Why do Bad Things Happen
To Good Christians?
(May 16, 2002)

I got an email from someone sharing a series of difficult incidents, such as being financially stretched and unable to find a job, then having their car broken into and some things they need to survive stolen and not having the money to replace them. They wrote that they "have made my requests known before the throne of heeaven. I have sown seeds in terms of giving, I have done all I know how to do...... But it seems heaven is silent. I am in a dry period. I am discouraged, I am hurting. I want God to come through in my situation."

Here is a portion of my reply.. I felt that some of the priciples I shared with this individual might be helpful for others as well...

There are too many possible things that could be contributing to your situation for me to offer help/advice over the internet. I don't know which ones apply to you, but I will list a few of them.. and of course, the care and prayer startegy is different depending on the cause. I will not be able to assit you with any sort of long term pastoral care or support in your situation, you need to find someone in your area who can meet with you face to face.. usually one's pastor is the best place to start. Occasionally people end up in churches where personal pastoral care is not the pastor's strong point. In those cases, pray that God leads you to someone locally (maybe a home group leader, deacon, elder, mature and loving saint in your church whom you respect, etc) that can walk along side of you.

Possible causes can include:

• a root of unforgiveness/bitterness where you have been turned over to the devourer because of unforgiveness.. that often hits in these type of areas. The "fix" is to repent, choose to forgive and ask God to take help you truely forgive from the bottom of your heart and ask Him to take away the devourer's right of access to you.

• looking to God as the solution to your problems without a serious commitment to His lordship in your life.. commiting to obey Him because you love him and developing quality in intimacy and worship. People sometimes asusme that if they "pray the prayer" that God is obligated to keep anything bad from happening to them. That is not the case at all. He promises to work together for Good in all situations (Ro 8:28) or bring His presence/glory into them for those who love Him. Jesus explains in John 14:15 and John 15:14 that loving him means a commitment to HIs Lordship, a commitment to obeying Him and doing things His way. If you are not walking out HIs Lordship and developing intimacy with God, then you are not necessarily under His protection and there is not a guarentee that He will come thorugh for you. The solution is to commit to HIs Lordship and ask Him to teach you how to walk it out.. e.g, commit to make Him a top priority in your life, to obey Him and ask Him to teach you how to do that.

• sometimes we are under attack because of "sins of the fathers" and generational spirits.. a "bout" with depression and low self immage/esteem from gaining weight could have it's roots in a generational (or family) spirit that believes it has a right of access to you because of your family heritiage). They can also attack/harass/torment by causing some unfortunate accidents to take place at "just the wrong time".. which do some real physical damange but do even greater psychological damage. The fix for this is to have mild deliverance ministry where their right of access to you is cut off through the blood and cross of Jesus.

• sometimes it is cause/efffect.. e.g, we sow curses or critical words and we reap bad things coming back to us. If that is the case, we have inadvertently fallent into sin are are under the "as you sow, so shall you reap" principle. The fix is twofold.. 1) repent because cursing and a critical nature or wishing evil to others is a sin, confess your sin and ask God to transform you and 2) begin to sow positive things, positive words, blessings, kind acts, etc.

• Sometimes financial problems come when we rob God or do not tithe and do not make him Lord of our finances. He promises to rebuke the devourer for our sakes when we tithe (Mal 3:11). That promise is not in effect when we don't give God His firstfruits. The solution is to pray and repent for not trusting God to make the 90% go further than the 100% without His help. Then begin to tithe as an act of trusting God.

• Spiritual warfare. Sometimes when we are actively advancing God's kingdom, Satan counterattacks. He does this to distract us into our own problems so we will stop advancing God's kingdom and tearing down his. When this happens, we 1) need to make sure we are getting our directions from God and not off fighting spiritual battles that He has not called us to and 2) pray for His boldness (acts 4:29-31) and then keep on doing with God what He is doing without fear of the consequences. God will empower you and give you a boldness and a supernatural comfort (love, peace, joy) to go through whatever He puts before you.

• Sometimes God lifts His hand of protection for a season to "test" us, to show us what we are like under pressure, or to help us grow and mature in Him. Jesus told us in John 16:33 that we would have tribulation in this world, but to be of "good cheer" (e.g. don't let the circumstances get us down) because He has overcome the world. In other words, we have to live by faith, not by circumstances. Our reponse to this type of situation is to walk in faith and worship Him in the midst of our circumstances.

• Sometimes God is in the midst of giving us an incredible testamony, of showing His power and glory in our lives. He has to allow us to get into a desparate situation before He can come through with a glorious deliverance or miraculous intervension. For instance, it was a very desparate time for Moses and the children of Israel when they left Egypt and found themselves pursued by a large army that was determined to kill them.. and then they had their only route of escape cut off by the Red Sea. THey were desparate, if God did not come through for them, they would have been utterly destroyed. So they were forced to turn to God and call on Him.. and out of that He did one of His greatest ever miracles. God put them in this situation because He intended to show His glory in it, to give them a testamony.. and they had to be in a desparate place to have a testamony of God's great provision and protection.

You mentioned that you were discouraged because of all my awesome testamonies of how God comes through for me and you were not seeing that in your own life. I think you may have gotten the impression that I am protected and nothing bad ever happens to me. Well, that is not the case. Bad things happen to me just like they happen to everyone else. The difference is that I have an assureance that God will bring His glory into every situation and I can draw on His peace and comfort. Just 5 days ago, my wallet was stolen when I was at a sporting event. It had all of my credit cards, my drivers license, my medical/dental insruance cards, my minister's license, and $460 cash. (I had just been to the bank and the reason I had the wallet in my pocket was because there was too much cash in it to risk leaving it in the car where someone might break in). About 2/3 of the way through the sporting event, I noticed that my wallet was missing and spent a lot of time and effort looking for it, reporting it list, retracing my steps, etc. It was no where to be found and it was not turned in. I felt so absolutely awful that words cannot describe it. I knew that God would work His glory into the situation at some point but I knew that was not a promise that He would cause the wallet to be returned to me. I prayed ferverently for HIm to return it to me, but He choose to say No to that prayer. I was able to get all of the credit cards cancelled before anyone charged anything on them, but it is certainly inconveient not having any cards for the 10 days until the replacements arrive. I had to miss a day of work to get a temporary license, etc. It was really inconvenient and of course, $460 is a lot of money to loose.

I was rather unsettled and anxious the first 3 or 4 hours after I lost the wallet, but as I began to turn my eyes to the Lord, He began to comfort me. Yes, He does sometimes allow bad things to happen to His children even when they are in the center of His will and actively obeying Him. I found that I could turn my eyes off of the problem and look to Him and worship Him. I don't have any great testimony right now of how He worked His glory in this situation.. maybe I will have one several monthes from now. But I have a supernatual peace that things will work out and I have a confidence that God is with me. The fact that I am in His peace instead of upset and anxious is a testimony in and of itself.. a long time ago I would have been very upset and unsettled for weeks because of this, but I was only unsettled a few hours because of His supernatural peace that passes all understanding. I am sharing this testimony with you so that you understand that no one is protected from anything bad ever happening to them.. but that God works in all situations to bring His glory, over time, as we trust Him, providing we are in intimate relationship with Him and commited to obey Him and walk out His lordship in our day to day lives.

I encourage you to find someone local who knows/loves you to walk along side of you in your situation. You might want to look over this list of possible causes (and related strategies) and see which ones apply to your sitation.