How God must feel when his Children (Creation) reject Him.
God is Love, so He gave the world His best; but think, how do you feel when your children reject you? It must be painful beyond measure, especially when you have done everything for them to feel loved, but instead of embracing it, they run a million miles away. Sadly, that’s exactly how God feels right now. Every child craves Love from their parents. But not everybody gets it. Why? Because it’s not as simple as switching on a light and having a happy home life — unfortunately, things are much more complex than that. Some people grow up in less-than-ideal circumstances and receive little or no Love from the most important role models in their lives: their parents.
For this is how much God loved the world—he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.“God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it! So now there is no longer any condemnation for those who believe in him, but the unbeliever already lives under condemnation because they do not believe in the name of God’s beloved Son.
John 3:16–18
Why does God allow suffering in the world?
God cannot stop the suffering. It’s not as simple as that. Why? Because every person on this planet has free will. God’s children have all been given the gift of choice — to love or hate, live or die. We can choose our actions and determine where we go in life. But no matter what we do, we are God’s children, and He loves us. The suffering we endure here on earth is part of our journey toward spiritual growth. When we encounter pain or tragedy, we can surrender our will to God and accept His Love or push Him away. This is a very important thing to understand about life. Because we are all human, we make mistakes. We are all imperfect, and we all make bad decisions. We also make good decisions, but frequently they lead to disastrous consequences. When we make bad choices, they either hurt ourselves or others. So we need to learn from our mistakes and make better choices in the future. This is how we grow and mature by making bad decisions and learning from them.
So why does God not stop the suffering?
We have free will and the capacity to choose to love or hate. In order for the world to be what it is meant to be, we have to have this freedom. So, even though God could step in and make everything perfect for us, He doesn’t. Why? Because then we are not growing as human beings; we are not learning from our mistakes and are not becoming better people. It’s like having a garden. If everything is just perfect and you don’t have to do anything to keep the weeds out, it’s not going to be a very good garden. You need to weed the garden. It would be best if you did the work. The weeds are the terrible things you need to get rid of in your life. When you let the weeds grow, they take away the good things that you need in your garden. They also take away the light and air which the good plants need to grow. God wants us to be good gardeners. He doesn’t want us to be lazy and let weeds grow. He wants us to work hard and be the best gardeners we can be. But he also understands that sometimes we will miss a weed or two, and they will grow in our garden anyway. When this happens, we need to get rid of them. They are bad for us and our garden. They take away the light and air from the good plants and hurt us when we accidentally step on them.
How can we understand God when there is so much pain in the world?
When we suffer, it’s easy to get angry at God and feel like He is a cruel and unloving Father. This is normal, but it’s important to remember that God is not cruel — we are. God’s actions are based on Love, whereas ours are based on ignorance. God understands our pain, but He does not cause it. God is not the author of suffering; people make bad choices that result in pain and suffering. The reality is that God loves us so much that He gave us the gift of free will, knowing that we would make mistakes. He created the world with laws that govern everything from the planets to the microbes inside us. God is the source of all good things, and yet people pervert His gifts. In a way, He is like a parent who gives a car to a child who has never driven before. The parent knows that the child will probably make mistakes and crash the car. But the parent does it anyway because the parent loves the child enough to give the gift of driving, knowing that the child will make mistakes. The parent would rather have the child make mistakes in a car that can be fixed than not give the gift at all.
What’s the point of all this pain and suffering?
The point of suffering is to prove to us that we’re wrong. In life, we get what we want when we do things that are aligned with who we really are (our values). When we do something that contradicts who we really are, we don’t get what we want. In fact, we often get the opposite. The point of suffering is to prove to us that we are making mistakes — to show us that our actions are wrong. When we go against our true selves, we suffer. This is how we learn from our mistakes. The problem is we still don’t fully grasp what Love is. We confuse Love with kindness. We think that being just a little bit bad is okay. And we believe that being a little bit mean is acceptable. But it’s not.
The problem is we still don’t fully grasp what Love is.
Love is not kindness. Love is not being a little bit bad. Love is not being mean. Love is not being selfish. Love is not getting what you want. Love is not having control over others. Love is not being happy when others are not. Love is not doing what’s best for you. Love is not being indifferent when someone is suffering. Love is not being a spectator in someone else’s life. Love is not being complacent and living a life of mediocrity. Love is not being satisfied with a half-baked relationship. Love is not being patient when you are being treated unfairly. Love is not being loyal when your partner is disloyal to you. Love is not settling for less than what you deserve. Love is not putting up with abuse. Love is not being responsible for your partner’s actions. Love is not putting your own needs last. Love is not trying to change someone. Love is not being addicted to your phone. Love is not being addicted to anything that takes away your time and energy and focusing on what you truly value in life. Love is not being in denial about the problems in your relationship. Love is not staying in a relationship because you’re too afraid to be alone. Love is not choosing the wrong person. Love is not staying with a person who doesn’t treat you well. Love is not saying you love someone when you don’t. Love is not staying with someone who makes you unhappy. Love is not ignoring your feelings. Love is not being afraid of abandonment. Love is not being afraid to be yourself. Love is not settling for less than what you deserve. Love is not expecting someone else to change to suit you. Love is not putting someone else’s needs above your own. Love is not being fake. Love is not being passive-aggressive. Love is not being confrontational. Love is not being aggressive. Love is not being controlling. Love is not being possessive. Love is not trying to change your partner. Love is not being jealous of your partner’s past. Love is not being jealous of your partner’s future. Love is not worrying about irrelevant things. Love is not being resentful. Love is not having a victim mentality. Love is not feeling sorry for yourself. Love is not living in the past. Love is not worrying about the future. Love is not regretting things you did in the past. Love is not being ashamed of your past. Love is not being afraid of your future. Love is not being complacent. Love is not settling for what you have and saying that it’s enough. Love is not being comfortable with being average. Love is not settling for less than what you really want. Love is not being happy with mediocrity. Love is not settling for less than what you deserve. Love is not being content with a half-baked relationship. Love is not settling for less than what you really want in life. Love is not settling for a one-way relationship.
