When Bad Things Happen, Part 2

When bad things happen and everything is spinning out of control…

Reaffirm. Reaffirm God does take care of things…in His time and in His way. We must realize, His time may not be our time and His way may not be our way.

Through Moses, God led His chosen people out of slavery in Egypt . Tragically, God’s chosen people got so used to seeing the miraculous happen they fell away from God when Moses wasn’t around.

When bad things happen, God can do things we cannot do. The Israelite people could not free themselves from slavery. They needed God to do something. So God did something. God did all kinds of miracles which should have humbled His chosen people. Instead of being humbled and grateful they remained stubborn and stiff-necked, the Israelite people said in effect, “What has God done for us lately.” Then they made their own god...a golden calf. Think about this. This was nuts. It was crazy to abandon Jehovah after Jehovah had freed them from slavery. Yet, the Israelites abandoned God because they were not interested in doing for God. They were more interested in what God could do for them. Every person on the face of this earth faces the same challenge the Israelites faced. Your question every day of your life is not "What will God do for me?" but "What can I do for God?"

When bad things happen, all of us are drawn away from God by the force of Satan or satanic darkness. Yet each of us can hear God's voice drawing us toward God by the force of God's love. Each of us has a free will to choose which way we will go when bad things happen. People who choose the darkness, or who try to stay in the middle without making a choice are not in charge of their life. Go to any prison, psychiatric ward, parole hearing, homeless shelter, or any helping agency anywhere, and you will find people who are not in charge. God asks each of us every minute, “Do you love me? Do you really want to be in charge of your life?” Each of us is free to answer "Yes" or "No." A non-answer is a “No.” If we do not say to God, “Yes, I love you. I want to be in charge of my life” then we have said to God "No, I do not love you and I do not want to be in charge of my life." When bad things happen, God continually asks us, "Do you love me?"

When bad things happen, we can try to bargain with God. We must never make the mistake of telling God we will love Him if He does something for us. We must never make this mistake because He has already done more than enough for us. He has guaranteed us eternal life in paradise if we accept His Son into our life and heart. If God asks you every minute "Do you love me?" what is your answer today?

2Ki:17:36: But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.

When bad things happen, God wants to see you worship. When bad things happen, you need to be more in charge of yourself than at any other time.

True worship and sacrifice are very unselfish things to do. To do these unselfish things you have to be in charge of yourself to do them. If you are not in charge of yourself, you are very selfish. You will not have self-discipline if you are not in charge of yourself.

We are not in charge of ourselves when we are newborns. When we are a newborn baby we are helpless and cannot survive on our own. However, very early in life we learn to grab what we want. Hopefully, as we grow older and become more mature, we learn to put off grabbing what we want.

When bad things happen, if we learn maturity, we even learn to give instead of grab. We learn to give, even in our adversity and our poverty. If we learn to be really mature we learn to love others as ourselves without regard for our present circumstances. Fearing God in a healthy way requires we be mature and realize God is power. As we grow in faith, we realize God is power over us, under us, and all around us. Growing in faith even further, we become open and trusting as we learn the power of God is love.

When bad things happen we can learn God is for us, not against us. When bad things happen, we can find God living within our heart. When bad things happen, even in the worst tragedies, we can find God telling us how much He loves us.

The article first appeared in May, 2008, in the Virtual Church web site at http://www.shepherdscare.net