Why God Allows Suffering (Explained Without Platitudes)

Let’s talk about something real, something every woman of faith will face at some point: Suffering. Hard seasons. Pain you didn’t choose. Moments that make you ask, “Lord… why?”

And let’s be honest right away… Sometimes Christian circles respond to suffering with phrases like:
“Everything happens for a reason!”
“God won’t give you more than you can handle!”
“Just pray harder!”

But when your heart is breaking or your world is unraveling, those clichés don’t comfort. They sting. So today, we’re skipping the platitudes. We’re going straight to Scripture, truth, and the heart of God.

Here’s what the Bible actually says about why God allows suffering and how He meets you in it.

1. We Live in a Broken World And Broken Things Hurt

Suffering wasn’t part of God’s original design. Pain, sickness, loss, and evil entered when humanity fell. We live in a world affected by sin, not always your sin, but the world’s brokenness in general.

You’re not suffering because God is cruel. You’re suffering because the world is not yet healed. And one day, He will restore it. But until then, we feel the ache.

2. God Never Wastes Pain: He Uses It to Shape Us

Pain is a terrible teacher, but it’s often the most effective one.

Suffering does things comfort never will:

• It deepens your compassion
• It strengthens your character
• It reveals what you truly trust
• It humbles and refines you
• It teaches dependence, not self-reliance
• It breaks off pride, idols, and illusions
• It makes your faith real, not theoretical

James says, “Let perseverance finish its work” (James 1:4).

Meaning: There is work being done in you, even when you feel undone.

3. Suffering Teaches Us Something Success Never Will

When life is good, we tend to think we’re in control. But suffering reminds us: We aren’t God. We need Him. David said, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees” (Psalm 119:71). Not because pain is good, but because what pain produced was good. Some lessons only take root in the dark.

4. Suffering Creates Intimacy With God

This part is strange but true: Some of the clearest moments of God’s presence happen in your deepest valleys.

Why?

Because when your strength ends, His begins.

When you run out of answers, you finally listen. When you don’t have anything left to offer, you learn to simply receive. God is “near to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18). He isn’t distant. He isn’t indifferent. He sits with you in the pain.

5. God Allows What He Will Ultimately Redeem

This is NOT the same as saying God causes all suffering.

But it is saying:

God will never allow suffering that He cannot turn into purpose.

Joseph said to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20).

Not: “God made the evil happen.”
But: “God overruled the evil with His goodness.”

There is no wound God cannot transform. None.

6. Sometimes Suffering Protects Us From Something Worse

We rarely see the full picture. We see the moment; God sees the entire story.

Sometimes pain is protection in disguise:

• The relationship that ending saved you
• The job you didn’t get was a closed door on purpose
• The waiting prevented you from rushing into disaster
• The loss shifted your path to something better
• The heartbreak broke chains you didn’t know you had

One day, you look back and say: “If God had given me what I wanted, I would’ve missed what I needed.”

7. Jesus Understands Suffering Better Than Anyone

The beauty of Christianity is this: We don’t serve a distant God who sits on a throne and observes human pain. We serve a Savior who suffered physically, emotionally, spiritually, so He could comfort us, redeem us, and walk with us through ours. Jesus wept. Jesus felt abandoned. Jesus felt betrayed. Jesus felt pain. Jesus felt loss. You are never suffering alone.

8. God Promises Redemption, Not a Pain-Free Life

Nowhere in Scripture does God say, “Follow Me and nothing bad will happen.”

Instead, He says:
“In this world you will have trouble.” But take heart. I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Suffering is guaranteed. So is victory. Pain is temporary. So is sorrow. So is injustice.

But redemption? That’s eternal.

A Prayer for the Suffering Heart

Lord,
I don’t always understand why I’m hurting, but I choose to trust Your heart. Hold me close in this season. Heal the places I cannot fix. Turn my pain into purpose, my sorrow into strength, and my suffering into testimony. Thank You that You never leave me, not even here.
Amen.

Scriptures for Suffering and Hope

Romans 8:18 — Present sufferings can’t compare with future glory.
Psalm 34:18 — God is near the brokenhearted.
James 1:2–4 — Trials produce perseverance.
2 Corinthians 4:17 — Light momentary troubles produce eternal glory.
Romans 8:28 — God works all things for good.
1 Peter 5:10 — After you suffer, God will restore you.
John 16:33 — Jesus has overcome the worldOne Last Thing

Suffering is not a sign of God’s anger. It is not punishment. It is not abandonment. Sometimes suffering is the very soil where God grows your calling. He is working in the pain, working through the pain, and working beyond the pain.

Hold on to Him. He holds all things together, including you.