Gives and Takes Away Pt. 2

We have all experienced ourselves or seen someone else experience things that are terrible. We say God "allowed that to happen." In a sense yes He does "allow things to happen," but it is the same as how He allowed Adam and Eve to sin in the first place. This sin brought death to mankind (Genesis 2:17), just like actions today can bring sin and death to people. Thank God Jesus completely redeemed us from sin and death (Isaiah 53:5-6, 1 Peter 2:24, Matthew 26:28, Romans 3:25, Ephesians 1:7, Revelation 1:5). We can still choose sin and death however, and so can others around us.

I believe God allows us all to have a choice in our lives, and sometimes another person or group of people's choices affect our lives. When we choose "sin and death" we reap that in our lives. When others choose "sin and death (example - the way our food is sometimes handled before we eat it)" it affects our lives as well. All of a sudden we are fighting off something that we didn't choose.

Just because something happens, does not mean it is God's will. God's will is revealed in scripture. He is the Giver of good gifts. He says that even humans know how to give good gifts, how much more will your Father in heaven know how (Matthew 7:11). He is saying if you can be a good parent, He can too, and more. A good parent would not take away something that is good for the child (unless possibly this "good thing" has become a "bad thing" because of the place the person has given it in their lives, then God could take this "good thing" away because it has become more important than it should. Then He might even give it back after a while). But to say God's will is that someone is in poverty, sick, unsaved or gone to heaven because of an accident is to thwart the entire purpose of prayer.

The only way we can expect any kind of answers in prayer is to know it is God's will to answer. If we think God sometimes teaches us things by "allowing" us to stay sick or by keeping sickness on us, then we could never be sure its God's will to heal in any situation. We could never pray with any certainty for someone to be healed. We could never have faith for healing.

If we believe it was God's timing when some tragic accident happens, then how could we ever pray for protection for anyone? We couldn't because we would never know if God actually wanted to protect us. The reason its so tragic when someone dies from an accident is because they had more life left. They do go to be with the Lord which is awesome, but its too bad they had to go so soon.

Why do these things happen to believers? I don't know. I don't have those answers. I do know that the Bible says that if we pray God will heal (Matthew 8:17, Isaiah 53:4-5, Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Peter 2:24, Psalms 103:3, Matthew 9:5, Matthew 13:15, James 5:14-15, 2 Corinthians 4:11 ), and that He is our Protector (1 Peter 5:6-7, Romans 8:28, Matthew 10:29-30, Ephesians 6:11-13, Psalm 27:1-3, Psalm 55:22, Psalm 62:5-8, John 10:27-29, 1 Corinthians 10:12-13). We cannot let experiences dictate truth, but instead let the Word of God tell us what is true. When the two contradict each other we hold fast to the Word of God and expect our experiences to begin rising to the level of our faith. If I'm going to go down, I'm going down swinging.

In closing, I do not know the reasons why bad things happen to good people. I do know however that God is good. He does not do bad things. To give Him credit for bad things is wrong. God is good (Psalm 100:5, 119:68, Matthew 10:19, John 10:11, 1 Peter 2:3), and that cannot be negotiated with me. If that is lost, Christianity is worthless. Since God is good, He is not doing bad things to people. He is the Redeemer, Saviour, Healer, Provider, Peace, Guide, and Victory. The devil is the one who steals, kills, and destroys (John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8, Luke 8:12). We need to fight against the devil's schemes. To do this we must believe God is not behind these acts (If we believe He is behind these things we might think we are fighting God). We need to know that God is always good and gives only good gifts, and is not the one stealing, killing, or destroying. We need to pray that God's will is done on earth as it is in Heaven, and have confidence/faith it is His will for this to happen.