Many a man or believer in God have at a specific time in life come to probably ask why God seemed to be distant from their suffering/evil or why He was slow to come to their rescue.

Some people find the troubles and hardships in this life to be an indicator that there is no Loving Creator who cares and is aware of what we go through and this has been the reason for their stance as atheists. The explanation that the world is the way it is because of man's rebellion against God raises so many questions in their minds. Some go to the extent of saying God is simply not as powerful and all-knowing as Christians might have made Him look because they claim He couldn't that this was coming and even if things went bad He could have JUST made things better.

I believe that how someone does things will make much sense to another person with sustained understanding in the context of a relationship. I would also go through the scriptures and try to point out how God has approached these issues and by His grace offer some comfort to those who are seriously hurting.

One challenge I have observed in my life, the life of others and even some biblical personalities is that we tend to create a God in our minds. This God we create is one we expect to rush to perform our demands and do things in the manner WE deem fit. We trust God, we say, but deep in our hearts we only trust the "God" who would do things the way and manner we want but I'm sorry to say that is not the God revealed in the Bible.

As Christians, we have to do away with any cultural/societal prejudices about deities which we have conferred unto God and allow God to teach us by His Spirit what He has revealed about Himself and humanity in the Bible to help us embrace reality and not submit to fantasies.

These are some of the realities espoused in the Bible. God is the creator of all things and all humans. - Genesis 1
Man rebelled against God, His creator and became spiritually dead and put all of creation in disarray.

The wages of sin is death. It cannot be "brushed under a carpet" as if it has no consequences and the restoration of life(salvation) is a gift only God can afford. (Romans 6:23)

The Bible outlines the progressive outworking of God's intent to restore man unto Himself in the person of Jesus Christ (John 3:13-16, John 10:10, 1 Corinthians 15:22). What we see in the old testament is what has been referred to as a foreshadow or typology.-The wisdom of God revealed through Jesus Christ is that God doesn't work from outside of human mess. In the old testament, He worked through the very perverse cultural settings and ultimately took upon Himself man's nature in the person of Jesus Christ and bore the greatest form of pain and shame and paid the ultimate price for sin. (Philippians 2:5-8)

We would have God take away pain/evil(sin) just automatically but in a world where humans have the freedom of choice which gives legitimacy to a true expression of Love, God has provided the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a means by which we will be saved from the real human problem; sin.


When a person dies in this physical realm, it is simply a relocation - the opportunity to be with the Lord and even though death is inevitable, believers don't live in the fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-18)

The reality of pain and God's provision.
We would have Him take away the pain but we observe that the victory He would have us win has to do with a life of expression of Faith in him. (1 John 5:4).

Remove the valley of the shadow of death we say but God walks with us in it.
Don't let us be thrown into the fire but God says He will be with us in it.
Don't let them throw us in the den of lions but God says He will cause the Lions to be sober.
Take away the thorn in my flesh but God says He will give you the grace to bear it and in weakness, God's strength is made perfect.

Somehow we see that in this life calamities are bound to happen. At times we see recognizeGod's deliverance. Other times "He does not save". One clear thing is that, in the grand scheme of things, God has a beautiful plan and purpose and for them that love Him, all things work together for their good.

One thing we are not mindful of is the fact that whether we witness what we might term, a deliverance or a rescue, everyone will ultimately die. The bible teaches that there is more to this life than the material and seen realm; a Spiritual component. Humans are spiritual. (Genesis 1:27).In God's view, there is a far weightier subject to fix our eyes on - ETERNITY. This, however, does not mean that the pain of this life is not real. Jesus Christ who knew He would raise Lazarus from the dead, "wept" with the family which was mourning their dead. As I indicated early on, the real victory is the life lived by the Faith we have in God and with the expression of Love for God and all humans while living with the Hope that our existence is not limited to this physical realm but we have a place He has prepared for us.

The hymnist said that "God is His interpreter and will make it plain".God has chosen in His wisdom to use weakness to triumph and this is so counter-cultural, that real strength should be an expression of weakness.

The full picture of the life of every individual will be fully revealed in the light of eternity. This is the hope of the Christian believer and so he trusts God to take him through. Jesus Christ suffered the greatest of all anguish and still Lives and can relate to our woes. Our expression of Faith is relational and not arbitrary. God gives us glimpses and not the whole of the masterpiece He is working in each individual's life. A life lived by trusting in His goodness brings the ultimate meaning, joy, and eternal satisfaction.

P.SThe atheist might deny God, but this neither takes away nor answers the problem of pain or evil. It takes away any glimmer of hope. His stance might cause him to enter into a lot of interesting conclusions, that life is meaningless and we are just here to live and die and there is nothing more. One must even wonder why he has a problem with pain given that the material life is all that there is and we just live and die and go into complete nothingness...The problem of pain should not even come into play in this line of reasoning.