“You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth.”
Psalms 71:20 NLT
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Tag Archives: bad things
Why Bad Things Happen to Good People
I’m traveling today so I am reposting one of my previous posts that’s relevant today.
In my yard I have several crape myrtle trees. Every year I watch around town for when I’m supposed to prune them. It’s usually in the winter just before spring. When it’s time, I take my clippers and start cutting back on them. If there are dead branches, I cut them off at the tree. For all the others, I trim back to a few inches from where they split off. When the spring time comes, they blossom and bloom even more than the year before.
In John 15, Jesus said that God does the same to us. He said that the branches that don’t produce fruit are cut off and thrown away. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that the fruit we are to produce in our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. When I read that, I began to think about the fruit in my life. Am I producing that fruit? How much of it am I producing? What do I need to do to produce it?
In the same passage in John, Jesus says that everyone who does produce fruit is then pruned so that they will produce more fruit. Ouch. So even if I am producing fruit, I am going to be pruned. Jesus wants us to produce more fruit all the time. He recognizes that the only way to produce more is to provide an opportunity for growth. That’s what pruning does. It trims us back so we can have a greater opportunity for growth.
Most of us don’t like or want to be pruned. When it happens, we ask God why are bad things happening to me when I’m doing everything right. We’ve all heard the question asked “Why do bad things happen to good people”. Well it happens to give you an opportunity to grow. If things aren’t happening in your life that are pruning you, that’s when you should be concerned.
If you aren’t being pruned throughout the seasons of your life, you need to find a way to start producing fruit. You need to take a hard look at your life and see what fruit you are producing. Chances are, it’s not the fruit listed above. If it were, you be getting pruned so that you would produce more. We all produce fruit in our lives. Our actions produce results. Our results show God, others and ourselves what’s important to us. There is a law of sowing and reaping.
If you sow time I to other’s lives, you will reap love. If you sow forgiveness, you will reap joy. If you sow understanding, you will reap peace. On the other hand if you sow selfishness, you will reap loneliness. If you sow bitterness, you will reap hate. What you do matters and will come back as fruit in your life. God wants us to produce good fruit in our lives so that others will be able to see Him through us.
God recognizes and knows that to produce more of the good fruit in your life, He will have to prune you. Yes, even if you ate a good producer, He knows that you can always produce more. Without pruning, we can only produce so much of each fruit. When He does prune us, He creates more opportunity to produce than ever before.
So why do bad things happen to good people? To give them the opportunity to grow and to produce more than ever before. If you are being pruned right now, stop and thank God instead of questioning Him. It means that He thinks you are producing good fruit and He has bigger plans for you. Trust in Him and in His plan for you. Handle the pruning with grace and look forward to the next time of harvest in your life.
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Quit Blaming God
September 11, 2001, was a day that no one who was alive will forget. Since it happened, people have placed blamed on the hijackers, the government, Muslims, George W. Bush and God for the attacks. No matter who you believe was behind it, there is evil in this world and it seeks to destroy. On that day it destroyed lives, buildings, families, people’s sense of security, health, hope and trust.
In John 10:10, Jesus said that it is the enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy. It bothers me when people place the blame on God when bad things happen. That is not who God is. In the same sentence, Jesus said that His purpose is to give a rich and satisfying life. He does not cause bad things to happen to you. James 1:17 tells us that whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father.
Why is it that we blame the bad things on God, but not the good things? Somehow we think that we are responsible for anything good that happens in our lives without the help of God, yet we are not responsible for bad things that happen. The Bible is full of scriptures that show consequences for actions: honor your father and mother so that your days may be long (Exodus 20:12), a man who is diligent in his work will stand before kings (Proverbs 22:29), if you are faithful with the small things, God will make you faithful over many (Luke 16:10) and if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains (Luke 17:6).
Too often we associate God as someone in the sky who is waiting for us to mess up so He can crush us. Yes, just like there are consequences for good actions, there are consequences for going against what He says too. The difference in what the reality of who He is and who we think He is in those times is that He doesn’t want us to stay in those consequences. He always provides a way of forgiveness no matter how bad the sin. He doesn’t want to leave us there so He has provided a way out. II Chronicles 7:14 says that if we will humble ourselves, pray and turn from our wrong doing, He will hear from Heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.
God has no desire to leave you in sin or to destroy your life. He wants you to live freely in Him, overcome evil and to walk in forgiveness. Your life matters to Him. When evil seeks to destroy you, your life, your home, your business or your relationships know that you can run to God for help. He is a strong refuge (Nahum 1:7). He is help in time of need (Psalm 46:1). He raises a standard when the enemy comes in like a flood (Isaiah 59:19). He fights for you (Exodus 14:14). No weapon that is formed against you will prosper (Isaiah 54:17). If He is for you, who can be against you (Romans 8:31)?
If you are under attack today, proclaim those promises that God has given you in scripture. I’m not telling you these things out of faith. I’m one who has lived those promises and has seen God do it in my life. I know His Word is true and He can be trusted. I have seen Him be my refuge and fight for me when I didn’t have the strength to. I’ve had the enemy come in like a flood and try to destroy everything. When that happened, I cried out to God who lifted up a standard and held back the waters before they consumed me too. If He did it for me, He’ll do it for you. Ask Him and trust Him with your life.
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Devotions by Chris Hendrix 