SLIDER

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

No, Everything Does Not Happen For A Reason



Nothing bothers me more than when I hear or read people saying "God has a purpose for your pain or struggle" or "Everything happens for a reason." As if God has some master plan to put us through cancer or depression or a car accident or a death of someone we love to teach us a profound life lesson.
 
What about instead of coming up with good quotes about God to try and make sense of things that happen, we look to his actual word.


What I do believe is that God can make all things work together for our good. It doesn't mean He put it there, but He can certainly turn it around....
and I believe though there may be sorrow through the night, joy comes in the morning...and when we walk through the fire we won't be burned...


Yes, if we allow God to heal us and teach us, we can learn and grow through our trials and our pain. I know I have. But there are plenty of people who suffer through life, never learning anything and it wasn't God who made their life that way 'for a reason...' And it wasn't God who put pain in people's lives on purpose, but he can certainly turn your pain into great purpose and joy.

Job placed much of the blame of his tragedy in his life on God. People quote Job all the time in their sermons and songs, saying "The Lord gives and takes away. Blessed be His name." But they fail to read on and learn what needs to be learned...Job repents of uttering things which He didn't understand....its a warm sentiment that people sing, that 'although God has been tormenting me, I will bless His name.' It certainly has an aspect of loyalty, doesn't it? Yet to the world that still questions God, it still portrays we believe God is responsible for their hurt and pain.


We call God our Heavenly Father, yet we forget the "how much more will your Heavenly Father give" aspect to him being our Father. Would you torment your child with death and poverty and disease just to teach them a lesson? No? Neither would he.

Instead of encouraging that God has a reason for it, let's encourage that God is able to turn it all around and bring JOY in the morning...


Romans 8:28
Psalms 30:5
Isaiah 43:2 
Matthew 7:11 

7 comments:

Sue said...

TRUTH.

Rachel said...

Yes!! I've never believed the "everything happens for a reason" rhetoric. The truth is that we live in a fallen world--sometimes really bad stuff happens, and I don't believe it's true to say "God did that" or "God did it on purpose."

Jessica Jean-Marie said...

Hit the nail on the head with this one! I believe He can make beauty out of ashes and turn situations around completely. I believe He strengthens us when we're going through trials so we can help encourage other people who are going through the same thing. But to say that God brings on diseases, famine, etc is complete crap.

Christina Schergen said...

love this. you know unfortunately we live in a fallen world and things happen...God can turn a tragedy into a blessing...but does he cause everything...no God is love and sometimes people make bad choices.

TicoTina said...

other things I hate when people miss-quote: "give thanks for all things", "God won't give you more than you can handle"

I always have trouble singing that song "gives and takes away" because I don't like that people think of God like that. when my mom was going through a lot of crap with my dad she was able to see that God gives us GOOD and takes away the BAD.

Becca said...

That is an excellent point. You are right in saying, it's not His will for bad things to happen, but when they DO happen, He is there to bring beauty from ashes. Too often we take and distort His Word.

Marianne (Mare) Baker Ball said...

Life just happens. Crap stuff, suffering happens b/c we are foolish and sinful, and we live in a dying world. God doesn't CAUSE suffering. But he CAN bring good from everything. I wrote about this too...you might like this post:
http://adventuresintheballpark.blogspot.com/2011/03/whos-boss.html
So many people think we should never suffer b/c God can prevent things, but he give us free will, and that's where we mess up.

 
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