ANSWERS, STRUGGLES AND QUESTIONS: God, if You loved me, why do You allow me to suffer?
Have you ever asked that question? I know I have on many occasions. One day, I believe God allowed me to understand the answer to that question.Â
I remember going through years of counseling, with my counselor asking me the question, “Charlotte, do you believe God loves you?” Since, I knew the spiritual answer to give I said, “Yes, of course”, despite the deep struggle in my heart. As he pressed further, I eventually was honest and admitted, “No, how could God say He loved me while He allowed me to be sexually abused by seven people from eighteen months to sixteen years old? I know He didn’t cause it but He could have prevented it and He didn’t!”
Interestingly, in the course of getting honest with God, He began to reveal the purpose in the midst of the pain. For so long, I believed my past and the many things I suffered were signals of the lack of God’s care and love for me. Then, I began to see something happening throughout my life. As I was healing, the Lord allowed people who shared my similar stories to cross my path. Through that intersection, He showed that my past, my pain, that nothing was an accident or mistake. People’s lives were changed, impacted and even experienced salvation, not despite my past but because of what He allowed and how He used it for His use. Â
Why does a loving God allow us to go through the pain and difficult times? Because He loves us greatly and knows the plan and purpose of how and what He wants to do through that pain for our good, others encouragement, and His glory.
Your life is not an accident. Your pain and struggles are not a joke or mistake of a distant God who watches without care or a plan. No, you might not feel it now. Life will hurt and disappoint. He never promised that He would prevent pain and disappoint. In this life we WILL have sorrows. That’s a promise. However, He said that through our struggles He has a purpose and a plan which is not for our calamity but for our good to bring us a future and a hope.
Your pain and story is not about you or those who have tried to bring you down. it is about those who He desires to impact because of the story He is writing through your life that only you can tell. I don’t know all that the Lord had planned for me. However, if I had to live my life over again, I would not change one single thing knowing the intimacy and use He has placed in my life. Â
“In the midst of the struggle, you will find that He is good!Â
Hang in there,
Charlotte
Copyright © 2020 by Charlotte D. Hunt All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, or otherwise without written permission from the author except for brief quotations in printed reviews.