Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People? – PART 4

The Anatomy of Bitterness Against God

Why is life so “unfair”? Why are so many things in life, “just wrong”!? Why do the bad things often seem to out weigh the good?  And, how can a “good God” let all these bad things keep happening; like injustice and unanswered prayers and abused children? When nothing is right or fair, it just makes it all the harder to believe that God is good and that things can get better.

The issue of believing in the goodness and justice of God in the presence of all kinds of “bad things” He could “stop” if He WANTED to, is nothing new to human kind. As a matter of fact, it may be one of the biggest obstacles and oldest and most frequently asked and completely misunderstood questions we all seem to have about God.

Some are convinced by the empirical evidence of their experiences, that God cannot be trusted and is no different than any other force or being out there claiming to be god. Even a simple observation of the basic human motives behind the worship and service to their gods can be reduced to one of fear. Appeasement and manipulation, offering sacrifices to their god or goddess to win their favor or spare them from their wrath is a common reason people “worship” things of less value and importance than themselves.

What a difficult and disadvantaged position for mankind, to be at the mercy of the whims of these egocentric, fickle, unseen deities and their unspoken agendas for harm. And yet, this fear and servitude forms the basis for all of paganism, including, Egyptian and Greek mythology and native ethnic myths and religions.  Even many of the so called “Christian” church practices base their programs for religious reform and self-improvement on the law of “commandments and the doctrines of men” (Col. 2:22).

And if all worship of gods is simply the worship of the demons who animate them, (I Cor. 10:20-21), then the activity behind worship must be attributed ultimately, to the Devil. And would it not be to his greatest advantage to bury the message of God’s love and justice in a hopelessly tangled web of unanswered prayer and frustration?

In the midst of these common experiences of delay and difficulty, believing that God is good, and “for us” becomes one of faith’s most difficult exercises. Our experience in the frustration of unanswered prayers often trumps the Divine command to “trust in the Lord with all [our] hearts and lean not on [our] own understanding” (Pr. 3:5).

If we do not acknowledge the reality and depth of the “war” that is constantly going on between “good” and “evil”, God will continue to look bad and suffer reproach. His goodness will be lost in the negative and unfortunate experiences of life, most of which have been deliberately set up by the Enemy to create that sense of hopelessness, in the first place.

Add this to the fact that one of the Enemy’s favorite strategies and main objectives is to obscure the very notion that there is a war and we have the “perfect storm”. If the Devil can hide the conflict, including his covert operations against the souls of mankind in the lie that he does not exist, then the whole point and purpose for “fighting the good fight” is lost in the assumption that there is NO fight.

And if he can hide his intentional and deliberate destruction from us, we will have no other choice but to attribute the random acts of injustice and destruction to either God or ourselves. Both possibilities subtract the Devil from the equation and leave only us or God in the position of the “bad guy” in assigning a cause to the problems.

Our desire to “figure things out” and “solve problems” provides the Devil with the perfect opportunity to pass the blame for “bad things” off onto either us or God. If we point the finger at God, we will become bitter against God and lose heart in our confidence in His love for us. If we assume the blame ourselves, or pass it off onto another person or situation, Guilt will become our over-lord.