In Good Faith

Everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

LUKE 11:10

WHERE IS GOD WHEN bad things happen? How can you have faith in God when there’s so much wrong with the world?

People may wonder these things—they have ever since bad things started happening. (So, practically always.) They may question how Christians can have faith that God is good when the world seems so scary and broken.

We have faith because we know God, we’ve felt him, and we see evidence of him in our lives and in the world. We know God doesn’t cause people to do bad things; God gave us free will. That means people can choose, and sometimes they choose to do bad things. We know that when bad things happen to people, God is there with them. He doesn’t let anyone suffer alone. We “live by believing and not by seeing,” according to 2 Corinthians 5:7.

We may not understand why bad things happen. We can’t explain why earthquakes shake the earth or why people who are kind get sick or hurt. But we can know—we can have absolute faith—that God is in control and he’s working for our good.

DO

Talk with your family or friends from church. Ask them to tell you about a time something bad happened and they had to rely on God to get through it. How did having faith change the situation?

PRAY

Dear God,

Thank you for always being there, especially when bad things happen. Please help me remember to rely on my faith in you when I don’t understand what’s happening or why. Amen.

READ

2 Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 11:11