I received the following question which I felt was important enough not only to reply to, but to publish to the website:

Hey question for you out of the blue of course. Why is it that so many people go though terminal illnesses these days? I used to think God would only give us what we could handle. And it would make us stronger! Any ideas? I haven't really figured that out for a while now.

I presume that you are looking for a spiritual explanation as apposed to a scientific or a sociological answer to your question.

The reason for sickness and death is sin - the wages of sin is death.  In the beginning God created the world and mankind in a sinless environment and called them good.  God gave us freedom of choice, to choose Him or to choose sin.  There are consequences naturally and spiritually when we choose sin.  God gave us laws, which He wrote on our heart.  When we deny our conscience we disobey those moral laws and seek after our own lusts, we dishonour and bring judgement on ourselves.  Some of the consequences of that judgment come now, and the rest when we die, unless we repent from our sins.  God is holy, just and good, but we insist on choosing that which is wicked and that which leads to death.

There are times when God gives sickness to demonstrate His power and to show people that He is who He says He is, by performing healing miracles.  Other times sickness is God's way of encouraging us to relent and repent.  Remember, God does not want that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

God looks at things differently than we do - His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  He looks at a person in the light of eternity, we look at a person in light of a few short years - less than 100 years usually.

It is better that a person suffers for a time with the goal that they would be saved from their sins, than they would suffer condemnation.  Also, there is the matter of testifying through sufferings.  When people who endure much pain and suffering can be joyful and find peace in the midst of that suffering it makes us who are not suffering ashamed that we complain in our circumstances.

In many cases we learn compassion when others around us, that we care about, suffer and, for a moment, we get a sense of the suffering God endured watching His only Son suffer, for sins He did not commit, that through His Son all who would repent and receive Him could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Pain and suffering is not shameful, in and of itself.  It is when hearts are not turned from sin and people are not saved from destruction, despite the pain and suffering, that is shameful.  Some harden their hearts through difficulties, while others cry out in humility and brokenness, before a loving God, and He receives them unto Himself.  God does perform miracles every day, continuously, he also does heal people every day, but God is sovereign over when and how He will do that.

God has multiple purposes for everything.  If he heals you today instead of next week, of a terminal illness, perhaps other people you would meet in the next week would not be touched.  If some people never died of terminal illness, who would ponder the reason why people die of terminal illness? Good questions lead to searching - searching for truth.  If a person truly seeks The Truth, their quest will lead them to Jesus, to the foot of the cross and the choice to receive eternal life.

There were two main reasons we were created - to have a loving relationship with our Creator, and to have loving relationships with our fellow man.  Everything in this life revolves around these two main purposes.  God desires to prompt us to grow in our love relationship with Him and our love relationships with others.  When we choose righteousness he will bless us, which can come in many forms but doesn't always mean physical healing, but when we choose unrighteousness He will chasten us in an effort to direct us to righteousness.

When it comes to the aspect of Him only giving us what we can handle (1 Cor 10:13 ).  This concept has been taken from scripture, but the meaning has been distorted by our own bias.  When we try to handle difficult situations on our own, without God's help, we come to the end of ourselves, often broken, crying out, and desperate.  That is a point at which we will often cry out to God.  When we do, God joins us in the midst of our emotional storm, calls out to our tempest, and says "be silent".  Suddenly, we are at peace, even though we still may be in the middle of the ocean, miles from shore.

Why are we at peace? Because Jesus is there.  The one that spoke and creation leaped into existence, in that, our darkest moment, speaks and calms our spirit and emotional tumult.  In many cases those of us who are extremely stubborn need to be trained, over and over again, until we finally get it.  His power is perfected in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9 ).  If we choose God every day and we walk with Him, He will see us through every storm and grow us, through enduring and coming through life's hardest challenges.

We are not alone but we have a choice, to walk with Him or to run from Him. 

There is more that could be said on the matter, but I hope that this gives you a start toward understanding the purposes of pain and suffering in our lives.