Why Me God?

Life can be hard. Really hard, sometimes. We face some incredibly heartbreaking and tragic challenges that threaten to derail us. Our tendency might be to ask, Why me God?

Maybe you’ve been cheated on, raped, lost a child, diagnosed with a terrible illness, or any number of other gut-wrenching circumstances. Or maybe you’re struggling with everyday challenges that threaten your family or your mental health, such as divorce, death of a parent or loved one, infertility, financial difficulties, or loss of a job or your home.

No matter how major or minor your challenges are, you might turn to God and ask, “Why me?” It’s probably one of the most common questions we ask during tough times. You’re definitely not alone if this is a question you’ve been asking.

Why me, God

For those of us who believe in God, and especially for those of us who are Christians, the question of “Why me, God?” feels utterly personal. And painful. We sometimes feel singled out and abandoned.

If we let our struggles morph into anger at God, we start drifting away from Him. And that’s the last thing He wants, as well as the last thing we need.

Staying stuck in the “why me” stage prevents you from growing into the warrior God created you to be. As we move through the various stages of walking with God through your storm, challenge yourself to turn your “why me” into “help me”.

God, why is this happening to me?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent. Psalm 22:1-2 WEB

You may recognize Jesus’ words from the Gospels in this scripture. But the scripture above is actually from the Psalms of the Old Testament – before Jesus spoke them in the New Testament.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This prophesy from the Old Testament not only foretold the words Jesus would cry out as He was suffering and dying on the cross, but their presence in the Old Testament shows that God recognizes the difficulty of our human condition.

God knows. He understands our pain and suffering. He knew Jesus would say the words and He knows we do sometimes, too.

If Jesus felt abandoned (forsaken) by God in His humanity, it’s okay that we feel that way sometimes, too. Allow yourself some grace to question and grieve and wrestle with the “whys”. For a time. Then take His hand and move forward.

Why is God making me suffer?

For those of us who believe we have a heavenly Father who truly loves us, we may wonder why God is making us suffer. Or if He is not the cause of the suffering, why is He allowing it?

Let’s start with the supposition that God is the cause of our suffering.

We see examples in the Old Testament in which God caused people to suffer after they disobeyed His commandments and dishonored him with idol worship and various other sinful behavior. But, since Jesus died and rose for forgiveness of our sins, we don’t typically think of God “causing” us to suffer.

But, even if we believe God doesn’t cause our suffering, He is capable of anything, so He could certainly prevent the suffering, if He wanted to. So, why does he allow our suffering? Why is He allowing your suffering?

Suffering is part of the human condition

The Bible recognizes suffering. It’s part of the human condition. (More on that later.) And as much as we want the answer to WHY, every source falls short of the answer.

God’s ways are beyond our comprehension and suffering is a perfect example of that. We cannot know and understand His reasoning and logic. But that’s OK. We can still wrestle with it. We can still bring our questions to God and cry out to Him that it feels unfair. He’d rather us come to Him in fear, frustration, or anger than walk away from Him.

What Jesus did promise and we can know for sure is that He’d be with us in our suffering. And as we journey forward through our struggle, this is all the assurance we really need to know.

Walking with Jesus means not needing to know, but having faith that He knows. And He has not abandoned you. That is enough. Then the rest of your journey can unfold.