examples I've given and I know a lot of us would agree I have things that I am deathly afraid of having to endure fears that like well what if this happened in my life what if God brought this event happened I don't think I could handle that I don't think it'd be prepared for that and the fear of the unknown is not something that's ever gonna make it not happen but we have confidence in what is known we're told that suffering now in whatever form that may take It prepares us for the coming kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is coming so it's important to remember that inner moments of suffering for time other people have suffered like this other people have said similar trials sometimes even much greater trials than us and such experiences develop in us the human character and the important Priestly qualities of empathy compassion by which we are strengthened to triumph over those difficulties to encourage others to do likewise we're told this in second Corinthians 3. I'm sorry second Corinthians 1. verses three to five where it says blessed be the God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of Mercies the God of All Comfort who comforts us in our Affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with this comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God for we are to share abundantly in Christ's sufferings so that through Christ we share abundantly in Comfort too foreign thing to remember is that when we are at our weakest is when God can be at his strongest when we are going through our worst suffering and without answers is when God is working the most directly with us we should take comfort in that we know that God tells us he'll never put us through more than what we can handle even with his own son he was willing to send Legions of Angels in a moment's notice you were never beyond what your God believes you can bear now say that again you are never Beyond for your God you created you believes you can bear he wants us to pray to him to seek that jar of oil and flour that somehow will just keep going day by day it'll just find a way to keep going and that even through death itself help us to have that complete faith that life even will be restored and like job that our latter end will be even more Splendid than the beginning that our the glory that will be revealed in US it'll be like nothing now where we are going through now perhaps we won't even remember so I'll end just with one more tough question make sure I'm on the right slide needless suffering is there such a thing I think you say that there's like a cliche picture of like you know starving children that are just all bones and skin does that have to happen is there such a thing as just needless suffering I would say no I would say that even by that child that you'll never meet by it God is showing us showing everyone that something's wrong any suffering is meant to wake us up and jar us and shock us remind us that the condition of the earth is out of place and that it keeps getting worse the more we're separated from him it's not originally meant to be this way that's why we need intervention that's why answer number three is the only answer we need God's help whether it is another Refugee crisis I mean the times you have to hear about these boats of refugees that try to flee a country and then just sink somewhere babies that you're seeing are born with Incredible disabilities no that's not needless suffering this is just part of the human condition and it's meant to have us feel the same shock and agony that we're separated from our master there is no earthly solution that can change these pitiful things from occurring it's a reminder that only when God has set up Paradise again while our suffering end and all these things even the most shocking they're meant to Humble us to that end to have empathy for our fellow man to try to comfort one another to praise God for the blessings we do have good health and food but remember that quick fixes in this life is all they are they're temporary and we need to recognize and reach this and testify to this that there's a need for a permanent change it's one thing to cure a cold to give me a covet booster to even strive to cure cancer it's another thing entirely to do away with sickness and death altogether and that is what God has promised he will do First Timothy 2 tells us that it is God's desire that all mankind be saved all of us that all mankind somehow come to a knowledge of his truth and by the means that that happens sometimes requires suffering first you think of the leper the man born blind in John chapter nine think of Jairus whose daughter died in his arms these individuals would have never come to Jesus if they were all fine they were not without grief if they were not severely aware of how limited they were It Is by their suffering that they were forced to not lean on their own understanding and to seek God the same goes for us as well as all mankind our heavenly father does not want to lose any he is willing that none should perish so lastly just get to my last slide sorry we know that suffering sets the stage for joy it is after bitter suffering that salvation tastes so sweet and Romans 2 it says to those who by patience and well doing seek for Glory and Honor and immortality he will give eternal life in Isaiah 40 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength they shall Mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint and in psalm 30. for his angers but for a moment his favors for a lifetime weeping may endure for a night but joy comes with the morning so we should absolutely continue to pray for those who suffer we do believe that our God his ear is not death that it does not hear his arm is not shortened that it cannot save we believe our God hears our prayers he answers prayers his angels are working in our lives the Bible gives us numerous accounts of healings and miracles that were done on the behalf of faithful prayers and a reminder to us that we should not lose hope prayer works there is such a power in prayer but even if sorrow continues even if trials remain this doesn't mean that God is not still working in your life we just never know the way or the time for the plans that he has in store but this thing we do know the promise of the age to come in Revelation 21 he will wipe away every tear from their eyes Death Shall be no more and there shall never again be Mourning nor crying nor pain for the former things that passed away so I would leave you with the statement that God allows suffering so that in that day we will truly know the unlimited extent of his love