It's Not Supposed to Be This Way by Lysa TerKeurst
Week 3: Chapter 2 — Why Would God Allow This?
Read Chapter 2 of It's Not Supposed to Be This Way. Key passages: Job 1–2; Romans 8:28.
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This chapter wrestles with the question that sits underneath most of our disappointment: if God is good and God is powerful, why does He allow things that hurt this much? Come to these questions willing to ask the hard thing out loud.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1."Why would God allow this?" is possibly the most common question people ask in pain. Have you ever asked it? If so, what were the circumstances — and did you ever feel like you received a satisfying answer?
2.Lysa is careful not to offer simplistic answers to this question. What is the difference between an answer that satisfies intellectually and one that actually sustains a person through suffering? Which do you need more right now?
3.She explores the tension between God's sovereignty (He is in control) and human pain (this hurts and seems wrong). Some people resolve the tension by emphasizing one at the expense of the other — either "God is in control so this must be fine" or "this hurts so God must not care." What is the cost of each extreme?
a.Where do you tend to land when you are hurting — sovereignty or skepticism?
b.What would it look like to hold both truths simultaneously?
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