Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Bitterness.

Bitterness is what I felt about my childhood. For a long time I asked God why? Why did I have to go through that? Why did I have unnecessary suffering? Not only did I have to survive the suffering, but I had to deal with the aftermath of healing it too? How is it fair that I have to heal something I couldn’t control?

This is a prayer I prayed to God.

For a long time I wondered why God would have allowed that to happen to me. If God is all knowing, and he knows the plan for our life why wouldn’t he have prevented the abuse? This was an answer I couldn’t find. I was left bitter, searching for answers and for myself in the world.

My pain was guiding me, and making my decisions.

When I first started growing my relationship with God, I still didn’t have an answer to this. I know that’s not what you want to hear, because it wasn’t what I wanted to hear either.

But my first answer to this is “let go”.

Let go of the hurt. Let go of the control that you think you have on your life. Let go of the story that you keep telling yourself. You just have to let it all go.

You see the devil wants you to hold onto your hurt and pain, because if you were able to let it go you would become who God meant you to be all along.

It won’t be easy. When you have been so focused on your hurt, and have let the pain guide you. You are going to feel lost and confused when you let it go. It’s like losing an identity. I based my whole identity on my hurt. I didn’t know who I was without it. I was the girl that had social anxiety, and no one could understand why I was this way because they didn’t understand my childhood. This was the story I told myself every day. It kept me isolated from people, but also isolated from my purpose and God.

I had to surrender.

Now to answer the questions why bad things happen to good people. You have to understand that the world is unfair, but God is not. God created us with free will. We all have the ability to follow him or not to follow him. This led to the rebellion of Eve in the garden. Giving us the knowledge of good and evil.

Sin is something that has been evident since the beginning of creation. Unfortunately, sin doesn’t just affect the person doing it. It effects the people around them spouses, children etc. If something bad has happened to you in your life that was completely unwarranted. It most likely happened at the hands of someone else. Humankind invited sin into the world when Eve chose to rebel against God. But even if Eve hadn’t been deceived by Satan, someone else along the line would have because of our free will. Satan is the ruler of the world and because of this, bad things will happen.

You also have to understand that following Christ does not mean a trial free life. Infact it’s quite the opposite. Since you are not like the world you will face many trials. But God promises to give us peace despite these trials. He has overcome the world and everything in it.

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! I have overcome the world.”

You might be lost in the world like I was, fighting to desperately keep yourself afloat. Nothing I was doing seemed right. I was fighting so hard for “control” when in the end I never really had control.

Matthew 16:25 “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

When I surrendered to God and let go of the life I was trying to cling onto. That is when I truly felt peace. I no longer identified with the trauma I endured. But I had to make a conscious choice to let it go and forgive. Not just once, but over and over again. When you let go of your hurt, of course it will still creep back up from time to time. But you have the ability to choose to forgive again. Forgiveness isn’t just for the other person, it’s for you. So you can let go of the bitterness and move into the plan and life that God has for you.

This is just my story with something that I saw as “unfair”. You have to forgive unfair. The world isn’t fair but God is, and he will give you peace. Whatever it is that you’re struggling to let go of. Just know that God will catch you. The pain that you don’t want to let go of, is the forgiveness that will change your life.

Put your sword down and stop trying to fight this battle on your own. God never intended for us to do it alone.

Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”