Resources by Topic: Suffering and Evil

My wife Nanci and I love Joni Eareckson Tada. With her warm-hearted exaltation of God’s sovereign love, she has profoundly impacted our own lives and ministry, along with countless others. We were deeply touched by this recent update from Joni, who not long ago was in serious jeopardy with COVID due to her quadriplegia and its effects on her lungs.

For those who love Jesus, your relationship is not ended but interrupted by death, and will resume. Once it does, in the presence of Jesus, it will never be interrupted again.

Nancy Guthrie says so often we see emptiness in our lives as our biggest problem. But when God looks at the empty place, He sees it as His greatest opportunity.  

God does not permit evils arbitrarily, but with purpose. Everything he permits matches up with his wisdom and ultimately serves his holiness, justice, love and grace. As Joni Eareckson Tada puts it, “God permits what he hates to achieve what he loves.”

God does not love us on our preferred terms, but on His own. We think to “love” means to “do no harm,” when it really means “to be willing to do short-term harm for a redemptive purpose.” A physician who re-breaks an arm in order for it to heal properly harms his patient in order to heal him.

Some depression comes from simply feeling the crushing weight of pain and brokenness in one’s life and the lives of others around the globe. Of course, self-preoccupied woe-is-me depression quickly becomes deeply unhealthy. But sometimes when we feel burdened, we may simply be joining the whole of creation in groaning because of a suffering world. In that case, we’re in good company, for “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26).

Over the years, God has been faithful in what I call “the low tides” of life. In those times, I’ve seen Him in ways not always visible during high tides—periods of relative ease and comfort. As the wonders of underwater tide pools are only seen at low tide, so the wonders of God and depths of our need for Him can become visible to us in our own low tides.

Three weeks ago I did a 45-minute video chat with my friend Scott Lindsay of Faithlife, the makers of Logos Bible Software. We discussed suffering, God’s sovereignty, and the coronavirus crisis, and also talked about the good things that God is doing through this time.

In this video Randy Alcorn is interviewed by Scott Lindsey with Faithlife on the topic of suffering, God's sovereignty and the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Charles Spurgeon said, "As the furious storm gives place to the clear sunshine, so the night of weeping precedes the morning of joy. Sorrow the harbinger; gladness the prince it ushers in."

Nanci and I have been reading Paul David Tripp’s book New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional. It is just terrific, and we highly recommend it. In his March 31 entry, Paul talks about how Christ’s darkest moment gives us hope when we face our own dark times.

Unfortunately, if our theology hasn’t prepared us for suffering, we may be more than just surprised when trials come our way. We might feel as though our faith—and God Himself—has let us down.

The following is an Easter devotional Angela wrote this week for the women at her church. I hope her message of joy after sorrow will encourage your heart as you anticipate celebrating Easter Sunday, despite the difficulties of life in this season.

This worship, posted a few days ago here in the Age of Corona, is beautiful. It demonstrates separation but the wonderous ability to transcend it. Technology isn’t always the answer, but in this case it is truly a gift of God.