5. Why does God allow some people to be born into situations where they will be abused or neglected?
God does not wish pain into people's lives. No one knows for sure why certain things happen, why some people live in or are born into good situations and why some are not. But make no mistake, there is evil in the world, and any human being is capable of doing evil at most any time (see Romans 3:10-18). We wish that God would get rid of or punish all of the "evil" people in the world, or pull us out of all bad situations, but many times He doesn't. God allows people to make choices, and we make good and bad ones all of the time. That's no excuse for what people do to each other, only a partial explanation.
Remember, because bad things happen to you, you are not being "punished" for some horrible thing you did. God does not work that way. What He does do is work good out of even the worst of circumstances (see Romans 8:28). For example, people who suffer through bad things often later help others in similar circumstances (see 2 Corinthians 1:3-7). And God does "balance the scales" in the end, sometimes in this life, sometimes in the next (see Psalm 73; Revelation 20:11-15). What we have to do is continue to have our hope in Him, because He is the only one who can ease--even stop--the pain and help us see the bigger picture of the war going on between good and evil that He will ultimately win. Don't be afraid to be angry with Him as you are suffering--many people have been, as the Book of Psalms in the Bible shows us. God can even help you move past the anger. Many psalms are good models for how to pray to Him (such as Psalms 22 and 37). Psalms also shows us that beyond pain is faith, that God is in control and that He understands us when we suffer. That is the message Jesus brought (see John 3:16-17).
We cannot completely answer all the questions about suffering we want answered. What we can say without a doubt when you are suffering is that God loves you and wants to help you, perhaps by bringing a Christian alongside of you to pray with you, listen to your story, and guide you to hope in Him. Pray for that to happen.
