Good Questions

One of the things I love about being a pastor is my role in sharing Biblical truth with people that they can use in living their lives. I am no academic. I love to read and write as much as anybody, but my role in life is not to provide solutions on paper. One of my tasks as a pastor is to help people pray and process truth so that it is lived out under the authority of the Holy Spirit for the Glory of God in the name of Jesus.

A question I recently received was about "useless" suffering. It was a confidential email so I cannot publish its contents, but the basic question is a common one and a good one.

This person believed there is suffering that is useless and that holds no redemptive purpose.

I assured this person that nothing is wasted by God and that everything that happens has a purpose according to God's eternal plan. We may never understand God's purpose until the light of eternity reveals what God was doing, but we can be confident that in every death, rape, theft, tragedy of nature, broken heart, and scraped knee that God has a plan for it to bring His redemptive purpose to our planet for His glory.

The sovereignty of God is a great comfort to those that believe in Jesus. The fact that God is in control of all things allows us to rest and relax. We of course must daily work to fulfill our responsibility to God and seek His Kingdom purpose. But we can know that in all things our King is at work and will bring about His ultimate victory when He comes riding on His white horse with the new heaven.

This warrior is called “Faithful and True” (19:11); his name is “the Word of God” (19:13; compare John 1:1, 14), and his title is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (19:16). He leads the armies of heaven in the final assault on the two beasts (i.e., on the beast and the false prophet) and on all who bear their mark. His weapon is a sharp sword that comes out of his mouth: he needs only speak to win. It is he who “treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty” (19:15), which returns us to the terrifying image of 14:19–20.
In one sense, Revelation 19 does not advance the plotline of the book of Revelation. It does not try to do so. We have already been told that God destroys the great prostitute, that those who bear the mark of the beast must face the wrath of God, and so forth. What it adds—and this is vital—is the entirely salutary reminder that God is in absolute control, that he is to be praised for his just judgments on all that is evil, and that the agent who destroys all opposition in the end is none other than Jesus Christ.
Carson, D. A. (1998). For the love of God : A daily companion for discovering the riches of God's Word. Volume 1. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.