There is potential for good to come from the evil and suffering.

Joseph is one of many examples of God producing good from evil in a person's life. Jospeh's brothers envied and hated him. As a result, they attempted to kill him but rather they spared his life selling him into slavery. Joseph ends up far away from home in Egypt at Potiphar's house. He is promoted to Potiphar's right-hand-man but would soon find himself facing more evil. Potiphar's wife desires to have an affair with Joseph but he refuses and in turn she lies about him. Joseph was put in prison from anywhere from two to twelve years. Talk about evil and suffering being forced into a person's life! Once he is finally released, Joseph is placed second in charge in Pharaoh's kingdom in Egypt. After a severe famine for seven years, Jospeh finally meets his brothers who came to Egypt to buy food to survive. After revealing himself to his brothers, His response helps us tremendously understand how God can bring good out of evil. Genesis 50:20 says, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."

One writer said it this way, "All suffering contains at least the opportunity for good but not everyone actualizes that potential." You may ask, "How on earth could anything good come from suffering?" Let me share a few thoughts:

1. Suffering tests and strengthens faith. The very nature of faith requires that it be tested to discover if it is actually a real faith. Suffering does not destroy faith, it actually refines. It is only by testing that real faith is discovered.
2. Suffering of the cross produced eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. Who would have thought that through a rigged trial, the false accusations, being beaten to the point of death, being unjustly hung on a cross, and the physical and emotional suffering that Jesus encountered could have produced any good. The disciples that were left with Jesus surely could not see how anything good could come from it. They ran away confused and defeated. But God brought about the absolute greatest from the absolute worst! He brought about eternal salvation. What we would say were the most unjust, awful, and evil actions ever committed upon a person God used to produce the absolute best which was eternal salvation. This is as a free gift that God offers to anyone who will accept the gift by calling upon on Jesus Christ to save them.
3. Suffering brings repentance. Pain and suffering are sometimes what God uses to motivate people to surrender to him and bring them to a point of salvation in Jesus Christ.

C.S. Lewis said,

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, he speaks in our conscience, but he shouts in our pains.

It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Suffering and evil are compatible with God's love when it is used to bring about a better good.

Allow me illustrate this for you. When I was younger I broke my hip in an ATV accident. I went five days before ever realizing that my hip was broke. Only my knee was sore but after a few days I started to drag my leg sideways. I finally went to the doctor where they took an x-ray and sent me to the emergency room. Then a surgery was planned for the next day. When I went into surgery only my knee was slightly sore. After the surgery, I was in excruciating pain! In order to fix my broken hip, the doctor had to cut fifteen inches down my thigh through muscle to drill in three long screws. When I woke up from the surgery I was screaming like a baby from the pain. Nurses came in with needles to inject pain medicine into my leg.

What I want you to see is that the surgeon had to inflict more pain on me in order to bring about a better good. For me to be able to walk today and have both legs the surgery had to be done. This inflicted more pain but in the end a better good was achieved. God can allow suffering because He can use it to bring about a better good.