Question: Why does God allow tragedies to happen to us? Why doesn’t a loving God prevent bad things from happening to good people?
Answer: The Bible definitely proves to us that God can do anything that He pleases! He created Adam and Eve and pronounced all that He created was good. In the Garden of Eden, the leaders of this first family rebelled against God, and our world has suffered from the curse of evil ever since (Genesis 3:17-19). On the earth today, there will be evil and the tragedy that results because people choose to make their own rules rather than follow God. The scriptures show that He promises that one day to make all things right again, as they were when He created the world:
God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain… John in Revelation 21:4
God could stop all bad things from happening in our lives, but living a life in Paradise is not His plan for us – yet. Experiencing sadness and pain is what causes many of us to turn to God and realize how much we need Him. God is a model parent in that He allows us to suffer for a while so that we will learn to appreciate the peace that only He offers. In this way, He is molding us into the people He wants us to be when we arrive in heaven someday.
We have human fathers who corrected us, and we knew it was for our own good. Shouldn’t we respect God even more who is our Father in heaven? This is for our good…it seems painful now, but we will be so glad when we see how much peace we will have in the future because of it. Paul in Hebrews 12:9-11
In the historical record of the scriptures, we read that God inspired the Apostle Paul to explain that God is truly “working all things for our good when we are called by Him for His purposes.” (Romans 8:28) This is proof that not all things will seem good now, and we’ll wonder why these troubling things have happened. Through the eternal truth of His Word, the Bible, God wants to comfort us and assure us that He will use even sad occurrences to help us in some way, preparing us for the future we will spend with Him.
Ask God to bring to your mind a time in your life when He used something sad, even tragic and earth-shaking, for good in your life. God wants to reveal to you how is already working in your life right now! Just ask.
