I don't think God is the source of our sorrows and pain, but I am sure that He uses the suffering that comes to us in this fallen world to sculpt us into a closer likeness to His Son for our blessing (Romans 8:28). Why suffering must be a fact in this age of grace is mostly unknown to us, but we receive enlightenment in the die to live patterns in nature. A seed must fall into the ground and die before it gives forth new life (John 12:24).
In one of the Narnia books, C.S. Lewis says that Aslan remains true to His own rules. Likewise, the framework God has set into place during this age allows Him to remain true to His own Holiness and yet offer grace to us, even though we have used the free will He has given to sin against Him. His own Son suffered to offer us Salvation, and God resurrected our Savior as a first-fruit of those bound over to death by sin. If we suffer with Him, we can expect to be raised with Him (2 Timothy 2:12).
When we find peace in our earthly circumstances, we are less likely to put forth the effort to seek the Lord. Sorrows, fears, and suffering drive us to the foot of the Cross where we find the peace that defies human understanding (Philippians 4:7).
God does not willingly bring suffering to us (Lamentations 3:33). We can always trust His good intentions toward us; we can always trust His love. The enemy will try to twist the fact of God's sovereign power over Earth's sorrows in an attempt to convince us that God willingly hurts us in order to help us. The secret the enemy doesn't want us to know is that the Almighty God uses even what the enemy means for evil to our good, for His glory (Genesis 50:20). Evil isn't God's fault. He gave his created beings freedom, and we used it for evil. God sent His Son to make us a way to Heaven despite the filth of our own sin. There is no greater love than this.
I wrote the words above and then went to bed, and sometime during the night watches I realized...I must not think of God as being only partially sovereign. He is not merely a benevolent King who is determined to bless those who have suffered by the enemy's hand. In this scenario some evils slip past Him and so He then intervenes to turn it for our good. Of course this is inaccurate; Hannah Whitall Smith has said we must receive everything from His hand with no second causes.
We consistently underestimate the extent of our own sinfulness, the disasters we cause via the path of free will, and the measures God takes for and through us in order to secure us for Heaven.
But...always a caveat; sometimes we hear of horrible things happening that very obviously have occurred outside of God's will. At those times we give God glory by affirming trust in Him and finding rest in His promise to see us through (Isaiah 42:3). The enemy reigns in the minds of unbelievers and so there is great evil at work in our world. God will have the ultimate victory. Faith in Him will be rewarded. And He sees us through
Human logic can't track God. But our free will, a gift from God, allows us to choose to trust in Him where our human understanding can't reach.
Blessed be His Name.
