Lesson 1: Why do we suffer?
Acts 9:16 - For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name.
www.bible.com/bible/59/act.9
All of us have at some time in our life cried out to God, “Why do I have to suffer so?” Whether our pain is of our bodies or of our heart or mind, we long for it to go away. Some of us even go to God to demand that He take it away so we don’t have to suffer. We rarely see a purpose for it.

Suffering is the result of sin. In the Garden of Eden, before Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, there was no sin and no suffering. There were no thorns or briars or stickers. There was no disagreement or jealousy. There was no betrayal or infidelity. There was no failure or coming short of expectations. There was no disease or illness or death. There was only perfect peace, perfect weather, perfect unity, perfect health, perfect life.

All that changed when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. They were separated from God spiritually – called spiritual death. This world was cursed, too, so that now briars and thistles and weeds grew; and the absence of God in their lives brought hatred and jealousy and bitterness and anger – you can read the whole list of emotions and feelings in Galatians 5:19-21. Every item in those verses causes suffering.

So that explains why someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus suffers, but why should we still suffer if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior? This is the subject of this study.


As a believer, there is now purpose for our suffering, a purpose with good intent. Think about the pain you suffer if you cut your finger. Cutting your finger was an accident, something you didn’t intend, and the pain can be quite severe. There is no purpose for the pain. However, if you have, for example, something inside that cut that keeps it from healing, you might go to a doctor for help. The doctor doesn’t sew up the cut with whatever is inside still there, he takes a knife and cuts deeper to get at that impurity. He makes the cut greater than it was, but he does so with a purpose. He is cutting out the thing that would poison your tissue or your blood, so healthy healing can begin. You have accepted the doctor’s cut, even though it causes you pain, because there is a purpose to the pain, and you know afterwards you will be in much better condition than you were after the initial cut.

Sin damaged us and causes us suffering. Only God’s way of healing us, by cutting the sin out of our hearts and minds, can bring us the beginning of healing. Our healing won’t be complete until we arrive in His presence where all our sin will be completely taken away. But just as the doctor may give us medicine to help us bear the pain, so God has given us, who are His children, His Spirit to help us bear the pain now too.

The words of our Scripture for this lesson were God’s words to the Apostle Paul when he became a Christian. Paul would bear much pain to become like Christ – are you willing to do the same?

*How are you suffering today?
*How has God comforted you?
*What truth from this lesson encourages you most?