The Problem of Pain --And the Answer of Love

(We have this board game similar to the more popular snake and ladder, except it is on bugs and aphids. Khane, for reasons I fail to understand, usually lose because he keeps drawing the cards that says Go Back 1, 2, 3 or 4 spaces or he usually steps on a space where he needs to go back to START. It is very difficult for a 4-year old to always lose during games. It is much more difficult for parents to put across to a 4-year old the principle of sportsmanship, the fact of games by chance, the principle that it is better to be honest and lose, than to cheat and win, or the principle of being happy for somebody who wins. One time, when I was explaining to him that it's OK to lose, he said with his eyes communicating what he was saying, "Paano po kapag lagi lagi naman ako natatalo."

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

— Jeremiah 29:11

The discipline of the Father who sent Jesus is not punitive and is not pointless, but is full of grace. We cannot always prove this by the facts available to the human eye in a fallen world. Still, Scripture gives us eyes of faith to see that God’s plans are to benefit us and not to harm us; to give us a future and a hope (Jer. 29:11). He who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us will along with that gift provide whatever is needed for our eternal well being (Rom. 8:32).

So that we will perceive the reality of God’s affection despite the real afflictions we must endure in this world, the Bible makes the ministry of Jesus its theme from the first page to the last. Every character, event, and teaching in Scripture unfolds the mystery that God has loved his people from eternity and has sent his Son to redeem them from weakness and fit them for heaven. God’s passion to save and sanctify his children is so great that it takes priority for him over all our other comforts, pursuits, and affections.

This does not mean that God conforms us to his purposes by discipline alone. No, his ordinary way of molding our hearts is by overwhelming blessing through loving families, provision of all that we need (not all our desires, which would be unhealthy for us), providential control of all circumstances for our good, and joy in him.

Why then does God allow our trials? Perhaps because we often let blessings and comforts dull our perceptions of our greater need to find ultimate and eternal fulfillment in him. God loves us too much to let us become deaf to his voice. As C. S. Lewis put it in The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures . . . but shouts in our pains.” For our good, God trains us through treasures and trials, by joys and sorrows, through denial of vain desires, and by blessing beyond what we can ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).

All our heavenly Father allows he carefully designs to promote our spiritual good, eternal salvation, and ultimate fulfillment through the joy of knowing him (Rom. 8:28). What greater expression of his love could there be than that?

(This material is adapted from the Devotionals from LivingChristToday from the Covenant Theological Seminary. It is lifted from chapter 7 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).)