Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?

If God is All-Powerful and All-Loving why does He Let Bad Things Happen?

Have you ever thought about God? What I mean is, have you ever thought about all of the horrible, awful things that happen in the world and in our own lives personally and think, If God claims to be All-Powerful and All-Loving, WHY does He allow so many bad things to happen to us?

This question came up in a conversation recently and it really got me thinking. Can God be All-Powerful and still be All-Loving at the same time? And what does this question really mean?

If God is LOVE why or why does He allow all of this hurt and pain to occur?

As a woman of faith, I would venture to say that nearly every person who has some degree of belief in God, struggles with this question at one time or another. And as we know, we all go through painful experiences in life. There are no exceptions. Every human being inevitably will have some deeply hurtful, painful times in their life.

A scripture verse comes to mind: Matthew 5:45(b).

“He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous.”

— Matthew 5:45

I take that verse to mean that each and every one of us, whether we are followers of Christ or not, some rain must fall. But why? That question remains.

Let us begin by looking at a few of the challenges we mere mortals face. From natural disasters to abuse and suffering.

Natural Disasters

The reality is that we do live in a broken world. And there are many things that occur in nature that are devastating. Fires, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. We have no control over any of that. But God does. So why does he allow those things to destroy people and property?

The answer to that is simple, I don’t know. Not the answer you were hoping for, I imagine. While I may not know the answer to that, what I do know is that God sees the bigger picture of not just our lives but our existence as mankind and this planet as a whole.

With that in mind, it brings me to a few more questions:

• Does God orchestrate these things to happen or
• Does He simply allow His created world to operate by running through the cycle of natural laws?

My first thought is to look back through geological history, we can see how the different eras came to be and how they morphed into the succeeding era. You may remember some of this from science class in middle school.

The Eras

From what I can recall, there were the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic eras. Most of this is totally beyond my realm, so I won’t go into much more detail here, but my point is simply that the world that we know has historically gone through various geological changes.

Just because we humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years (or more), doesn’t mean the world is going to stop changing simply because we are here.

My perspective of natural disasters and such is that they are indeed the result of the natural laws and forces at work here. But does He cause some of them? Well, back in Noah’s day He did. Does He still do that today, I don’t know.

But the fact remains, if He is All-Powerful, surely He could stop or prevent any of these disasters to happen. Right? I mean He created the world and the laws of nature. So why doesn’t He stop them? Again…I don’t know. But I do know He sees the bigger picture. One we cannot yet see.

For many people that may not be a good enough answer, but it is for me. At least for now.

Abuses & Sufferings

Okay, okay…maybe we can let the Natural Disaster thing go, but what about Abuses and Sufferings of all kinds?

This is a topic that hits all of us pretty hard. Right to our hearts. Many of you reading right now, have suffered abuse of some kind and it has been a devastating incident in your life. Some of you have suffered other painful experiences due to broken relationships, financial ruin, bullying, illnesses, tragedies or death.

It is hard for us to understand why a God who is All-Loving would allow those things to happen. We also often wonder where God is during our times of trouble. If you read scripture, you know God proclaims that He will never leave us or forsake us.

It’s difficult for us at times to fully grasp that and believe it to be true. That He would never leave us. Having been through some difficulties in my childhood, young adult life, and even very recently, I can tell you I have at various times wondered, Why? Why would a God who loves me let these things happen? And where is HE?

My Journey

When I was young and going through some tough stuff, I walked away from God. I didn’t want any part of Him, not if He was the kind of person who could just stand by while I was in pain.

It took many years for me to come back around to even consider a relationship with Him again. In fact, I didn’t pursue Him, He pursued me. (Maybe I’ll share more on that another time.)

So What Changed?

One thing that opened up my heart towards God, was my experience becoming a parent. It has allowed me to able to see certain things about God in a different way. For example, as parents, we don’t want our kids to be hurt. We don’t want them to fall down and scrape their knees while learning to ride a bike, for example.

But at the same time, we know we can’t do everything for them or rescue them from every sign of trouble. If we did, they would never learn to do anything for themselves. They wouldn’t learn resiliency. If we never let them fall down or fail at something, they would never learn to stand on their own two feet.

While I didn’t want to see my children get picked on at school, I knew if I jumped in and yelled at the other child, it wouldn’t have allowed my children to find their own voices and learn to stand up for themselves, for example.

Source of Our Troubles

I sometimes picture God like the parent who lets us go through difficult stuff to help us grow and mature. Think about it, if we never had any difficulties in life, we would be entitled spoiled brats. Never being able to appreciate the good, if we have never experienced the bad.

Please hear me when I say this. I am not minimizing your pain or suffering. I get it. I have felt it deeply myself. But I have come to learn a couple of things about suffering.

• God is right there with me, weeping when I weep. Just as a parent weeps for and with their child who is hurting.
• He is always close to me, holding me and helping me to put one foot in front of the other when I think I can’t go on. Encouraging me.
• God can use even the most horrible experiences to bring about some good. (Getting Through Tough Times & How to Find the Good) Often times our greatest growth comes as a result of our struggle.

While I may not understand or agree with the circumstances He allows, I do know that as human beings we were created with free will.

Apart from natural disasters, some of the sufferings we go through may be caused by our own bad decisions or the decisions of others.

For example: Someone may end up with a drinking problem after not resisting the temptation to consume one too many. This bad decision then causes all kinds of problems in their life. Losing their job, their family, etc. Hurting themselves and those around them.

Another example: Someone decides the traffic is going to slow on the interstate and they speed up and swerve and end up hitting another person’s car. People and property are hurt or destroyed because of this person’s bad decision. A ripple effect.

Human Nature

Similarly to the laws of nature, we experience the laws of human nature. Our natural tendencies are to be selfish and self-serving. Often times it leads us or others down the wrong path.

Could God stop us from doing so? Of course. But He doesn’t typically interfere in our free will, but as scripture says, He always gives us a way out of our temptations for wrongdoing, but often times we don’t take it. Is this God’s fault?

¹³ No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be temptation beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

Okay, Okay. But what about God’s Love?

Is God is All-Loving?

The question remains, how can we know God is All-Loving? For me, I know this for a couple of reasons. I believe His words in the bible. Words like,

• Romans 5:8 God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
• Romans 8:37-39  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

But even more than those precious words are the ways in which God has intervened in my life. When he has carried me further than I thought I could go. When He has given me strength when I thought I had none left. When He has healed hurts and wounds when nothing or no one else could.

The Holy Spirit can minister to us in such a way that we would have no other option than to know it is God pouring out His love. Giving comfort and assurance saying that no matter what, “I got you.”

I don’t pretend to understand all the ways of God. But I do know the real indescribable presence of God in my life is proof enough for me.

Conclusion

With all of that being said, questions still remain: Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen? The answer isn’t as crystal clear as we’d like, but the points we referenced above break it down into more tangible ways to understand His perspective.

While you may struggle to reconcile all of that within yourself, it doesn’t change who He is. He is All-Powerful and All-Loving all at the same time. What we believe about Him doesn’t change that, it changes us.

If you can get to a place of trust, knowing that, “all things work together for good to them that love God,” and that God is right there with you in the midst of it all, you will find peace and understanding.

~Blessings to You!

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