“Questions For God: Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?”
Introduction:
John was just 31 years old; he was a new father, and a dedicated Christian. He seemed to have everything going for him. John had a great family, a beautiful wife, and he loved them dearly. One day on his way to work John was met head on by a drunk driver who swerved into the opposite lane of traffic; John died instantly leaving a family alone and devastated.
Amy was newly married, and it did not take long until she was pregnant with her first child. Amy was the type of person that everybody loved to be around, she was fun, funny, and sweet. She had everything going for her; she was so excited about having a child. The doctors kept assuring Amy that the baby appeared perfectly healthy. The time came and Amy went into labor. She gave birth to a beautiful daughter, but the only bad thing was the baby was stillborn. This left the new couple devastated.
Sarah was a godly young girl. She was faithful and involved in church. She was a loving mother of three children when she found out she was pregnant again. She prayed and prayed for her baby to be born healthy, but when her son was born he was born with downs syndrome, leaving Sarah devastated.
Jane was in College, she was studying to be a doctor. She had everything going for her. She wasn’t your typical college student. She wasn’t wild and crazy, she was studious and smart. Everyone loved Jane. Jane had never had a boyfriend, in fact she had never kissed a guy, and she was saving herself for her husband. Finally, she met the guy of her dreams, and they were engaged to be married. She was out shopping for her wedding dress, and she was attacked on her way to her car and she was raped. All her innocence that she had been saving for her husband was taken away by some wicked man. This left her and her family devastated.
Ronny was a young preacher with a family. He had a lot of promise, and he had a passion for the Lord. Ronny was only 33 years old. He was in great health; in fact he worked out every day. One day when Ronny was out, he just collapsed and died. No one knows why, his heart just stopped beating, leaving a wife, a family and kids, helpless, unprepared, and devastated.
We all could tell stories like these, couldn’t we? We could all tell stories of bad things happening to good people. No matter how spiritual, or how in tune with God we may be we are all left wondering, why?
We all remember September 11, 2001. Thousands of people went to work like any other day of the week. They all expected to come home to their families when they left. They never got the chance. We remember the scenes of the planes flying into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, killing thousands. People were left without husbands, wives, children and parents. The nation and the world were left devastated, and all asking one question: why?
Do you ever ask the same question? Why do bad things happen to good people? The world would be a much better place if the type of things that happened to the people I mentioned above only happened to the bad people. The sad thing is we live in a world in which we are not immune from the pain of the world.
Text: II Corinthians 11:23-29
I. Reasons
We all want to know why God allows things to happen, especially to those who do not deserve it. Typically when something bad happens we are quick to blame God for the things that are going on in our lives. We assume that God did all this to us. I think it is important to be careful to remember that God does not do things to us; he only allows things to happen to us.
a. Strengthen our Faith
Romans 5:3-4
Some of the things God lets happen to us he allows in order to strengthen our faith. I believe that the times in which we grow and learn the most about God is during our trials and hardships. The scriptures make it clear that the testing of our faith develops perseverance and perseverance develops character. I believe that as we look at the life of Job, we see that in the end he was more mature in his faith than he was before he lost everything. Through Paul’s hardships and difficulties he grew to understand God in a greater way. Sometimes God allows things to happen to us to strengthen our faith produce character in our lives. The Hebrews writer reminds us that God only disciplines those that he loves. Sometimes the bad things that we may hate so much might serve as a way to force us to depend totally on God and to be strengthened in our faith. Perhaps sometimes we receive the testing of our faith, and the tough times that we face knowing and remembering that our faith might be strengthened through our trials.
b. Fallen World
John 9:1-3
This man was born blind, not because of sin, but so that God could show his power through Jesus.
A lot of a time we try to find someone to blame for everything that is going on, when in reality sometimes things just happen as a result of living in a fallen world. With the sin that Adam and Eve brought into the world also came the pains that we have to deal with here in this Earth. I wish I could give a better answer for why bad things happen, and who is responsible for all of those things. If sin was not in the world we would never have to ask the question, why bad things happen. Most Jews in the Old Testament and in Jesus’ life assumed that if bad things happen it was because of some sin they had committed. Jesus tried to teach that bad things happen to people, sometimes just because of the world that we live in. There is not always a reason for the things that are going on in our lives, we must remember we are all a part of the world, and the rain does fall on the righteous and the wicked. We all have to face the problems of this world no matter how righteous we are. I believe that one of the most destructive theologies around today is the health and wealth gospel. Many people seem to believe that if you are a Christian than you will be blessed with good health and a lot of money. This is a promise that Jesus did not make. He assured his disciples that in the world they would have trouble, he reminded them about difficulties to come, and he encouraged them to stay faithful to God because they lived in a fallen world.
c. Satan’s Powers
Job is a good example of a good man who lost everything. Why would God let such bad things happen to such a good person? This is the question that Job and his friends asked of God. If you remember Job’s friends and his wife all said that Job must have done some great sin to have to deal with all these horrible things going on. Job lost everything. His friends begged him to repent, his wife begged him to just curse God and die. With friends like that who needs enemies? Everyone wanted to blame God for what was going on in Job’s life, but what Job and his friends did not know was that Satan was responsible for some of the things going on.
Job 1:6-12
A lot of times we want to blame God for the bad things that happen, and we wonder why God puts us through such things, but we forget there is another force at work in this world; Satan. Satan’s ultimate goal is to get us to doubt and loose our trust and hope in God. Satan tried this with Job, but he could not get Job to give in. Satan wants with all his being to separate us from God. I am here today to remind you that Satan is real and active, in this world and is trying to destroy us, tempt us, and pull us away from God. Many people seem to loose their faith in God because they blame God for things that take place, but maybe God is not always to blame.
II. Responses
It seems that most people would want to respond negatively when bad things happen to them. I wonder how we would all respond if bad things happen to us? Would we respond with doubt of God? We can all know how to give a Biblical answer for why bad things happen to good people sometimes, but when the situation affects us it is a completely different situation. I believe that we can learn how we should react and respond when we are going through a tough time, or a Job like experience.
Job 1:20-22; 2:10
I love how Job responded to God when bad things started happening to him. We see that he worshipped God, and did not loose his trust or his faith in God.
a. Spiritual Growth
First, we should respond to our trials and hard times by allowing for spiritual growth. We have an option when bad things do happen to us, and the reality is we will all experience things that we so not like, we will all experience hard times. We must choose though how we will react during those times. We can either respond by loosing our faith and doubting God. Many people seem to do this. People do not understand how a loving God would allow evil to take place. The number one question that people have about God is why does he allow evil to take place? It seems to me that doubting God, and turning our backs on him is just an easy way out. We though have a second option, we can use the times when bad things happen to us and grow and mature in our faith. I love the example of how Paul responded when bad things happened to him. He had given his life to God, and was devoted to preaching the gospel. He faced a lot of persecution, when he was beaten and arrested he rejoiced that he was worthy to suffer for Jesus. He didn’t wonder why God would allow bad things to happen. The truth of the matter is no matter how much we wonder why God allows bad things to happen, the truth of the matter is bad things do happen to good people, but that does not mean there is no God. Turning away from God is not going to take away the pain that we experience. I would much rather have God with me through my tough times, than to deny Him when I need Him most. Our times of trouble and hardship can be used for spiritual growth. Through the valley we can learn a lot about God.
b. Praise of God
John Ortberg in his book the Life You’ve Always Wanted tells the story of a lady named Mabel. He met Mabel in the state run convalescent hospital. He said he would go there often, and would always leave discouraged. On Mother’s Day he went there and would hand out roses to the old ladies there. He went down the hallway and gazed into a room and saw a lady in there. She was strapped to a wheel chair, and he said her face was absolute horror. He said she had an empty stare, and he could tell she was blind. He knew that she was near deaf because of the large hearing aid over her ear. One side of her face was being eaten by cancer. There was a discolored and running sore covering part of one cheek, which had pushed her nose to one side, dropped one eye, and distorted her jaw, as a consequence she drooled constantly. He said she was the most pitiful site he had ever seen. She was so bad, that the new nurses would be sent to see Mabel because if they could handle looking at Mabel they could handle anything else. Mabel was eighty-nine years old, and had been there in the hospital for twenty five years now. He said he was reluctant to talk to her, but he went in and handed her a rose. Mabel did respond, she asked him if he could give the rose to someone else since she was blind. She did just that, she handed it to someone else, and said, “this is for you, from Jesus”. He began to get to know Mabel over the next few weeks, and they became good friends. Often they would sing together old songs, and she would comment on them. One day he asked Mabel a question, he said, “Mabel what do you think about when you lie here?” She said, “I think about my Jesus”. She went on to explain how good Jesus has been to her. Then she began to sing:
Jesus is all the world to me
My, life, my joy, my all
He is my strength from day to day
Without him I would fall
When I am sad, to him I go
No other one can cheer me so
When I am sad, He makes me glad
He’s my friend
That song in a wonderful expression of the joy that we can have in Christ and it is easy for us to sing that song and reflect on how good of a friend we do have in Jesus. It is easy for us in our comfort to sing such words and mean them. I find it amazing that a person who has nothing could sing the same song. I hope that if I was ever like Mabel, I would respond with the joy and faith that she did. She praised God for what she did have instead of dwelling on what she didn’t have. So often we want to complain, but we would go a lot further in life if we would count our blessings instead of complaining.
How will you respond to God when bad things happen to you? Bad things are going to come, hard times will come. We can rest assured that God will be with us and help us through our trials.
Conclusion:
I do not completely understand why bad things happen to good people. I don’t totally understand why some good people have to face hard times. I do not understand everything about God, but I do not have to. I wish I could give you come nice answer as to why bad things happen to good people, but I can’t. I don’t think anyone can truly tell you why. No matter why those things happen, I know that our response must be in faithfulness to God. The best thing I can say as we close is…
Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand it, all by and by
