Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

It seems like if you are a good person, good things should happen to you. It only makes sense, right? Why would God allow bad things to happen to good people, people who strive to do right and live by his commandments?

Well the short answer to that last question is we all sin, we all fall short, we all do not perfectly execute the Ten Commandments. So on some measure, we deserve to be punished. But there are good people, who care about others, who try not to lie or steal. Even people who live for God and seek every day to glorify God, why do bad things happen to them?

The answer I have to this question is a simple one but it requires faith. First, faith that God is looking out for you if you are following his will for your life. Next, faith that there is a heaven.

If you have faith that God is looking out for you, that he has a plan for your life then you will be able to see the reasons for the bad things that happen. There is almost no way for you to recognize these at first, but down the road as you reflect you will see how God orchestrated those bad things to teach you or help you in someway, or maybe it was to direct your path in a different way that would help you end up better than where you were going. Bad things are unfortunate, but if you know God has a reason for it happening then you can have comfort in the fact that you are in his hands and it will all work out.

The fact of life is, life is not even a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. Eternity is infinite, it never ends. This life is imperfect because of sin, our sin and the sins of others. Bad things happen to us even if we are as good as we can be. In heaven life is perfect, there is harmony among everyone, and all the temptation of life is gone. So heaven is the place where good things happen to good people, not here on Earth, in the world we live in.

Bad things happen to everyone. When bad things happen to bad people it seems justified, but not when they happen to good people. But the fact is we all sin and all fall short of deserving to have only good things happen to us. It is important to know that God is in control of our lives and by entrusting your life to him you can have comfort and peace of mind that everything will work out for the best.

JB