Does God Cause Suffering?

Lamentations 3:31-33 says, “For the Lord will not reject us forever. Even if he causes suffering, he will show compassion according to the abundance of his faithful love. 33 For he does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind,” (CSB).

This is called a “lament,” a powerful prayer and way of expressing our pain to God. It makes up a third of the book of Psalms. Scripture tells us that people found comfort in expressing their pain to God and being completely transparent about how they feel. When we cry out, God always listens. He is not intimidated by our feelings or opinions. He welcomes all of our feelings. We can turn to God, offer our complaint, bolding ask him to act, and choose to trust. Then, our lament can pivot on God’s promises. Actually, It is in the midst of intense pain and anguish in chapter 3 that the author of calls to mind the truth because he is not feeling it. He chooses to rehearse and stand on God’s truth.

Lamentations 3:21–24 says, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (ESV)

We can see this glimmer of promise and hope in these verses 31-33. First, The Lord will not keep his people separated forever. He will make a way for us to be in his perfect presence once again. Second, God’s faithful compassion never ends. It by far outweighs the sorrow he may send. Our suffering has an expiration date but our God and his love last forever to all eternity. Lastly, God does not enjoy when our suffering causes us pain. It is not as the ESV translation says, “from his heart.” God is never the author of evil.

So does God cause suffering? These verses show that he does allow suffering, but it will come to an end. Suffering cannot even begin to compare to God’s compassion, which he will show. We also see this in 1 Peter 5:10, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Another aspect is that he does not enjoy it when it hurts us. That is not the heart of the Father. When we see the true heart of God in the Bible, then hope and purpose begin to shine through. This is faith, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” (Heb. 11:1). We place our faith in the unseen when the seen part of suffering causes us to shake. 1 Peter 4:1 even tells us that, “since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.” We can arm ourselves in our suffering by having the same perspective as Jesus did about suffering.

Therefore, if we look close enough, we can see there is hope, purpose, and defense in the suffering that God allows. He is always good regardless of what our feelings try to tell us. May we turn to God in lament and have faith in the unseen as we await his final coming when all our pain and suffering comes to an end and we get to see hi face to face. All for his glory and our good.