Then, as we think more, we begin to question our actions.
We wonder what we could've done differently. We ask, "what if I had chosen
to talk with this person in a different way?" What if I had noticed the
warning signs?" What if I would have cared about this person more?"
In the end, we are kind of looking for someone to blame.
Most of the time we don't want to blame ourselves, we want to blame God. That's
when we ask, "why did God let this happen?"
One answer is that we have free will to choose what we
do. Some people make choices that impact others in some ways that are not good.
But, there is another answer. Sometimes God let's things happen because he is
either testing us or it is a part of his plan. You may be thinking, "why
would God let a bad thing like that happen in his plan?" Let's think about
some examples of people's lives that didn't go perfect.
Joseph was his father's favorite. Then his brothers sold
him into slavery. Joseph worked hard, was wrongly accused, and thrown into
prison. God could have saved Joseph from the pit and prison. It seemed like
Joseph did no wrong and he was beat up at almost every turn. God let Joseph
become a slave so he would be in Egypt for the famine. God was testing Joseph
in prison to see if Joseph would rely on God or give up. Joseph passed the test
and became a great leader in Egypt who saved many lives from death, including
his own family.
Moses had a speech impairment and he killed a man. He
chose to kill the man of his own free will, thus God could not stop him,
because God gave us free will. I'm sure God could have stopped him in some
other way but he didn't. The speech impairment happened so that Moses would
know he could do nothing without God. Moses killed the man and ran to the
wilderness where he became a follower of God. The he led his people to freedom
away from Egypt.
Jesus was mocked, beaten, falsely accused, and so much
more. God let these things happen to his own son. These things happened to
fulfill scripture and to save us. Jesus died on the cross. He could have saved
himself. He could have let us die. But, he loves us so much that he died so we
could be with him. This happened for good.
Look back at your life. Your life probably wasn't
perfect. Can you look back at your life and see some of the problems happened
for a reason. I know that I have grown so much because of the problems I had. I
know I have met people I would not have met if I did not have certain things
happen in my life.
Yes, these problems hurt. I've lost friends; I've lost
family members, lost jobs, messed up, hurt people, etc. But, I have found that
I grow more because of these things. It's like if you mess up on a test and you
see how you messed up you remember it better. When we make mistakes we learn.
We also see that things happened in our lives because God was leading us to
something greater. Just look at the 3 examples from the Bible.
So, do you focus on problems too much, or blame God for
your problems? Do you realize that everything happens for a reason? I encourage
you to look back at your life and see where your problems led you. Then thank
God for what he's done in your life. Thank him for what he's doing to do in
your life and grow in him.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
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