Why God's Children Suffer

Scripture

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 KJV

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Big idea

Summary

Graham begins by naming two opposite mistakes believers make about suffering. Some expect the Christian life to be consistently easy and upbeat, an assumption he traces partly to preachers who oversell conversion's emotional highs, and compares to the premature optimism that swept the American public in the early days of the Gulf War, before the hard fighting proved otherwise. Others swing to the opposite extreme, denying that faithful believers can be genuinely wounded at all, a stance he links to 'health and wealth' teaching that treats blessing as something owed to God's children. Using the image of grueling Marine training that prepares soldiers for real combat, Graham argues God similarly allows hardship to prepare His people, rather than because He is cruel or indifferent, and admits plainly that he cannot fully explain why a particular child dies or a particular ministry is cut short.

He then lays out several concrete reasons believers suffer: simply because they share the same human vulnerability to accident and illness as everyone else, because sin and disobedience carry real consequences even for Christians, and because God uses difficulty as fatherly discipline meant to shape character over time. He supports this with personal stories, including his own restless, difficult childhood and the firm discipline his father gave him, alongside the example of Amy Carmichael, who spent decades bedridden in India yet produced a remarkable body of writing that still shapes readers today. He also admits candidly that he feels inadequate speaking about suffering compared to those who have endured losses far greater than his own.

The chapter's final movement highlights the fruit that can grow out of hardship: a deeper hunger for Scripture, more urgent and honest prayer, and hard-won patience. Graham points to Corrie ten Boom, who came to see her wartime imprisonment as tied to a specific calling to comfort fellow prisoners, and to Clebe McClary, a wounded Vietnam veteran whose recovery and faith later reached thousands through his testimony. He adds the picture of a sculptor working a rough block of marble into a finished masterpiece, suggesting that the chiseling and breaking believers feel in hardship is God shaping them into something they cannot yet see. Graham closes by acknowledging that not every 'why' question about suffering is answered in this life, yet insists God's presence and purpose can still be trusted, using even a person's most painful experiences toward an ultimately good result.

Key points

• Expecting the Christian life to be uniformly easy sets believers up for disillusionment when real hardship arrives.
• Some suffering is simply the shared experience of being human in a fallen world.
• Some suffering follows directly from sin or disobedience and functions as God's corrective discipline.
• God often uses hardship to build character and prepare believers for future usefulness, much like training prepares a soldier for combat.
• Trials tend to drive people toward deeper engagement with Scripture and more earnest prayer.
• Not every question about suffering is answered in this life, but God's presence and purpose can still be trusted.

Illustrations & stories

• The image of grueling Marine training that readies soldiers for real combat, used to explain why God allows difficult 'training' in a believer's life.
• Amy Carmichael's decades as a bedridden invalid in India, during which she nevertheless wrote dozens of books that continue to influence readers.
• Clebe McClary, a Vietnam Marine who lost a hand, an eye, and a leg in combat, whose recovery and faith later reached thousands through his testimony.
• Corrie ten Boom's imprisonment in a World War II concentration camp, where she came to understand her suffering as tied to a specific calling to comfort other prisoners.
• Pastor Calvin Thielman's illustration of a cake, whose individual bitter ingredients combine into something good, used to explain Romans 8:28.

Notable line

I don't think my suffering was in vain.

Billy Graham Hope for the Troubled Heart, ch. 7, Vietnam veteran Clebe McClary reflecting on his injuries

For reflection and discussion

1. Which of Graham's reasons for suffering — shared humanity, the consequences of sin, or God's discipline — resonates most with a hard season you've walked through?
2. How does the Marine-training analogy change the way you think about the difficulties God allows in your life?
3. Amy Carmichael and Corrie ten Boom both found purpose within severe limitation. What might God be inviting you to do within your own current limits?
4. In what ways has a past trial driven you toward Scripture and prayer rather than away from them?
5. Can you trust God's presence in a situation where you may never get a full answer to 'why'? What would that trust look like this week?