How can an all-powerful, all loving God allow suffering in His world?

At first glance the nature of God presents us with a logical impossibility.

The Bible tells us that God is infinitely powerful [there is nothing he can’t do and nothing he can’t fix] and he is infinitely loving. When we suffer, and our immediate prayers are not answered, we are tempted to believe either one of these statements:

1. God is not powerful enough to help me, or
2. God does not love me enough to help me.

On the face of it, it appears to be an inescapable conundrum… until we ask another question…

If you had to choose, which would you choose; a world in which there is love, but some pain or, a world in which there is no love, but no pain?

Or put another way, which is more important to you;

a world with love or

a world without pain?

Most of us would choose a world with love and some pain. Love is just too wonderful and important to us to give up for the sake of avoiding pain.

“Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved” Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Love makes the world go ‘round”- song from the musical Carnival. “All you need is love” The Beatles… and on and on. There are very few songs about life without pain, but 100’s of thousands about love. You get the point. It seems I am suggesting that you cannot have love without pain. Is this true? Does love always come with the possibility of rejection/pain?

In God’s world the answer is yes. Let me explain…

As far as God is concerned love is everything. God does not just value love, He is love! His quintessential nature is love. He is a relationship of love between three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because His love is infinite He is always looking for more people to love. We were created by love, for love. So far so good, but this creates a problem.

We will explore the problem and solution in the next blog.