One of the most frequent questions we hear as Christians is “Why do bad things happen to good people?” In this world we see evidence of bad things happening to good people all the time. As a result, many people, both Christian and non-Christian, blame God and push themselves away from Him. But please hear this: God is not to blame! We have to stop blaming God for sickness, disease and suffering. We have to stop making up excuses for why we don’t see Him in our lives, because God is not the author of sickness and destruction. It is not in His character or in His nature.
The truth is we live in a fallen world of sin and conflict. The enemy is continually fighting and contending for us. That old nature of “self” is constantly rising up in us. Bad stuff happens. Accidents happen. People hurt and abuse each other and themselves, knowingly and unknowingly. That is a hard, cold fact of life.
The other truth is that God, in His infinite wisdom, has given every human being free will, each and every one of us. We are all affected by our own and other’s bad choices whether it be in words or actions. All of us can look at our own lives and see that other’s words and actions have hurt us and that our words and actions have hurt others. I recommend that you read these two life changing books: Destined to Overcome and Destined for the Throne by Paul E. Billheimer. These books explain much about spiritual warfare and about our dominion – the power and authority that God has given us. It is so important for us to understand our dominion and to exercise it in our lives. We must understand our authority and our responsibility over the earth, ourselves, our behavior, and our choices. Satan’s plan has always been to tempt us, then steal and destroy our lives through our bad choices in actions, words and thoughts. Satan wants to use our choices to hurt ourselves and hurt others causing a ripple effect of hurt, pain and destruction. That is Satan’s plan, not God’s plan.
Back when I was very sick, I was mad at God because I wasn’t getting better. Part of my problem was that I didn’t even know that I had a choice about my thoughts, and that my thoughts were affecting my emotional and physical health. I had no clue. My brain was like the Energizer bunny, going a mile a minute, thinking about all this garbage – and I couldn’t stop it. It never stopped. Ninety-nine percent of my thoughts were negative. I hated myself. I hated others. I hated my life. I was filled with self-pity. I was jealous, envious and angry! I had all this stuff going around and around in my head never stopping. When I heard at the age of fifty-three that I could choose what I did and didn’t want to think about and that I could choose what I wanted to give power to – it rocked my world! I could choose! I began to get better, healthier, more at peace! When you stop thinking about all the bad stuff, and you choose to think and act in God’s kingdom, the enemy is not happy. So you have to learn to fight the battle to take back your thought life. It’s YOUR brain and it’s YOUR thoughts and YOU get to choose. That’s life changing!
What does a warrior do to prepare for battle? He trains and practices and exercises. You have to train those brain circuits in your head to stop the thoughts you don’t want to have. You have to train and exercise the circuits in your brain that you might not have even known you could train! And here’s some more good news – the Holy Spirit is there to help. You are not doing this alone. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you and teach you. He helps make the process a lot faster too.
We have a choice as to what we think and what we do. We always have a choice. The key is to stop and make the right choice. God has allowed us free will to affect the events in our lives and in others. All of those choices will ripple down through our life, through our relationships, through our family and through our generations.
I don’t fully understand all of this stuff, but I do understand that neither God nor His covenant is deficient. And I also know that God is big enough to use every situation for His glory. This may get you thinking about all the things that have happened to you in your life; the things that you have done or that people have done to you. You need to understand that all the bad things that have happened to you in your life, the problems, the challenges, the hurts and the sickness were not God’s will. None of that bad stuff was God’s will. Not everything that happens to you in your life is God’s will. Was it God’s choice that your father abused you? No. Is it God’s will that you are suffering emotionally or physically? No. Can God use what has happened or is happening in your life for His glory? Absolutely. Do you know why? Because God can win with any hand you are dealt. I have seen it in my life, in my daughter Kari’s life and in the lives of thousands of people who have come through the Restoring Lives International conferences. I have seen what the enemy meant for evil, God turned for good because people like you and me opened the salvation package, applied the gifts to our lives, accepted what Jesus has given us and saw our lives changed.
Take a look at your life this week and think about the choices you are making & the fruit they are producing. Are your choices from God’s Kingdom or Satan’s kingdom? You can’t control other people’s choices, but you can control your own choices, and how you respond to other’s choices.
And remember … God is not to blame!
Read February 21, 2017 #PowerTools: Can You Hear the Whisper of God