Meditating on the nature of God helps us deal with suffering
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Ever since the fall, evil, sin, and suffering have been part of human existence. Suffering can be overwhelming at times. Suffering can come to our lives through the sins of others (i.e., murder, betrayals, calumnies), as some people use the gift of free will to create good, but others to create evil. Suffering may also be caused by our own shortcomings: health consequences of our bad habits, financial troubles, getting fired from jobs, etc. We may even experience suffering caused by the destructive aspect of otherwise useful laws of nature. For example, the same physical laws that create the life-giving rain, may also cause a hurricane that may produce loss of property and life. Even the decay of the body with old age and the death of loved ones, which is part of the predictable cycle of life, can cause tremendous loneliness and suffering.
It’s impossible to go through life and not experience some of these events; however, with the grace of God, we can significantly reduce how much these events cause emotional suffering. Prayerfully meditating on the divine nature of God and what he desires the most for us can help us better deal with these situations. What is the divine nature of God? God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent. It is important to not just have this intellectual knowledge of God, we need to believe that God possesses these attributes. Let’s unpack this.
God is omniscient. God knows everything about the past, the present, and the future. Because he is outside of time, he knows all three at once. He knows my struggles with a disease, my joys from a relationship, and my dreams for the future. Even though God knows what we need before we mention it in prayer, he still desires us to lovingly reach out to him and ask with faith. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he told them “…your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:8)
God is omnipotent. He is all powerful and all mighty. God created the universe and all the trillion galaxies, each containing about 100 billion stars. God created the sun, the moon, a beautiful earth with prairies, volcanos, butterflies, birds, and the incredible human body. God has demonstrated that He can do anything. We saw glimpses of this power when Jesus walked on water, calmed the storm, and when he himself resurrected. “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11)
God is omnipresent. God is everywhere at the same time. God is with astronauts circling the earth, with divers exploring the oceans, and with the single dad worrying about how to pay the bills. We are never alone; God is always with us. Just as Jesus told his apostles after he sent them to the ends of the earth to make disciples of all nations and baptize them, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).
And most importantly, God is omnibenevolent. God is love, he is infinitely good and wants our maximum goodness. This is important, because we could have a god that was is powerful but does not care about us and uses us as pawns for his own amusement. But our God is the definition of unconditional love. Every day and every minute of the day, God is loving us intensely. “Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 106)
What does this all-loving God desire the most for us? Is it great health? A wonderful marriage? Abundance? A good job? Yes, but there is nothing that he desires more than our holiness, that our wills become one. He desires that we love him completely, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4). He thirsts for our love and desires to share heaven with us and transform us into Jesus’ divine nature. The goodness he desires most is the salvation of our soul. Our true destiny is everlasting life in perfect union with God.
OK, so how does prayerfully meditating in the divine nature of God and what he wants the most for us helps us alleviate suffering? When faced with challenges in life, we should, of course, pray with faith that God alleviates or eliminates the situation causing us suffering. He can and does perform miracles; remember, with him all things are possible. But we also need to pray that “may his will be done.” We must accept with love and faith his will. We pray this every day in the Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…” If we truly believe that God is all powerful, all knowing, always present with us, and all loving, then we need to conclude that he is permitting this evil and suffering because a greater good can come from it. He does not ever cause evil, as he is all loving, but he permits it to generate a greater good. That greater good involves the salvation of souls. When we meditate about his divine nature and his desire for holiness, God can give us the grace to experience internal peace and joy while facing difficulties knowing that they will help the salvation of our and others’ souls.
Perhaps the difficulties we are experiencing will help us develop the virtues that we need to sanctify our souls. Perhaps they may soften the hearts of others and move them to pray for us and perform acts of charity. It may manifest this year or many years from now. It is in the midst of suffering that we experience transformation. We trust fully in our all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God that is always at my side (and within me) and who always desire goodness for us. “Consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)
“We may not understand His Will for us in time, but in eternity the veil will be drawn, and we shall see that He acted only for our happiness.”
