Ask yourself: why do you think God created you? I’m going to put this out there: God made you. It was a conscious active act, not something he sat by and “allowed” to happen. He did it, if he didn’t, you wouldn’t be here asking these questions.
Well, we know why God made us: so that we might know and love him and be happy with him in eternity (heaven). God is Love, and when we are face to face with that pure unrestricted Love, there can be no such thing as suffering.
Ok, that’s great, life will be perfect after we die, right? What about now?
Well, God is just as much Love now as he will be when we die, right? Because God is unchanging and eternal. So, if God wants us to be happy with him in eternity, why would he want us to be unhappy here on earth?
The answer to that, quite simply, is he doesn’t. He didn’t create you to be miserable. He didn’t create you to be lonely, isolated, and unfulfilled. He created you in his image: Love. To give love totally (to the extent that our human nature is capable), and in giving love to receive it.
Now let me ask you something else. When you have trouble, where is God in your life? Where do you see him, where do you perceive him, and most importantly, where do you
want him? I’ll tell you a secret I learned just recently: stuff is
hard when he’s not helping out. I can be doing the simplest thing in the world, something I’ve done a thousand times, and have trouble, or something I’ve never done before, and just as much struggle, when I try to do it by myself. I’m a grown man, fairly intelligent (supposedly), physically able. I should be able to do it myself. But I’ll tell you, it’s all a thousand times, a million times easier when I stop and say, “God, everything in creation is yours. Please help me.” And he does!
The truth is, we are imperfect, and incomplete. We are created for union in love. When we try to get by on our own merits, we fall short, because we can’t complete ourselves: only the love of God through Jesus Christ can complete us.
Yes life is hard, and sometimes, it just plain sucks. Really. You’re old enough to ask these questions, so there’s no reason to sugar-coat the truth, and tell you that life is going to be daisies and fluffy bunnies from here until eternity. But I am 100% serious when I say life is easier when God is at the helm. “God, I’ll pedal, you steer,” is an expression I heard some months ago. It is quite apt.
Paul realized the value of this. He knew that life is hard, and sometimes painful. Now while he was writing this specifically about persecutions of the faith, it applies to everyday life as well:
Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2Cor 12:7b-10).
I’m not trying to sermonize at all. But my advice would be to really spend some serious time in prayer. Every day. I mean it. It’s going to feel pointless, it’s going to feel like nothing is happening. But by the very act of stopping to pray, you begin to open yourself up more to the workings of the Spirit. Ask him for help, and ask him to give you the strength and the courage to keep going when it all seems pointless.
Remember that Jesus knew that his death was not going to change our sinful nature, and that large numbers of people were still going to choose to reject God and be lost. But still he mounted the cross, out of love for you.
–Love
) in a few years looking back we can say “WOW… I survived that miserable hopeless time” and we can smile. Knowing we did it, knowing God was there, knowing that giving up would’ve been stupid considering what you have now! But be patient, God will provide.