Healing the Wounds of Trauma

A. Some teaching can make it difficult to believe in God’s goodness. i. When we only hear about God’s anger and judgment.

Sometimes we hear a lot about how God judges us when we sin, but not much about how God loves us. It is true that God is all-powerful, but wemust also remember his great love for us (Jr 31.3; Lm3.22–23; 1 Jn 4.9–10). ii. If we are told that sufferingmeanswe haven’t done enough to pleaseGod. We may be told that we are suffering because we have not been good enough to please God. God’s love is not based on our behavior. He loved us before we turned to him (Ro 5.8; Titus 3.4–5; 1 Jn 4.19). He continues to love us by grace, not because of what we do (Ro 3.23–24; Eph 2.8–9). iii. When we are taught that God promises prosperity for everyone who believes. If we are taught that people who obey God will always be rich and healthy, we may feel guilty for suffering. We may feel that we have caused our own suffering by our lack of obedience and faith. The apostle Paul is a good example of someone who suffered a lot even though he was very obedient to God (2 Co 1.8–10). B. It is difficult to remember God’s goodness when we do not do the things that will help our faith grow strong. As we follow Jesus and study the Bible, we learn the truth about God and this sets us free from the lies of Satan (Jn 8.31–32; 2 Ti 3.14–17). Christians need tomeet together for teaching, prayer, and fellowship (Acts 2.42; Phil 4.6–7; He 10.24–25). If these things are missing, we will find it much harder to believe in God’s goodness when we suffer. C. It is difficult to remember God’s goodness when the Church does not speak out against evil and injustice. God put the Church in the world to challenge injustice and to help those in need (Lk 4.18–19; Mt 25.31–46). When the Church does not

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If God Loves Us, Why Do We Suffer?