Beauty For Ashes: Why Do Bad Things Happen?

     Lately, I have been thinking about why bad things happen. I could throw a bunch of scripture at you, and tell you to just trust God, but when does that ever work? I want to share with you some things that I have been learning lately. First, let's start in Jeremiah chapter 29. Many of us have heard verse 11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." but I also want to add in verses 12-14 here " Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." These verses were part of a letter to those who were in captivity in Babylon. It was written by Jeremiah, but the words are from God Himself. God allowed His people to be carried into exile, into Babylon, because they wouldn't listen to Him and turn from their wicked ways and follow Him. But, if you read further in the book of Jeremiah, God says multiple times that He will punish the people who have treated His people wrong.

     Ok, so I know what you are thinking. How can a loving God allow His people to be hurt. I guess I could sum up why God allows bad things to happen by these two words, free will. God wanted someone who would love Him, and who He could love.But forcing someone to love you, isn't true love is it? For us to truly love God, we have to do it of our own free will, otherwise we would just be robots being programmed to do our makers bidding. God wanted true love, so He gave us free will. The down side to free will, is that we can also choose to not love God, and to sin. Giving us free will allowed evil into the world. And it allows us to choose to sin. Sometimes bad things are a consequence of our sins, and sometimes it's just satan and his fallen angels trying to get us to turn from God, or just trying to discourage us. Either way, it happens, and it hurts, but God has promised that He will bring something good out of everything. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 I have known this verse for may years, and have it memorized, but I never really paid attention to verse 29. "For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." When I read this verse, while preparing for this post, it's like a light clicked on in my head. To me, this is saying that, the good that God promises is making us more like Jesus.

     Jesus says in John 16:33 "I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart for I have overcome the world." So there is no denying that our lives will have troubling times. I have heard it said, by many people, that we are always in one of three places, We are either smack dab in the middle of a trial, just coming out of a trial, or about to go into a trial. And I believe it. Sometimes it seems that I don't get even a few moments break before something else happens. The other day, a friend reminded me of Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts." I realized that, even though I may not have any idea what's going on, or why things are happening, God knows and has it all under control. Sometimes we can see the beauty for ashes(Isaiah 61:3), the good out of the bad, and sometimes we won't know until we get to heaven what that good is.

     We have established that we will have troubling times, and that God has promised to bring good from those times, but God has also promised to be there for us during those troubling times.  "What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all-how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31-32 God has promised to give us all things. Things that we need, like food and clothing, but also things like peace and comfort. We can know that, no matter what, we can go to God in our suffering and He will comfort us. Psalm 147:3 says " He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds." You can also find comfort in Isaiah 61:3 "And provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." God promises to give us beauty, gladness, and praise instead of ashes, mourning, and despair. That is really great news.

     I told a friend the other day, that I am beginning to realize what James means when he says in James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." I think this means that, through the trials of life, God is molding and making us to be more like Him. He is developing our courage, strength, compassion, our prayer life, and so many more things. We can be thankful for these trials, because they are making us more like Him.

     Now I'm not saying that I jump for joy when trials and bad things come. I have not quite gotten there yet, I probably won't ever get there completely. But I am slowing realizing that I don't have to freak out every time something "bad" happens. Psalm 46:10 says "Be still and know that I am God." The devotional book Unblinded Faith by Elisa Pulliam sums this up well. "Choosing to be still before God is about refusing to fuss when life spins out of control." We can know that God has everything under control, that God is for us, and that He is there for us. We can choose to refuse to fuss, and just be still.

     I love watching movies and often you will find me quoting them. One of my favorites is Finding Nemo. A really great quote from that movie, that I find fits this topic well, is "Marlin: I promised I'd never let anything happen to him. Dory: Well, you can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him." If we didn't have storms and trials in our lives, we wouldn't grow to become more like Jesus. We also wouldn't have a reason to turn to God. Just like the Israelites in captivity, we can turn to God during our trials, and come home having a closer relationship with Him. I know that I have grown closer to God these past few years, in my many trials. And I am very thankful for that.

     I hope and pray that this post has blessed you and made you think. I encourage you to look up the scriptures that I have used, read them and the surrounding verses, maybe even the whole chapter. Dig deep into God's Word and see what He is saying to you. Read different versions, dig our your Bible dictionary and/or commentary. Seek God and you will find Him. Have a blessed day. Lots of love      -Patricia Pate-