Bad Things Happen to Good People
gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness “
Exodus 34:6b
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just buy something simple and everything would be okay? The trouble is that too many times we treat God like a genie or a magic wand. We think that if we have God in our pocket and we do good nothing bad will happen. Too many times when bad things happen we think that something is wrong and even question what we might have done wrong. This is one of the great misconceptions about our faith. The misconception that if we believe in God and trust in His love through Jesus Christ that nothing bad will ever happen to us leaves us in a bad place when bad things do happen. This misconception leads us to be disillusioned and disheartened when bad things do happen, and even leads us to question what we must have done wrong or possibly even the existence of God at all.
Too many times this comes from our own simple
statements like, “God is good.” We think that if God is good and we are good, nothing bad will happen. The truth is that this statement should read, “God is love.” This is the witness that scripture tells us. In fact the word in Hebrew often translated as “steadfast love” appears 247 times. The trouble is that true love involves free will. If people have free will, bad things can happen to you even if you are a perfect person. What makes our God good is the steadfast love God shows us even in the midst of whatever trouble comes our way. This week we will look at the steadfast love of God so we can remind ourselves that although bad things may come we have the steadfast love of God.
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