By Marianne Mauti
Do Bad Things Happen to Good People
Recently I read an official survey that asked individuals this question, "If you could have a satisfactory answer to only one question, what would it be?" By an overwhelming margin, the number one answer was, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Many of us have faced tragedies that are difficult to mentally and emotionally grasp and felt the devastating consequences of decision made in haste, anger or ignorance. Even more difficult to understand are the heart rendering and difficult situations we at times find ourselves in, even though we strive diligently to live our lives according to Gods Word. At times we feel at a loss to fully understand why things have evolved the way they have in our lives . This overwhelming desire to know "Why", I believe, is profound proof that despite modern mans effort to remove God from every aspect of human existence, the evolutionary explanation for human life has left people feeling empty, vulnerable and unable to find validation for their life. It leaves the answer to "why" up to chance or survival of the fittest. It also leaves the soul of man yearning for a deeper response. The truth is God created us with a need for the answers to all of life's questions. He wanted us to know who He was, why we were created and why we find ourselves in the situations we do. While evolution leaves no room for the soul and spirit of a man to find answers, we can take great consolation in knowing that God, our creator, does!
What Does the Bible Have To Say?
In the Bible (Gods Holy Word to us),the book of Ecclesiastes paints for us a vivid picture of the condition of man and the scope of this earthly life. Solomon (the writer of Ecclesiastes) reminds us in the following scripture, that circumstances beyond our control will inevitably be a part of all our lives : “The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant nor recognition to the skilled; but time and circumstances meet them all.” (
The Freedom to Choose...
In order to understand "why" bad things happen we need to understand "how" bad things started to happen:
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23.
God gave us a free will, the power of choice, because love always involves a choice. The choice to love and obey him also gave man the ability to "not" love or obey Him. As a result of Adam's choice, sin entered the world. That sin severed our relationship with God and gave every man, woman and child the knowledge of evil. As a result every one of us (decendants of Adam) have the ability to do bad and awful things to ourselves and to others. There are those who find this difficult to believe and accept. If you grapple with "why" we should be held accountable for one mans choice (Adams disobedience to God), recognize that you were also released from our accountability because of one mans choice (Jesus obedience to God). Adams choice condemned us all, Jesus choice freed all who believe in Him! “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in shall not perish, but through Him should have everlasting Life” John 3:16 Because of Jesus selfless act we now have the ability to overcome the knowledge of evil by the power of Gods Spirit and choose to do what is right. But the choice still remains.
Here is the point: Affliction, suffering and sorrow do not come to "good or bad" individuals, they come as a result of mans knowledge of evil and our ability to act upon it. The choices we make and choices that others make, directly and indirectly effect each of our lives! God isn't happy about the bad choices we make especially when they hurt us or others, but God will not impose on our "free right" to make those choices. God created in man the potential to choose to do evil as well as choose to do good, but he did not make him to be or do evil, we chose that all on our own! Because man has the power of choice, God could not supersede our ability to choose and therefore live a life completely free of self inflicted suffering or tragedy, but because of the gift of His son Jesus Christ He has promised us the ability to live in His wisdom and grace and given us the divine ability to completely forgive and be forgiven!
Love Will Be Tested...
How many of us want to be married to someone who only loves us because they are programmed to do so. How many of us want parents who only love us because they have to? That might seem nice for a while but eventually we would want to know that we were loved because they chose to love us in spite of our faults, and remained faithful to us despite every trial or test of adversity. God is no different. Because He respects human independence, and wishes to have the free gift of human affection and service, he allows for our love and faithfulness toward Him to be tested. The Book of Job, is a poignant account of a mans ability to love God and remain faithful to Him even in the midst of suffering and tragedy .
Job was a pious, upright man who served and honored God. When presented by Satan with the prospect that Jobs devotion was only there because everything in his life was good, God allowed for his love and faithfulness to be tested. Job who was a prosperous man suddenly suffers (by the hand of Satan) a complete reversal of his fortune. He loses his property and his children; an awful disease afflicts his body, and sorrow begins to oppress him. Job tries to make some sense of the circumstances he is in (as we all do) and claims his innocence. He does curse the day of his birth and longs for death to bring an end to his sufferings but Job even at the request of His wife to curse God and die, does not complain against God. In response to Job's plea that he be allowed to hear from God on the cause of his suffering, He finally speaks to Job from the whirlwind. God answers, not by referring to his own omniscience and almighty power, but asking Job questions that were impossible for him to answer: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation, tell me if you understand.Who marked off it's dimension? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?" Job 38:4-5.
When Job was faced with his absolute inability to answer, he became immediately aware of the magnitude of God's responsibility to all of creation and was drawn into a deep communion with God , "Now my eyes see you" Job 42:5. Job understood his relationship with God and returned to an attitude of humility and trust, which was deepened and strengthened by the experience.
The Lord cared for Job so deeply that he revealed himself personally to him and shared with him, in a way Job could comprehend, the full weight of Gods vast and eternal commitment to man! God confesses his burden to Job which helps us to see His profound involvement in our human destiny. In the end God responds to Jobs faithfulness with divine generosity! We see Job's physical and economical restoration but this is not at all the point of the book. The point of this book was to show us that while the tests of life will challenge our confidence and faith in God, they can also reveal our love and commitment to Him.
The Lord cared for Job so deeply that he revealed himself personally to him and shared with him, in a way Job could comprehend, the full weight of Gods vast and eternal commitment to man! God confesses his burden to Job which helps us to see His profound involvement in our human destiny. In the end God responds to Jobs faithfulness with divine generosity! We see Job's physical and economical restoration but this is not at all the point of the book. The point of this book was to show us that while the tests of life will challenge our confidence and faith in God, they can also reveal our love and commitment to Him.
God Sees the Big Picture….
We cannot ever fully comprehend the depth of divine omniscience that it takes governs the world let alone the universe. The complexity of millions of lives and the issues that God must individually and corporately contemplate can barely begin to be understood except in the aknowlegment of the vastness, the depth and the awareness of God's wisdom and power! Only God knows the beginning from the end. Only He can see the whole picture. By faith we must accept and acknowledge that only He has the ability to know and do what best for us!
God is Working It Out For Your Good…..
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
The account of Joseph (Book of Genesis ) is an example of how God takes the awful situations in our life and uses them for our good. Joseph who was the favorite of His father, was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, he was then falsely accused of molesting his masters wife (because he would not dishonor his master by sleeping with his wife when she tried to coax him into it) . As a result he was thrown into prison. While in prison God gave Joseph the ability to interpret dreams and as a result God was able to use Joseph to spare his family, the entire nation of Egypt and all the Jewish people from 7 years of famine that swept over the land. Joseph was restored to a place of great authority. What was meant for Josephs destruction , God planned and purposed not only for Josephs good but for the good of all those that meant him harm. This is what he said to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20.
We may not always understand at the time we are going through something, "why" it is happening to us. But like Joseph, if we trust God with our lives, He will work everything out in the end for our good and for the good of those we love. God took the cruel death of His innocent and blameless Son Jesus Christ (the result of our choice to sin) and turned it into the very best thing that has ever happened in history of universe and used it for the good of all mankind, forever. If God can take the very worst circumstance imaginable and turn it into the very best situation possible, can he not take the negative circumstances of your life and create something good from them? He can and He will!
The account of Joseph (Book of Genesis ) is an example of how God takes the awful situations in our life and uses them for our good. Joseph who was the favorite of His father, was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, he was then falsely accused of molesting his masters wife (because he would not dishonor his master by sleeping with his wife when she tried to coax him into it) . As a result he was thrown into prison. While in prison God gave Joseph the ability to interpret dreams and as a result God was able to use Joseph to spare his family, the entire nation of Egypt and all the Jewish people from 7 years of famine that swept over the land. Joseph was restored to a place of great authority. What was meant for Josephs destruction , God planned and purposed not only for Josephs good but for the good of all those that meant him harm. This is what he said to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20.
We may not always understand at the time we are going through something, "why" it is happening to us. But like Joseph, if we trust God with our lives, He will work everything out in the end for our good and for the good of those we love. God took the cruel death of His innocent and blameless Son Jesus Christ (the result of our choice to sin) and turned it into the very best thing that has ever happened in history of universe and used it for the good of all mankind, forever. If God can take the very worst circumstance imaginable and turn it into the very best situation possible, can he not take the negative circumstances of your life and create something good from them? He can and He will!
He is Forming His Nature and Character in You…..
While God is not the cause of our suffering, He does use our suffering to teach us, to mold and shape our character and to draw others to Him through us. The apostle Paul, who suffered through beatings and stoning’s and shipwrecks and imprisonments and rejection and hunger and thirst and homelessness and far more pain that most of us will ever have to endure had this to say about his circumstances. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" 2 Corinthians 4:17. He also said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" Romans 8:18. Paul understood that the things he suffered and the experiences he endured were temporary when compared to eternity and he was willing to endure whatever was necessary in order for Gods character and nature to be revealed in and through his life!
All the world will ever come to see and understand about God will be revealed through us. Every day we face adversity we have an opportunity to show those around us how a child of the most high God responds to life. In the same way we become a reflection of our earthly parents as we are growing up,we can become a beautiful reflection of our heavenly father as we grow in Him! I have heard it said, "Life is a taskmaster and experience the teacher." What a wonderful thing it is to know that our life can be a revelation of the Master and He can use our life to teach!
God Has the Last Word...
Over the years many people have asked me, “Couldn’t God have foreseen all of this?” No doubt he did. I like to use this analogy to help put that question into perspective: Before you had children, you could foresee there was a very real possibility they may suffer disappointment or pain or heartache in life, and they might and probably would at some point hurt you or possibly walk away from you! You still had kids, didn't you? Why? Because you knew, even though there was the potential for sad and painful things to happen, there was also the potential for tremendous joy, deep love and wonderful moments together.
Because suffering is personal; it demands a personal response. God isn’t some distant, detached, and disinterested deity; He entered into our world and personally experienced our pain. Jesus is there in the lowest places of our lives. Here is a beautiful dissertation revealing Christ's familiarity to the suffering and difficulty of our life:
"Are you despised? He was despised and rejected of men. Do you cry out that you can’t take any more? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Did someone betray you? He was sold out. Are your most tender relationships broken? He loved and He was rejected. Did people turn from you? They hid their faces from Him as if He were a leper. Does He descend into all of our hells? Yes, He does." (source unknown)
From the depths of a Nazi death camp, Corrie ten Boom wrote these words: “No matter how deep our darkness, He is deeper still.” Every tear we shed becomes his tear. Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. But be courageous! I have conquered the world.” John 16:33 Through His own suffering and death, He has deprived this world of its ultimate power over you.
Suffering Does not have the Last Word, Death doesn’t have the last word!
All the world will ever come to see and understand about God will be revealed through us. Every day we face adversity we have an opportunity to show those around us how a child of the most high God responds to life. In the same way we become a reflection of our earthly parents as we are growing up,we can become a beautiful reflection of our heavenly father as we grow in Him! I have heard it said, "Life is a taskmaster and experience the teacher." What a wonderful thing it is to know that our life can be a revelation of the Master and He can use our life to teach!
God Has the Last Word...
Over the years many people have asked me, “Couldn’t God have foreseen all of this?” No doubt he did. I like to use this analogy to help put that question into perspective: Before you had children, you could foresee there was a very real possibility they may suffer disappointment or pain or heartache in life, and they might and probably would at some point hurt you or possibly walk away from you! You still had kids, didn't you? Why? Because you knew, even though there was the potential for sad and painful things to happen, there was also the potential for tremendous joy, deep love and wonderful moments together.
I Choose to Believe God Thought We Were Worth it All!
"Are you despised? He was despised and rejected of men. Do you cry out that you can’t take any more? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Did someone betray you? He was sold out. Are your most tender relationships broken? He loved and He was rejected. Did people turn from you? They hid their faces from Him as if He were a leper. Does He descend into all of our hells? Yes, He does." (source unknown)
From the depths of a Nazi death camp, Corrie ten Boom wrote these words: “No matter how deep our darkness, He is deeper still.” Every tear we shed becomes his tear. Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. But be courageous! I have conquered the world.” John 16:33 Through His own suffering and death, He has deprived this world of its ultimate power over you.
Suffering Does not have the Last Word, Death doesn’t have the last word!
God doesn’t want you to live steeped in anxiety over what life will throw at you, things that you can’t prepare for, as Solomon so aptly put it! Things HAPPEN TO ALL OF US!But we don't have to wander through life waiting for the next shoe to drop or the next tragedy to strike! We can live everyday in the promises of God, the purposes of God and the peace of God! We can choose to honor and respect his position in our life! We can trust He sees the big picture and is working everything together in our life for good! We can allow Him to use every circumstance and situation to form His character in us and we can have absolute assurance that we will live eternally with Him because God had the last word!
In Conclusion...
In Conclusion...
I want to leave you today with this beautiful account of faith and confidence in God regardless of life's ongoing struggles:
British Church leader, Charles Reid, recounting a conversation he had with a young man who greatly impacted his life: "I met a young man who had fallen down a flight of stairs as a baby and shattered his back. He had been in and out of hospitals his whole life and yet he made the astounding comment to me, that he believed that God had been fair. I asked the young man how old he was and he replied that he was seventeen. I asked him how many years he had been in the hospital and the boy replied that he had been hospitalized for at least thirteen. When he told me that I said to him in astonishment-“And you think that’s fair?” The boy’s replied: “Yes sir I do! You see, God has all eternity to make it up to me.”
British Church leader, Charles Reid, recounting a conversation he had with a young man who greatly impacted his life: "I met a young man who had fallen down a flight of stairs as a baby and shattered his back. He had been in and out of hospitals his whole life and yet he made the astounding comment to me, that he believed that God had been fair. I asked the young man how old he was and he replied that he was seventeen. I asked him how many years he had been in the hospital and the boy replied that he had been hospitalized for at least thirteen. When he told me that I said to him in astonishment-“And you think that’s fair?” The boy’s replied: “Yes sir I do! You see, God has all eternity to make it up to me.”
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FORGING YOUR FAITH
To 'Forge' something, is to mold and shape something for suitable use. We believe that our lives are constantly being shaped and molded by the hand of God for His divine purpose! This publication strives to encourage believers who are beginning this process and those who are well into it! We also believe a truly successful life is a Christ-Centered Life! We hope you will join us and become a regular reader!
Thank You and God Bless,
Marianne Mauti
Founder and CAO
'Forging Your Faith' is the online Christian publication of 'Christ the King Church' in Bellevue, Pa.
About Marianne Mauti: Marianne is a writer and blogger as well as a Pastor at "Christ the King Church" in Bellevue, Pa. She is currently the Dean and Chief Operating Officer of "Christ the King Seminary" a full time Bible Institute. For more information about us please contact us at: crowncntr@aol.com
About Marianne Mauti: Marianne is a writer and blogger as well as a Pastor at "Christ the King Church" in Bellevue, Pa. She is currently the Dean and Chief Operating Officer of "Christ the King Seminary" a full time Bible Institute. For more information about us please contact us at: crowncntr@aol.com ***********************************************************
ARTICLE RESOURCES
ARTICLE RESOURCES
* The Bible
*Dr. George R. Beninate: Is Bishop of "Christ the King Church" in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A Doctor of Theology, Biblical Apologist, conference speaker, lecturer and my spiritual father.He is also the Author of several books including,"The Age of Glory", Thank you for your relentless pursuit of truth!
*Dr. George R. Beninate: Is Bishop of "Christ the King Church" in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A Doctor of Theology, Biblical Apologist, conference speaker, lecturer and my spiritual father.He is also the Author of several books including,"The Age of Glory", Thank you for your relentless pursuit of truth!
