Lesson 8: God's Sovereignty and Christian Suffering, Part 1

The next skeptical question that gets answered when you understand the Sovereignty of God is, "Does a Christian have to suffer?"

We dealt with answering the non-Christian's skepticisms concerning the origins of evil and their claims that God has apparently done nothing about it. But as we saw, He has! Four different things! But now we will deal with the issue that is breaking Christian hearts. There are false teachers today who go so far as to say that you are guaranteed a perfect life! Read what some current false teachers are saying:

"The very first thing on Jesus' agenda was to get rid of poverty!"
"The apostles were businessmen. They were rich men and had plenty of money."
“Without faith stuff, you have no stuff."
“The only time people were poor in the Bible is when they were under a curse."
"Being poor is a sin."
"Sickness does not belong to you. It has no part in the Body of Christ."
"It is the plan of our Father God in His great love and His great mercy that no believer should ever be sick."
"How can you glorify God in your body when it does not function right?"

Every person who ever got a disease, or was confined to a wheelchair, or had body parts that did not work right, has been lied to by these false teachers. They not only preach this false teaching that once you are a Christian you are guaranteed perfect health and perfect wealth, but then they have the rudeness to say if you are not experiencing this, then something is wrong with you! They say you either have some secret sin you need to confess or you have insufficient faith. Now you feel guilty as a Christian and horrible because you are not perfectly healthy and wealthy. What they say breaks your heart. Even the Christian starts to wonder what God is doing to us! Why are we experiencing all this pain? Why are we going through these hard times? If God loves me, why am I suffering?


We need to stop listening to the false teachers and start listening to God. "Does a Christian have to suffer?" Well, believe it or not, the answer is YES according to God's Word.

1 Thessalonians 3:1-5 - “Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain."

More about this in our next lesson.

* How has your suffering led you to think Jesus was upset with you?