5 Ways God Uses Suffering

The recent shootings have undoubtedly left many questioning God’s sovereignty—even his goodness. How could God ever use this suffering? Regardless of the source of someone’s suffering, we must be careful when answering the question: “Why did God let this happen?”

Five Ways God Uses Suffering

We know God’s character from Scripture, and we know that he doesn’t change. However, we don’t know all the ways God is using the specific circumstances and events around us, so we need to be careful when diagnosing our own lives or when counseling others. God has multiple purposes for the things that he does. We must trust his wisdom and his goodness. Of the various ways God uses suffering in our lives, consider these five ways taken from Secret Church 12, “The Cross and Suffering.” Each point is based on the book of Job and includes relevant Scripture.

1. God uses suffering to refine our faith.

“Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.” (Job 33:29-30)

2. God uses suffering to reveal his glory.

“Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’? Remember to extoll his work, of which men have sung. All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar. Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.” (Job 36:22-26)

3. God uses suffering to teach us to rely on him.

“Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world? If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.” (Job 34:13-15)

4. God uses suffering to bring us to repent of and renounce all sin in our lives.

“But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you. Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength? Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place. Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction.” (Job 36:17-21)

5. God uses suffering to lead us to our reward in him.

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” (Job 42:5)