Thought for Today

We will always experience suffering during our lives here on our fallen Earth. When we experience pain, especially the death of a loved one, our natural response is to question, to ask why, and perhaps even to doubt God. Because it hurts.

Some people will respond to evil they see by denying that evil exists. But what is perhaps easy to say is quite difficult to live, or as C S Lewis put it: "Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later." There is a name for the person who denies good and evil: a sociopath. Clearly the proper response to evil is not denial.

Other people will respond to evil by removing God from the equation. But removing God does not make evil less evil, nor pain less painful. In fact, removing God also removes ultimate hope. Without God, our world seems permanently and irredeemably evil. Without God, there is no ultimate relief from pain, only pain.

With God we cry out to a loving Father who remains with us and comforts us as we hurt and Himself came to Earth as a human being to suffer and die for us. But without God we cry out into the empty void of nothingness that neither hears our cry nor cares for our pain. Removing God results in no gain and much loss.

When we have God in our lives and hearts, we have hope during difficult times and comfort in the midst of tragedy. We have hope grounded in the fact of God's mighty power, His limitless mercy, and everlasting love. No matter what happens, God loves us because God is love. And nothing can separate us from Him.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

Question: What do you need to say to God today in prayer? What questions do you have to ask God?