Why Does God allow suffering?

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Since God is always good, why is there so much suffering, hardship, and persecution in the world? This age-old question has been asked as long as man has had doubts about God. But let's not rush in too quickly to denounce someone for asking that question, because when someone is suffering it doesn’t matter how philosophically right our answer might be. In fact, our answer may seem to be irrelevant at that moment in time.  

Long ago, philosophers agreed that the existence of suffering doesn’t disprove the existence of God. In order to use suffering to disprove God, we would need to show that God had no good reason for allowing suffering to continue. And until we can prove that God doesn’t have good reasons, we can’t use suffering as proof that He doesn’t exist. Now, philosophers pretty much agree on that, but that doesn’t help someone who is really suffering. 

Christianity has a wonderful, unique approach to suffering because it says two things: 

 1) Even if we can’t explain why we may be suffering in this moment, God has promised a wonderful future where He will resolve our pain. So there’s hope; there’s a reason to get up in the morning. There’s a reason to look forward to God’s good future where He’s going to make everything right.  

2) The Bible says that God hasn’t just left everything to chance. He’s existed since before time began; He’s suffered injustice and insult, the betrayal of friends and ultimately torture – agony – and a final breath on the cross. So the God we bring our questions to is the God who himself has wounds, and that’s something that no other tradition, no philosophy, and no religion can offer. Our God, understands our pain because He became human when Jesus came to earth.