Dig Deeper - Sunday 20th July 2025
Sermon Reflection Questions - Exploring Life's Biggest Questions Through the Lens of Faith: Have You Ever Wondered Why God Allows Suffering?
Genesis 50:15-26
Dig Deeper notes from Sunday 20th July service:
Wherever we look around the world, we can see suffering, and as we look, it seems to me that we can see four levels of suffering.
1. Global level; here, think of the coronavirus pandemic.
2. National level, e.g. conflicts in the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
3. Local level, e.g. the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy
4. Suffering on a personal level, e.g. illness and accident
Christians believe in God, the creator, and our natural moral view on justice is because we are made in the creator’s image. From the Bible, we know that God declared everything He had created was good, and there was no suffering in the Garden of Eden. We also know from Revelation that at the end of time there will be a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ where there will be no more suffering.
In between times, we live with suffering in a world that humans have messed up, starting with Adam and Eve, who first decided that they knew better than God and chose to disobey His instruction for living in Eden.
Think first about the four levels above and notice how often humans have responsibility for the suffering. Then consider things like natural disasters, illness and accidents. Some of these will have human factors involved, and some occur simply because of the sin-infected, fallen nature of this world.
CS Lewis wrote this. ‘If God stepped in to correct every wrong decision made by humans, then this continual underpropping by Divine interference would remove any point in humans ever making choices or decisions. In effect, they would become robots.
That’s not what God wanted. He gave humans the freedom to make choices and the freedom to love or not to love. You see, love is not love if it is forced; it can only be love if there’s a real choice. And that’s what God wants. A genuine loving relationship with you and me, the humans He created.
To see God’s view on suffering, we look to what we find in the Bible
1. God can use suffering to draw people into a relationship with him. (Luke 7)
2. Suffering can shape and mature our faith (John 15)
3. God can turn suffering into a greater good – e.g. Joseph (Genesis 50)
4. Suffering usually isn’t punishment for sin e.g. Job 2:3 & John 9:2-3
5. Sometimes personal blessing follows suffering e.g. Job 42
Discussion Questions to reflect on:
1. Identify suffering which is caused by humans and that which is just because we live in a fallen world.
2. Do you agree with CS Lewis that removing the decision-making ability of humans would remove our capacity to love God?
3. How can we resist suffering as an alien intrusion into God’s creation?
4. Should we reflect on our suffering in case God is trying to speak to us through it or it’s linked to our own actions?
5. Consider how God turned Jesus’ death on the cross to good. His victory over death paid the price for our sin so that ultimately, we can enjoy the glory of heaven. What’s more, Jesus has first-hand experience of human suffering.
A prayer to close.
Father God, thank you that nothing can separate us from your love. Draw close to us, we pray, when we face times of suffering. Walk with us through our difficulties and remind us that whether it’s the powers of this world, both now and in the future, whether it is death or life, in fact, nothing in all creation, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
