Week 9: The Naked Truth About Suffering
Why does a good God allow suffering? In Week 9 of The Naked Truth, Romans 8 helps us understand where suffering comes from, why following Jesus doesn’t exempt us from pain, and how God can redeem what hurts for our growth and His glory. Suffering is real, but it is never pointless-and through Jesus, it does not get the final word.
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Week 9 BLOG
The Naked Truth About Suffering
We have all heard the phrase, “No pain, no gain.” In the gym, it makes sense. Muscles grow through resistance, athletes become stronger through training, and progress often requires discomfort. But that phrase feels very different when the pain is a diagnosis, a broken relationship, a miscarriage, financial loss, betrayal, or the death of someone we love. In those moments, we are not usually asking how pain will make us stronger. We are asking, “God, where are You?”
Suffering has a way of raising some of the hardest questions of faith. If God is good, why does He allow pain? If He is powerful enough to stop suffering, why doesn’t He? Scripture does not ignore those questions, and it never pretends suffering is easy. What it does tell us is that pain does not have the final word.
Romans 8:17 gives us a difficult truth: following Jesus does not mean escaping suffering. Paul says that if we share in Christ’s glory, we will also share in His suffering. Jesus Himself told His followers that they would have trouble in this world. The Christian life was never promised to be pain-free. Instead, it is an invitation to walk with Jesus through the pain.
So where does suffering come from?
Romans 8 takes us back to the brokenness of creation. God’s original design was good. Pain, disease, death, and evil were not part of that design. Sin changed everything. When humanity chose its own way over God’s, brokenness entered the world and affected not only people, but all of creation.
Sometimes suffering comes from our own choices. Sometimes we suffer because of the choices of others. And sometimes we experience the effects of simply living in a fallen world—disease, natural disasters, aging, and death. We may not always be able to connect a specific tragedy to a specific sin, but Scripture makes clear that suffering exists because creation has been fractured by sin.
That explains where suffering comes from, but it still leaves another question: Can God do anything with it?
Romans 8:28 says that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. That does not mean everything that happens is good. Cancer is not good. Betrayal is not good. Abuse is not good. Death is not good. The promise is that God is powerful enough to take what is broken and redeem it for something good.
He does not waste our pain.
Romans 5 says suffering can produce endurance, character, and hope. Those qualities rarely grow in comfort. They are formed when we keep trusting after disappointment, keep praying after bad news, keep loving after being hurt, and keep following Jesus when the road becomes difficult. In the hands of God, suffering can shape something in us that ease never could.
Suffering can also become a place where God’s glory is seen. Throughout Scripture, some of the clearest pictures of God’s faithfulness appeared in moments of pain. The cross itself is the greatest example. What looked like the darkest moment in history became the greatest display of God’s love and the doorway to salvation.
The same can happen in our lives. People watch how we walk through loss, disappointment, sickness, and hardship. When they see peace that does not make sense, hope that refuses to disappear, and faith that survives the storm, they see more than our strength. They see the God who is carrying us. Our testimony can become someone else’s invitation to faith.
And Romans 8 reminds us that suffering is temporary, but glory is eternal.
One day Christ will return. The brokenness of creation will be restored. Sin, death, disease, and suffering will finally come to an end. Every tear will be wiped away, and everything sin has damaged will be made right. Naked Truth-SermonNotes.pdfPDF
That does not make today’s pain less real. Scripture never asks us to pretend it doesn’t hurt. But it does give us a reason not to lose hope.
The naked truth about suffering is this: pain is real, but it is not pointless.
God can use it. God can redeem it. God can be glorified through it.
And because of Jesus, suffering is not the end of your story.
The end of your story is glory.
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Small Group Curriculum – The Naked Truth
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