Why Would God Let This Happen?

Why Would God Let This Happen?

As I buried my head in my pillow once again, the tears began to fall. I hear a lot of people ask this question but I never thought I would be asking it that night. “Why? Why would You let this happen when I try to do everything right?”

I feel ashamed even asking this question for I know our salvation isn’t based on works or what we do, but through His Grace. But since I am a Christian, I do try to obey what Christ says.

As I cry myself to sleep with this question, I woke up telling God I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of trying. I’m tired of being tired. Have you ever been there?

Don’t get me wrong, my life is amazing! I’m amazed at where God has me but I’m not Wonder Woman either. We are all human.

So I go to God in prayer. I go to Him in His Word. I go to Him in my devotions and as I open my devotional the title of the devotion is, “Why Would God Let This Happen?”

Ok. God – You got my attention. I’m listening. I’m reading and I’m hanging on to every word.

As Christians we know that God loves us. We sing songs, quote scripture, tell the little children “Jesus loves you,” post about it on Facebook, and we even buy the T-shirt and wear it.

But what happens when you don’t feel loved? When that feeling of rejection creeps in during the night with no one to share your feelings with. What happens then?

Don’t feel bad for being in this place. You’re not alone and I’m there. I know. So I will share with you what I have learned.

I realized that I was processing and thinking it out all wrong. We must process our hurts, our disappointments, problems, circumstances – good and bad – through the filter of God’s love, not through the tangled places of our hearts.

Sometimes we don’t walk confidently like we should in the certainty of God’s love. We need to walk by faith and not by sight. We talk it so easily, but it’s different to walk it because that’s when we feel it the most.

When we process things through the tangled places in our hearts, often the outcome is, “If God loves me so much, then why would He let this happen to me?” Instead we need to process things through the filter of the absolute assurance of God’s love, the outcome is, “God loves me so much, therefore I have to trust why He is allowing this to happen and what does He want me to learn from it.”

I heard a story once of a lady who had a tummy ache. It started off small, but the pain grew and grew until three days later she fell out of bed and had to be taken to the Emergency room.

During her pain she kept crying out to God to take it away. She became almost angry with God because why would a loving God allow her to be in this much pain when she was begging for Him to take it away?! Why would He allow her to feel this way? She felt like He wasn’t even there or even cared.

When in reality, it was the pain that saved her life. God was doing something in her, not just what she wanted. God loves us too much to do the very thing that we are begging Him not to do. He sees the bigger picture. His thoughts and His ways are always better and higher than our own.

The pain was a warning signal that something is wrong. Something needs to be changed. Something isn’t right. If God took the pain away, she wouldn’t have been brought to the ER, she wouldn’t have had emergency surgery, and she would have died at her home. We need to get this through our head to our heart. God doesn’t want us to suffer – physically, emotionally, or spiritually. But He will allow it in doses to increase our trust, to rely on Him, to seek Him for help, cry out to Him all the more, and in the process we will get to know Him.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3

God’s been showing me His love is more than a feeling whether sometimes we think we can feel it or not. His love is a covenant to us – His people. Love is a commitment, so God’s love is His promise to us forever. He will never leave us. He will never reject us unlike people or feelings. That is Christ’s love.

So today, whatever you’re going through, we can be thankful for the pain, thankful for the scars because without them we wouldn’t know His heart. And these wounds are a story He’ll use for His glory one day.

“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. “O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.” Isaiah 54:10-11