Why do good people suffer?

I was thinking this morning about why God lets good people suffer great trials.

Then I was reading in 2 Nephi chapter 2, where Lehi speaks to Jacob, his son. His opening words are, “…thou art my first-born in the wilderness. And behold in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow…”

God lets his chosen people suffer
Jacob’s family was chosen of God. God led them out of Jerusalem so they would not be destroyed. But they then wandered in the wilderness for 8 years, suffering hunger and “afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all.” (1 Nephi 17:6) Why would God allow those he loves and has chosen to suffer so much?

The choice

I think every time we have a trial it comes with a choice: to keep on trusting in God or to complain. Every time we choose to continue obeying God when our circumstances are challenging, our faith grows stronger. What does that mean?

Faith is the capacity to experience joy

Faith is the ability to have joy based solely on the conviction that God loves us and is working 24/7 to help us return to him. For our faith to grow stronger means that we become able to experience joy no matter how difficult our circumstances. God, by giving us trials, increases our capacity for joy.

God teaches us how to experience joy

If it weren’t for trials we have “no joy, because [we] knew no misery.” And I love what Lehi tells Jacob: “But behold, all things are done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things” (God). “Men [and women] are that they might have joy.” I know that God knows us better than we know ourselves. If it were up to us we would probably choose an easier life. But God has a bigger picture in mind. Through the trials He gives us, he is building our capacity to experience joy. He loves us and wants us to be perfectly joyful, as He is.