Good/bad...

I had a friend today ask me, "Amber, how do you believe in a god that allows such bad things to happen, or doesn't make the good things happen to just the good people?"

Does God allow bad things? Why don't good things happen to just "good" people?

I certainly do not have it ALL figured out! But for me, what if He DIDN'T allow bad things to happen?!

 Would Jesus have come to give us His ultimate gift...death? A horrible, much undeserved one at that! For us, that gift has given us grace, mercy, and bountiful love! For us that was beautifully good, but for Jesus, in those moments of pure torture, wasn't that something God allowed we would all consider BAD, had that been one of us instead?!

If He didn't allow bad things to happen would we still have free will? Would we be able to say, "yes! That was God performing a miracle!" How can we see miracles if there is only ever good things? Would we know God, or would we all give credit to ourselves for all the good that we live in?

What about "Why do good things happen to bad people?" Or "Why are bad people allowed to become sources of hurt in our lives?"

Didn't God give us ALL (every person) free will? Free will doesn't extend to only those who know and follow Jesus. He gave that to each one of us... Unfortuately, sometimes that means peoples' bad CHOICES affect us too! But who can claim that their own bad choice has NOT affected another person or a group of people? Is one person better than another? We all make bad choices at certain points in our life, which in return will affect someone else...whose to say that we are the "good ones". Jesus died for us all right?! Thankfully yes! Even for me, and you, with our bad choices and all.

Now, I am most definitely NOT saying that I like bad things, or even want bad things to happen...certainly not! Nor am I saying that God creates bad things...God is perfectly good, and does not put bad things in our path.  Bad things come from satan! But, I do know that if we call Jesus our Lord and have faith in Him then do we trust He has our best interest at heart? Do you  trust Him in only the good things or do you still have faith and love for Him in the bad things too? How much faith would we really need if only good things surrounded us? How long does it take before we start thinking, "ok, God, I think I got this now. Thanks for getting me here, but i'm good now."
...I know I have done that!!

Thankfully He has given us grace in those moments when we can't seem to understand and want answers we can't seem to find! His power is great, and perfect. Be encouraged to know that He sees the WHOLE picture of our life. We only see tiny bits. We may not understand why, or  how everything is gonna work or turn out, but God knows that about us and He understands! His promise to us in not that He will make all the "bad" things stay away, but rather He will gives us the strength, love, grace, compassion, tools, steps, and path to take when they come our way. All we have to do is ask...He does the rest! Praise God for that!