Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?
Why does God let bad things happen? We’ve all asked that at one point or another. Because bad things do happen to Christians and non-Christians alike. Brianna shares more in this post.
Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?
“Your disease is progressing.”
“The biopsy results were positive.”
Have you ever sat in that uncomfortable plastic chair in the doctor’s office only to hear news you didn’t want to hear? The diagnosis, the prognosis, and the results seem to swim around the room, while you are grasping at words just to understand what the doctor just said.
Those moments are hard to comprehend, much less understand why God would let that happen to you. But that’s not what God calls us to do. He isn’t accountable to us with answers to our questions. What I’ve learned is the more I lean into God, the more I see God and understand more about God.
Related Post: What To Do With The Things That Make You Ask “Why God?”
Who Else Asked “Why God?”
1.) Moses
Moses questioned God, wanting to know why He had put the burden of the Israelites on his shoulders in Numbers 11:11.
Moses didn’t feel qualified or well-equipped to lead these people, nor did he feel he had the skills to provide for them (verse 12). But God chose him. Moses didn’t think he was a strong speaker because of his speech impediments (Exodus 4:10) yet God gave him the words to say what the Lord needed Pharaoh and the Israelites to hear. God didn’t allow Moses to be disqualified because he questioned the Lord.
2.) Job
Job also questioned God for the situation he found himself in when he cried out to the Lord about feeling like he was a target for bad things happening to him (Job 7:20). Job knew about suffering from losing his family, his stock, his livelihood, and his health. Job also knew pain. He questioned whether he had caused his circumstances or if it had just happened.
Even though Job found himself in circumstances that were hard to wrap my mind around. He came out on top. His situation, after he endured the suffering, turned out okay. “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.” (Job 42:12-13 NIV). Job questioned God, but never lost faith that God would turn it out for good.
Related Post: 3 Reasons Why The Book Of Job Is So Important To Our Faith
3.) David
David was not a stranger to hard circumstances, he fought a giant, his best friend’s dad wanted to murder him, and he got himself in a sticky situation with adultery.
David understood those asking God where He was in the hard stuff. In Psalm 10:1, David questions God not once, but twice with “why?” David was in the middle of a struggle when he asked, “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 NIV).
Have you been there asking God why He isn’t interceding? Why He is slow to rescue you? I’m embarrassed to say I have.
Early in my walk with the Lord, I thought it was going to be candy canes and rainbows that I wouldn’t have to struggle because I had the Lord on my side.
I was naïve, but the more I got to know God by spending time in the Word. I recognized His goodness. He lets His children, like David, experience hardships. But through them, even when He’s silent, He is right there with us. When we question Him or lament to Him about our problems and situations, He listens. Those prayers and cries don’t fall on deaf ears. He just has something bigger planned that we don’t always see or understand.
4.) Habakkuk
The prophet Habakkuk also experienced his own doubts. All the prophets before him had spoken of God’s love for his people. Judah’s society had declined, there was destruction, violence, injustice, and wickedness happening. (Habakkuk 1:3). Habakkuk didn’t understand why God was allowing it or why He wasn’t stepping in. I think many of us can look at the world right now with those same doubts. Why is God allowing this?
Habakkuk didn’t have the benefit of the New Testament, where we find an explanation of what it means for our faith to be tested. James, Jesus’ half-brother, reminds us, “Consider it all pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4 NIV). God allows our faith to be tested to mature us and to strengthen us.
Had Habakkuk known that God was working this out for good, that He was sending His only Son to die on the cross for all humanity’s sins, maybe he wouldn’t have questioned it. But you know I question it too, at times.
5.) Jesus
Not only did prophets, leaders, and kings question God, but the disciples did (John 9:2) and so did Jesus. “At about three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’” (Matthew 27:46 NLT).
Jesus, God’s Son, even asked Him why. So asking why isn’t a sin. Jesus was sinless, so it’s not considered a sin to question God.
Jesus tells us a few chapters before, “‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.’” (Matthew 7:7 NIV).
We can ask God and Jesus tells us we will get answers, but they may not come in our time and we may not find them out until heaven. But God listens, He hears us and He knows our hearts.
Go Ahead and Ask
Sometimes I feel like I’m standing in my own way, and God needs me to move, out of the way allowing Him in. There isn’t always an explanation for why something happens, and I may never know on this side of heaven. What I do know is that God uses His children, He cares for them, He loves them unconditionally, and He never leaves them nor forsakes them. He is with you through the hard, the scary, and the good.
The apostle Paul reminds us, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 LSB). God uses the things in our lives for good, never doubt that God is good, no matter what circumstance you find yourself.
Today I encourage you if you are asking ‘why God,’ lean in to Him. Draw near to our Creator, ask God to help you through the situation, to strengthen you, and to use it for His glory.
Join the Conversation
Have you ever wondered why does God let bad things happen? What’s something difficult you didn’t expect to face with God on your side? Join the conversation in the comments below.
Devotions for Chronic Illness
Hope in the Healing
In this 40-day devotional, Brianna shares details from her personal struggle with chronic illness, offering encouragement and hope to those walking similar paths. If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, this book is for you.
