Why Do Bad Things
Happen To Christians?
Does being a Christian mean nothing bad will ever happen to you or your family in your life time? No, not at all! The problem with most of the bad things that happen to us we often want to blame God. Yet, 90% of the bad things that will happen in your lifetime are either caused by Satan, who hates you and wants to destroy you, by nature and chance, or by your own decisions or actions. (For example, you go and get drunk, drive your car a 100 mph and have a wreck. Yelp, that’s God fault alright!)
Again, most of the time, we just blame God. The other 10% may be God chastening you trying to get your attention and get your life back on course. Just like a parent disciplines their children to correct their behavior, your Heavenly Father will on occasion correct you to your life back on the path that it should be on. This happened to me last year! It worked and now I am focused on the things that I should be focused on.
First of all, Satan and his fallen angels and demons, hate you because you are redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb. They hate God and they hate you. PERIOD! Satan is never your friend and he never has any good thing to give you. They love to cause problems in your life because they love for you to blame God. There is nothing they want more than for you to curse God for something that has happened to you or your family. They will take every opportunity you give them to help you make bad decisions.
One of the most famous books in the Bible on this topic is Job. The importance of the story of Job is that it clearly shows how Satan and his army are always trying to do bad things to followers of God. It also shows how those who love God are often shielded and protected from harm (please see Bible text below story). Job loses everything, yet refuses to curse God.
A True Story
My grandma Tackett had eight of her children die at the age of two or less. EIGHT!!!! To me, the most tragic event that we have to deal with in life is children who are sick or dying. Talk about someone who seemed to have a right to curse God. Talk about someone who had the right to give up on God, children, and life. – Wow! – However, she never cursed God. Instead, she prayed and believed in His love for her and His divine will for her life. One of her children named Ruby Lee, put her toys up one night, came and sat on my grandma’s lap and told her that she won’t need her toys anymore that Jesus was coming to take her to Heaven to see her brother (Clifford, who have previously died). Ruby Lee died that night. Grandma would go on to have six children who lived. They would make up my mom and my aunts and uncles on the Tackett side of the family.
Then a voice was heard in my
grandma’s living room. The voice said “Hattie, you have suffered enough. From
this day forward, you will be blessed!” My mom and aunt still tell the story of
that night and hearing the voice. From that time on, God’s miracles and
blessings followed her. My mom and my aunt both got sick and Hattie, was told
they would die. They prayed that evening. The next morning the doctors told her
they had somehow completely recovered.
Other miracles would follow. One of the most awesome miracles was when her water supplied dried up during a Texas drought. Grandma took all of her children to the pond and prayed. The next day the pond was full. Let me say that again, the next day the pond was full. No rain, no explanation just a miracle of answered prayer from our Awesome Heavenly Father.
“Great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,
in the mountain of His holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
earth, is mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”
Psalms 48: 2-3
All of her six surviving children have lived long lives. Grandma lived until she was 83. Her husband lived until he was almost 90.
Book of Job
Here are the verses from Job, Chapter 1: 6-22
Now on a certain day when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them. And the Lord said to him: Whence comest thou? And he answered and said: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it. And the Lord said to him: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a simple and upright man, and fearing God, and avoiding evil? And Satan answering, said: Doth Job fear God in vain? Hast not thou made a fence for him, and his house, and all his substance round about, blessed the works of his hands, and his possession hath increased on the earth?
But stretch forth thy hand a little, and touch all that he hath, and see if he blesseth thee not to thy face. Then the Lord said to Satan: Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand: only put not forth thy hand upon his person. And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Now upon a certain day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, There came a messenger to Job, and said: The oxen were ploughing, and the asses feeding beside them, And the Sabeans rushed in, and took all away, and slew the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell thee.
And while he was yet speaking, another came, and said: The fire of God fell from heaven, and striking the sheep and the servants, hath consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell thee. And while he also was yet speaking, there came another, and said: The Chaldeans made three troops, and have fallen upon the camels, and taken them, moreover they have slain the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell thee. He was yet speaking, and behold another came in, and said: Thy sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their elder brother: A violent wind came on a sudden from the side of the desert, and shook the four corners of the house, and it fell upon thy children and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to fell thee. Then Job rose up, and rent his garments, and having shaven his head fell down upon the ground and worshipped,
And said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord. In all these things Job sinned not by his lips, nor spoke he any foolish thing against God.