“Christian aid groups working among refugees in Iraq and other places are reporting how God is using unimaginable pain to bring people to Christ,” writes Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis.
From a human perspective, it’s very easy to feel discouraged in this day and age. It seems that no matter where we look around the world, there’s pain, suffering, and war. Our world longs for peace, but from a human viewpoint it seems hard (impossible, really) to find.
It’s important to remember that death and suffering was never originally part of God’s design. Everything was originally created “very good” (Genesis 1:31). It was Adam and Eve’s sin that brought death and suffering into God’s creation. The pain and suffering we see around us is a direct result of the rebellion of Adam and the continuing rebellion of his descendants.
We also need to remember that, even in the midst of pain, God is sovereign over circumstances. I’m reminded of a verse from Genesis, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). Right now in the Middle East, the radical Muslim group ISIS is terrorizing Christians, putting many of them to death. The horrors ISIS is inflicting on men, women, and children seems unfathomable to us in the West, yet this is a daily reality for many people. Well, out of these horrors God is working.