You have probably heard the question “How could a loving God allow bad things to happen?”. While this is an oft-asked question, God is not constrained by our questions.
We humans see very little of the real world. Our physical bodies and this physical world will one day disappear. The real world is one we cannot see with physical eyes, but sense. It is spirit.
Think of humanity on earth as one-dimensional beings. We cannot comprehend God because he is beyond our mental capacities. We cannot completely understand him or his ways. We are given insight and glimpses into who and what he is through his Word, but in our human shells, we will never be able to comprehend the whole of him.
Asking the question “How could a loving God allow bad things to happen?” might not be a question that has an answer on this side of eternity simply because we are unable to comprehend the answer.
Don’t get lost in the questions of “Why did God let this happen? Why didn’t he stop it? Where was he when I was in such pain?” These questions come from our humanity. And that’s OK. God is OK with our questions. He can handle them. But he is not defined by the questions nor is he compelled to answer them.
A truly righteous man of the Bible, Job, while in excruciating mental and physical anguish states:
He knows the way that I take;
Job 23:10b-14
when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
My foot has held fast to his steps.
I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
I have not departed from the commandment of his lips.
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back?
What he desires, that he does.
For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.
Don’t get lost in the questions. If we understood everything about God, we wouldn’t need faith.
Sometimes the harder the question, the greater faith required. And God honors those of great faith. If anyone in the history of mankind deserved to know the answers to his questions, it was Job. Job walked through some very dark things, yet retained his faith.
God operates in a realm beyond our physical understanding. Don’t get tangled in a web of questions and sink into unbelief. Rather, cling to the character and nature of who God is. He is love. He is always good. He is life, light and righteousness. He is Beginning and End. He is always present.
He is not limited to our human understanding.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
Psalm 135:6
…For the Most High, his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
Daniel 4:34-35
All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
For in him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17
This is our God. He is Beginning and End, and everything between. It’s OK to drop the questions and believe that He is always and only good.
Because he actually is.