It’s the question on everyone’s mind *drumroll please* why do bad things happen?
Well I'm back!!!! To be honest, the real question should be why do we assume we only deserve good things to happen to us??
I thought about this for quite a while and decided to share my findings with you but here's a piece of advice... there's really no point in being a Christian out of fear for hell. At many times in my life, I became so content with the idea of ending up in hell because honestly, that's what I deserve, I became so comfortable with ending up in hell for eternity because I really didn't even want to try to do anything for my salvation, I didn't think there was anything I could do to turn back to God and yes I still struggle with it heavily. As human beings we'll never really stop sinning, but that's not what God requires from us, because of His grace, He sent His son to die for us that we may glorify Him and accept Him as our savior because He took our punishment for us and not only that, Jesus overcame it. There's a difference between living in sin and falling into sin, I heard that somewhere. Do you enjoy your sin? Do you crave to sin just to get ahead or for your own entertainment? Or do fight off temptation as hard as you can but still lose some of these battles? Do you feel guilty when you sin? Do you strive to get rid of temptations in your life? Back to my earlier point, I knew without a doubt that I was going to hell but I didn't denounce my Christianity or my faith, I had doubts and still do but I pray that I may never doubt the existence of God because it must honestly be so annoying for God to leave us all the proof we need only for us not to believe what is in front of our eyes, we still believe our God given intelligence can be used to justify the unjustifiable. We put too much faith in our abilities. I was so sure of my fate but that didn't make me love God any less, that didn't make me change my mind about Jesus' sacrifice for us.
Let's get this straight, we're all servants and terrible ones at that but Jesus is giving us a chance to be His friends so why not take the opportunity. Why choose to go to hell? Why choose suffering? Jesus did not at any point say that it would be easy to give up what we've become comfortable with but it's not like there is no reward. Doing good works will not get you in heaven but faith will. I still compromise with the world, I still care too much of the world's opinion of me and that's something that I despise about myself but to follow Christ we mustn't be of this world just as this He wasn't of this world. Let's remember that you're opinion doesn't matter when it comes to scripture. Jesus left us with two very important commands, notice I didn't say suggestions, He told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This literally summarizes all the commandments from God. We are called to love people as ourselves because you wouldn't want to be lied to, you wouldn't want to be bullied or falsely accused or even cheated on so if I love you the way I love myself, I wouldn't want to commit any wrong against my neighbors just as I wouldn't want anyone to commit any wrong against me. So treat people how you want to be treated and if you treat yourself terribly then change that. The second command is probably a fundamental aspect of Christianity, "Love your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul." We shouldn't give anything or anyone more attention than God, He should be the center of our lives. I highly advise reading the parable of the sower, find out what seed you are and if it's not up to God's standards then change yourselves to fit to His expectations, it's worth it.
Why do bad things happen? A very common question that I have asked myself as well. Let's start by saying the good almost always outweighs the bad but we choose to hold on to the bad. I'm sure from time to time people ask themselves this question as well. We choose to focus on questions like why do bad things happen? But have we asked ourselves why good things happen to us yet we are not deserving like why are we so privileged but we still choose to ignore all the good we have experienced and focus on all the bad in our lives, understandably so, without acknowledging any of the good. I'm not saying it's easy to forget the bad experiences in our lives and I'm definitely not belittling the trauma people have faced but let's not forget all the good we have experienced as well and all the good we are promised by following Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible is it promised that while on earth we are promised only good should transpire in our lives, it kinda takes away from the whole concept of heaven, doesn't it? Why is it that we feel so entitled to all the good this world has to offer? We aren't good, we are all bad people and just because we do a few good deeds or donate to charity once in a while, doesn't mean we're good. This world is full of liars, thieves and murderers and for some reason we all believe we deserve better than the good we already have. We don't deserve anything good for how much we disappoint God daily but yet we still get way more than we deserve but we still don't appreciate it. We don't acknowledge that most of the bad in this world is the work of humans, if you want good in this world then you don't want free will because as humans we have misused free will, we don't know how to handle ourselves or our thoughts and we definitely can't resist temptation. So let's serve blame where it is necessary, we are bad people and of course bad things are going to happen to us because we get what we give. God doesn't force anyone to do anything so let's not blame God for human actions. As humans we will still find a way to blame God because we or at least I sure hate blaming myself, we're going to say things like God didn't protect us or God doesn't love us enough to stop this from happening but that isn't the case because whether we realize it or not God protects us every single day from disease, from people, from ourselves. If for one day, we feel that we are unprotected then we're wrong because everything happens for a reason. With God's help,you can get through the toughest of times, it isn't always about looking at things as a punishment but rather looking at them as learning experiences. God does everything for a reason and part of loving Him is trusting that His will in our life. If God can love us through our sin why can't we love Him through our pain and trust His love to deliver us from it. Let's not forget that you cannot make God do anything, everything is done according to God's will let's start asking for His will to be be done in our lives instead of our desires to controlling our lives.
Don't forget to read your Bible and ask for the knowledge to understand it. Also manifestation is stupid, we don't have that power as humans and we should really stop convincing ourselves that we do.
"If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9 NRSV-CI
https://www.bible.com/2015/1jn.1.9.nrsv-ci
"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles."
Psalms 34:17 NRSV-CI
https://www.bible.com/2015/psa.34.17.nrsv-ci
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;"
Lamentations 3:22 NRSV-CI
https://www.bible.com/2015/lam.3.22.nrsv-ci
"For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself."
Galatians 6:3 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/gal.6.3.esv.... read the whole chapter, let's not put too much pride in ourselves.
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲
𝗛𝗶 𝗴𝘂𝘆𝘀𝘀𝘀, 𝗶 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 ;)
𝘅𝗼𝘅𝗼
M