Of course, as usual, everything you have written here is true. It is a brutal reality in the objective; an inescapable certainty to be sure. Many fellow posters here point to the universal benefits of suffering (like “no pain, no gain”), or addressing the believer, the transient nature of suffering that leads us to glory. This seems to be the intellectual assent that Job arrived at in Chapter 1, when after losing all his possessions, and losing all his children, he told himself:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)
In other words, Job convinced himself that he actually deserved no better, and that God always does what is right, so he might as well just accept his lot, and suck-it-up. But while admonishments like these offer a future hope to the intellectual sufferer, they do little to sooth to the currently traumatized soul of pain’s pitiful victim. It seems wise to speak of the benefits of suffering in the abstract, before trauma hits, but it seems brutal to speak of them to one who is in the throes of anguish.
I found in @Pater15’s question the atmosphere of current emotional trauma in the very first word, “why”. “Why” is the word we wail when present difficulties do not make sense – when it feels our justice is ignored and mercy is absent. @Pater15 posts the unreasonableness of suffering by lamenting “I thought God loves us.” We often cannot wrap our heads around any reason for the pain we are experiencing. It is in this arena that counselors feel impotent to help. It feels insensitive to offer only future promises to one who suffers profoundly in the present; just as it would be insensitive to suggest to a person who just had their leg amputated that at least they finally lost some weight. Job’s friends recognized their impotence when they “made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him.” And when they “sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great (Job 2:11-13). It may be, when a sufferer has begun asking “why?” that a counselor or friend can do no better than to sit silently and commiserate in prayer. Larry Crab wrote of this phenomenon in his book “Connecting” where he reveals an occasion when he was most helpful to a client; a moment of connecting without counseling. It is when Job’s friends started talking, and providing insensitive reasons for Job’s suffering that they added insult to his injury.
It is good to remind ourselves of the positive promises of suffering, and the beneficial results expected for the child of God, while we are not suffering at the moment. I am likewise reminded that we should be just as wise to withhold our sage advice when we sit with one who presently suffers. I am preaching this reminder to myself.
I appreciate you tagging me, @KPuff. Let’s look at what Scripture actually says about this, clearly and directly, without any pomp or unnecessary flair. Space doesn’t allow for an in-depth treatment here, but I’ll keep it concise and to the point.
Life is hard because creation itself is fallen
Genesis 3 is the fountainhead of human struggle. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, sin entered the world, and along with it came death, pain, and futility. God told Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17). The Hebrew word for “pain” (‘itstsabon’) speaks of sorrow, toil, and weariness. Paul expands this in Romans 8:20–22, explaining that creation was “subjected to futility” and “groans” under corruption, waiting for redemption. So difficulty is not random, it is the echo of a broken order yearning for restoration.
Life is hard because sin still operates in the human heart
James 4:1–2 asks, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” Hardship often flows not from external chaos, but from internal conflict, selfish desires, pride, and disordered loves. The Greek word for “passions” (hēdonōn) is the root of our word “hedonism.” Humanity’s constant craving for pleasure and control leads to endless strife. Romans 7:19 captures Paul’s own lament, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” The battle with sin makes life a field of tension until Christ’s redemption is complete.
Life is hard because we live in a world hostile to righteousness
Jesus Himself said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). The word thlipsis means crushing pressure. Christ never promised ease, but He promised His presence. In John 15:19 He declared, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, the world hates you.” Hardship often intensifies precisely because you walk with Him. Yet this is the mark of discipleship, light colliding with darkness.
Life is hard because God uses trials as refining fire
Scripture turns suffering from meaningless pain into divine purpose. Peter wrote, “The tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). The verb dokimazō means to test with intent to approve, not to destroy. God’s trials are not punishment but purification, burning away the impurities that conceal His image in you. Hebrews 12:6 adds, “The Lord disciplines those He loves.”
Life is hard because this world is temporary, not home
Paul writes, “We are citizens of heaven” (Philippians 3:20), and “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). The Greek term parautika (“momentary”) reminds us that time and trouble are both passing. Hardship exposes the frailty of this world and draws us to set our hearts on the eternal.
Life is hard because it leads us to the Cross and through the Cross to life
No passage speaks louder than Luke 9:23, where Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Hardship is not merely endured, it is the path of imitation. Christ Himself “learned obedience through what He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Through suffering, we share in His death and resurrection, so that His life might be revealed in us (2 Corinthians 4:10–11).
Life is hard, but God is faithful
Paul’s cry in 2 Corinthians 1:8–10 captures it perfectly: “We were burdened beyond our strength… but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” Hardship drives faith deeper, presses us to the heart of divine sufficiency, and trains us to trust the One who conquered death.
The “sagy” Scriptural advice to the question
Life is hard because sin corrupted creation, rebellion fractured the soul, and righteousness provokes resistance. Yet God sovereignly redeems the very hardships we endure, shaping us into Christ’s likeness and preparing us for eternal glory. The cross proves that suffering is not God’s absence but His presence in the deepest valley.
Faith, then, is not pretending life is easy, it is knowing that in every hardship, Christ reigns as Alpha and Omega, the One who began the story, walks through it with us, and will finish it in glory.
God made life somewhat hard after Adam and Eve sinned. Because man would be born with little to restrict his natural inclination to selfish self-destruction, difficulties were to force us to care for each other and be open to hear about the possibiity of reconciliation. That this was insufficient can be seen;
Gen_6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
After the flood man’s life span was limited to 120 years, the climate became much more difficult (winter and drought, etc.) We may also have disease and genetic vulnerabilities. As a result people became somewhat more receptive to hearing about God. However, since the Industrial Revolution, life has been getting progressively easier. As a result, like before the flood, people are indulging selfishness to destructive proportions.
Life was made hard by God for our benefit. Life was also made hard by our inclination to harm ourselves and each other.