Why does God allow suffering?

 I don't quite remember what I wrote earlier, but after a few weeks or months, I kind of found the answer that God does allow suffering and it is kind of often for various different purposes.  He can purposely harden the heart of Pharoah, the can purposely harden the heart of Peter and Thomas. He can purposely harden your hearts and mine too. Just so that people will not focus on you, or others, but on God so that He will receive the glory and not anyone in the world. 

I often hear people asked if God is sovereign and loving, why did He allow suffering.  I always ponder over this and I always have this thought in me.  When we said suffering, what does it that mean and whether we have the same definition as what God has in His dictionary?  Since young, I realised that a moment of happiness or a moment of suffering will only be a moment, and it will not last forever. When we said we are in suffering, it could probably mean the pain and suffering or the unhappiness you are feeling outweigh the happiness that you received.  Not that the element of happiness is gone completely, just that it's overtaken by the elements of suffering by the majority.  

Were the Israelites without food, without help, without God, without shelter when they were leaving Egypt? Did God not give them promise? Did God not spare them their lives and their firstborn? Did God not shown 10 signs and make them dance and sing before they departed Egypt? They doubt they worried, they feel discouraged, they started to complaint about God and even angry with Moses.  No. that's not happening just to them, but to us today too.  We are certainly related to this in our own lives today, aren't we? 

When we are given a promotion, we closed our multimillion deals, we got married, we have our own children, we have our dream house, we went to our best holiday, we were being loved, we are healthy, we are promised with lots and lots of blessings by our God, we are happy and overwhelmed by the happiness and think we can now take control of our own lives and that we do not need God and we can just tell the priest and cell group leader that we are a busy man and woman and we do not have time for a petty chat on God, we can study our own bible the way we want it and we can do more than what a priest can do or if you are a priest, you declared that your family do not now need to go to the church service because you can always hold one at home and give them the best Christian education they needed. We tend to be God. we wanted more power and authorities be given to us and God sometimes did gives and you have accomplished much with that power and authorities and soon, you forgot that all these are from God. 

Does it sound familiar? And when Covid19 pandemic started in March and you started to lose that singleness of 'freedom' you think you acquired with your own power and ability, you started to voice your dissatisfaction to everyone, you think about publishing your own write up about freedom and every day you wake up, you think about ways that you can do just to raise 'awareness' about our human rights, our freedom and you started to dislike God when things work the way it is not your way.  You started to lost focus, and you lost your bearing and your business started to plunge and you asked, "Why God? Where are you? You said You love me,  but why all these?"

Do we live for us or for God.  Does everything that happened is for and about us or for and about God and His glory? That's not in your mind.  Instead, the majority of your thinking is overwhelmed by 'how should I survive' the next few months if not years because of the pandemic? Why did God send the pandemic? Why did He allow suffering?  

I only have one answer to your questions:  God is letting all these happened so that you know who God is and that at the end, His name is glorified.  Says who? Says Moses in Exodus, David in Psalms, Paul and Peter.  

Why does God allow suffering? Because He loves you and wants you back to His embrace.  Are you awake yet? 

- Why does God allow suffering? -