Why does God allow persecutions and testings if He also provides strength?
God permits persecutions and testings because the Christian life is a battle, not a rose-petaled path; suffering with Christ is part of the believer’s experience, and the same Lord who allows trials supplies the strength and consolation to endure them.
Les explains that Scripture never promises a rose-petaled pathway after becoming a Christian. Instead, the Christian life is like paddling a canoe upstream; it is tough and a constant battle against all the forces of Satan and the world. Yet the same Lord who permits persecutions and testings to come into the life is the same Lord who provides the strength needed to go through it. Paul speaks of his own experience: as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ. Those who partake of the sufferings will also partake of the consolation. Les also notes that early believers under the Roman yoke were immediately under persecution, and becoming a believer under Paul’s preaching was actually an invitation to persecution.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
More Questions
If God allows testing and persecution, where does the strength to endure it come from?
The same Lord who permits persecutions and testings to come into our life is the same Lord who will provide the strength we need to go through them.