Posted by CB on January 25, 2012 at 08:46:12
In Reply to: Re: God is cruel, God hates me..."miracles" "blessings", tests posted by Farmer on January 23, 2012 at 19:36:55:
I think where I am coming down on the issue of suffering and a just God is that what appears to be "bad luck" is neither bad nor good--it just is. We have the free will to make of a situation what we choose. If we have faith in a just, loving God, then we can choose to cling to the hope/belief that suffering has a purpose to which there is a good end. This is very hard to do sometimes. In fact, in certain situations, I would say it's humanly impossible to hope that otherwise senseless suffering is to a good purpose--EXCEPT for the miracle of grace at work, a power that transcends all human strength and understanding. It is the grace of divinization/sanctification (2 Peter 1:4; 2 Cor. 3:17-19; John 10:34) that carries the believer through the dark night and does for him or her what s/he cannot do for herself.