Today's question comes from Anna, who is confused about what she heard on a previous podcast episode.

She writes, I'm really struggling with a certain biblical concept that I'm hoping you can shed some light on.

In your podcast about suffering, you said that God causes suffering to draw us closer to him, or did I hear you wrong?

Does God allow it, but not cause it?

I'm doing a study at my church and there's a chapter on Satan and strongholds and it states about

Satan's attacks. So who causes suffering? God or Satan? I'm very conflicted. I actually spoke up in a

small group a few weeks ago that I believed our hardships

are caused by God based on your podcast, and several people were in disagreement saying they didn't

agree that our loving God is responsible for our difficulties. But perhaps I misspoke. I would be very

grateful for your clarity on this. So I love this question. I think this is a wonderful and important question. I think

every believer needs to wrestle with the problem of suffering. I want to start by saying the

Bible is very honest about life in this fallen world.

It doesn't give us a cosmetic view of life.

You could argue that the blood, dirt, and scars of suffering are splashed over all of the pages of Scripture.

The Apostle Paul in Romans 8 tells us between the already of our birth and the not yet of our home going,

God has chosen our address to be a world that is groaning waiting for redemption.

So the Apostle Paul speaks of suffering as a universal human experience.

And that means if you're not suffering now, you will someday. And if you're not suffering now,

you're near someone who is. So in the Bible, you find a very honest, helpful, and practical theology

of suffering.

So why do we suffer?

Or let's just say, why do Christian suffer?

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