The Bible doesn’t pretend that suffering is easy, or that people of faith always feel close to God.
Again and again, it describes people who are grieving, afraid, exhausted or unable even to find the words to pray. The Christian claim is not that God always removes the valley, but that He is present with us in it.
Bible quotations below are from the New International Version (NIV).
Psalm 23:4
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
John 11:33–35
“When Jesus saw her weeping … he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.”
And then:
“Jesus wept.”
Matthew 27:46
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Romans 8:26
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness.”
Romans 8:38–39
“Neither death nor life … nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God.”
1 Corinthians 12:26
“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.”
Put together
The Bible doesn’t promise that suffering will always make sense.
It doesn’t promise that you will always feel God close to you.
But it repeatedly says that God has not abandoned us in the middle of it.
Jesus knows grief, pain and the experience of crying out when God seems far away.
The Holy Spirit helps us when we don’t even know what to pray.
Other people can become part of the way God cares for us.
And Psalm 23 gives perhaps the simplest promise of all:
“You are with me.”
If you want to keep digging
Romans 5:8–11 — God demonstrated His love by moving towards us in Jesus and reconciling us to Himself.
Romans 8:18–27 — creation groans, we groan, and the Spirit meets us in our weakness.
Psalm 22 — the Psalm Jesus quotes from the cross begins in anguish but continues into trust in God.
Hebrews 4:14–16 — Jesus is able to sympathise with our weakness, so we can approach God for mercy and help.
2 Corinthians 1:3–4 — God comforts us in our troubles, and that comfort can flow through us to others.
Revelation 21:3–5 — the Christian story ends not with God remaining distant from suffering, but with God dwelling with His people and making all things new.