Why does God allow us to feel pain?

"Left my fear by the side of the road,
Hear you speak,
Wont let go;
Fall to my knees
As I lift my hands to pray"

"All I need is You Lord"

"All I need is You"

A friend recently went through some hard times which inspired me to write this blogpost.

Why does God allow us to feel pain?

I think at some point, every Christian, no matter how young, how old, how long they've been a Christian or how short has asked this question at least once.

I know I have. I was so confused. Why would this amazing, kind God let the people He created feel pain?

I remember two points from an article I read some time ago and I'll write down what I can remember and expound on the rest.

Firstly, God uses pain to get our attention.

It's like a warning light, telling us that something is wrong. Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways. Remember the story of Jonah? Jonah was going one way and God said, “I want you to go the other way.” So he provided a typical Mediterranean cruise for him – a whale! And, at the bottom of the ocean, Jonah said, “When I had lost all hope I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord.” God uses pain to get our attention.

Secondly, He uses pain to teach us to depend on him.

You don't know what God is all you need until God's all you've got. If you never had a problem, you'd never know God could solve it. The truth is, some things we only learn through pain. Depending on God is one of those things. Sometimes, when things are going right and smooth for us, we forget that God is behind everything. We think that all this success is self-generated and that we relied on our own strength when in reality, we couldn't have gotten anywhere near it if it weren't for our mighty God looking down on us. 

MMM. Late night musings.