Ask anyone above the age of sixteen years old, to describe how life is as a whole. They will describe life as a rollercoaster. A mix of highs and lows; times of joys and sadness; laughter and tears. In the first book of the Bible, Job, we discover something remarkable about suffering and the heart of God. God uses suffering to better our personal relationship with Him. Suffering is a mean God uses to build our character so we get closer to what Jesus is – perfection.
As previously, stated God uses difficult situations as a way to improve the relationship we have with Him. Why suffering though? Frederick Sontag wrote in his book that evil or suffering are the best circumstances in which to find a God, unlike times where everything goes well
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What will you do now? Will you fall down before your Creator and worship? Or will you listen to the voices in your ear that accuse God, and then get angry at Him? Will you worship or will you curse?” – Suffering gives you a chance to prove to yourself and to God that you really want Him. That when you go to church on Sunday or when you pray in the morning, you do not do it out of a routine but that you truly mean it. In another book, Bob Sorge wrote about intimacy with God, he said, “God-worshipers are those who come to God first in their time of need. They seek God’s face and wait on Him to receive directives for the course to take. The secret place becomes the threshold where we wait upon God, seeking His powerful intervention, and crying out to Him for wisdom and …show more content…
Testimonies of how you stayed faithful even when times were tough. Moments you will be able to look back and be thankful to God for them. Those moments will increase your faith and you will be able to trust God because of what happened in the past. Your testimonies are great to edify yourself but even better to edify other people. Using your experience, you will be able to encourage people in their relationship with God. If we look at Daniel in the Bible, we know that he was a good man who feared God, yet God allowed him to be sentenced to death in a lion’s den. Daniel was saved by God so it’s hard to call it a suffering, but still we see that God used this situation to show his might to the king Darius and his nation –“I issues a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” Dave Earley says it so well, “God’s ultimate plan behind all of His activities on this planet is to present humanity with a clear testimony of who He truly is and what He
suffering hurts man spirit is does more good then constant happiness and power. We have to beat
The perspective of the population in Western Culture has been impacted by prejudicial attitudes that are then implemented into the younger population, creating a very high emphasis on male dominance as well as a lack of power in certain aspects for women. “Pigskin, Patriarchy, and Pain” by Don Sabo exemplifies the male patriarchy to be the primary source in Western Culture for implementing pain into the lives of young males as a means of attaining power and success . Sabo takes a look into the corruption that occurs from conforming to the values of a society that praises male superiority through his background of sports and it’s teaching of dominance over men and women. Aaron H. Devor of “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings
of suffering is most beneficial. However, answering this question about suffering becomes increasingly more difficult with the
And indeed, suffering, lack of safety, is unavoidable, and also necessary for some things. "When I was downstairs before, on my way here, listening to that woman sing, it struck me all of a sudden how much suffering she must have had to go through. It's repulsive to think you have to suffer that much" (65). But we do. Everyone does. In fact, "There's no way not to suffer" (65). We are never safe from it.
If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer? The central question in Shadowlands challenges traditional religious and moral conventions. It is a question asked by many, with few satisfactory answers. Before attempting to answer the question, and explore its relationship to Shadowlands, let us first define the question, so its implications may be more clearly understood. At the heart of the question is a doubt in the goodness of God, "If God loves us". From the beginning it is clear that God is being judged and criticized by the question. Then the second phrase follows"Why does He allow us to suffer?". The assumption made in the second phrase is that God has enough control over the world to prevent suffering. If He can prevent suffering, and He really loves us, then why shouldn' t He excercise that control, and prevent needless suffering?
After reviewing the work of David Hume, the idea of a God existing in a world filled with so much pain and suffering is not so hard to understand. Humes’ work highlights some interesting points which allowed me to reach the conclusion that suffering is perhaps a part of God’s divine plan for humans. Our morals and values allow us to operate and live our daily lives in conjunction with a set of standards that help us to better understand our world around us and essentially allows us to better prepare for the potential life after life. For each and every day we get closer to our impending deaths and possibly closer to meeting the grand orchestrator of our universe.
The book Picking Cotton, the Bible, the film Conviction, and many gospel songs are given great ideas from people who overcame obstacles of faith. Obstacles can be anything that stands in our way of reaching our goals, having prosperity, or being what God want us to be. Great faith endures great tribulations, each day comes with it is quota of struggles and difficulties and every minute victory becomes seed to grow our faith. Whether we are physically contacted by sickness, death, divorce, or unemployment we require grace to endure. But during endeavoring times we learn who we authentically are and more importantly, we learn about God‘s faithfulness.
It is easy to place the blame on fate or God when one is encumbered by suffering. It is much harder to find meaning in that pain, and harvest it into motivation to move forward and grow from the grief. It is imperative for one to understand one’s suffering as a gateway to new wisdom and development; for without suffering, people cannot find true value in happiness nor can they find actual meaning to their lives. In both Antigone and The Holy Bible there are a plethora of instances that give light to the quintessential role suffering plays in defining life across cultures. The Holy Bible and Sophocles’ Antigone both mirror the dichotomous reality in which society is situated, underlining the necessity of both joy and suffering in the world.
The existence of a God is always questioned, but it is questioned even more so at times of suffering. As Rabbi Dr Louie Jacobs comments “If God exists… how and why could such a Being tolerate all the pain, misery, and anguish that is often the lot of humanity”.
Suffering arises early in the story and is a theme is a them that will preside over the entire text, valuable to the reader because of The Buddha’s first Noble Truth: human life is consists almost entirely of suffering. When the Buddha is just a baby, the relief from suffering he will provide is predicted. “Be steadfast, therefore, give up anxiety, be cheerful, for your clan will flourish without a doubt; The one born here as your son is the leader of those overcome by the suffering in the world” (B 1.33). The
These arguments made by Berish and Job boil down to the question the theodicy, “why do good people suffer? Where is God in all this? Where is justice” (Fox 173). Elie Wiesel provides an answer that parallels once again with the book of Job. Embodied in the character of Sam, who claims that suffering is, “all because of our sins” (Wiesel 134). Similarly Jobs friends give a similar answer to the theodicy question by saying, “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:7). The answer to the theodicy question in t The Trial of God is that suffering occurs because of the sins committed by individuals.
The question of suffering comes up much when talking about, or practicing any religion. Many ask why people suffer, and what causes suffering? The various religions try to answer these questions in their own way. Pico Iyer’s editorial, “The Value of Suffering” addresses the questions of suffering and how it is handled. This article could be compared to the Bhagavad-Gita which also addresses and explains suffering through different stories of the interactions of humans and different Gods. One can specifically look at “The Second Teaching” in the Bhagavad-Gita, which explains the interaction between a man named Arjuna and the god Krishna. In it Arjuna is suffering because he does not want to fight in a war and with people whom he should be worshiping. Krishna says to fight because the souls of the people will forever live on, and because he needs to fulfill his Dharma. With what is known about the Bhagavad-Gita and how Iyer thinks about the subject, Iyer would agree with how the Bhagavad-Gita address suffering.
The concept of suffering plays an important role in Christianity, regarding such matters as moral conduct, spiritual advancement and ultimate destiny. Indeed an emphasis on suffering pervades the Gospel of Mark where, it can be argued, we are shown how to "journey through suffering" (Ditzel 2001) in the image of the "Suffering Son of Man" (Mark 8:32), Jesus Christ. Although theologians have suggested that Mark was written to strengthen the resolve of the early Christian community (Halpern 2002, Mayerfeld 2005), the underlying moral is not lost on a modern reader grappling with multifarious challenges regarding faith in the face of suffering. In his article "A Christian Response to Suffering", William Marravee (1987) describes suffering as an "experience over which we men and women continue to stumble and fall". The way we view God is crucial to the way we view suffering according to Marravee, who delineates the disparity between a view of God as an ‘outsider’ and the biblical image of God – where God is an ‘insider’ who suffers with us in our struggle. This essay seeks to explain the Christian view of suffering and the purpose suffering can have in our lives.
I think God places his chosen people through hardships as a way to show his power. A big example of hardship endured by God’s chosen ones were that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years before God intervened. God demonstrates that he has more than enough power to free his people, but he chooses to wait to free his people. Even once God started the plagues in Egypt, he hardened Pharaoh's heart, making his people stay even longer than needed. Also, once the Israelites were out of Egypt, God sent the Egyptians after them one last time.
Suffering can be defined as an experience of discomfort suffered by a person during his life. The New York Times published an article entitled what suffering does, by David Brooks (2014). In this article, Brooks explains how suffering plays an important role in our pursuit of happiness. He explains firstly that happiness is found through experiences and then, suffering can also be a motivation in our pursuit of happiness. In other words, suffering is a fearful but necessary gift to acquire happiness. This paper is related to motivation and emotion, two keys words to the pursuit of happiness (King, 2010).