Why God allows bad things to happen to "good" people?

Why God allows bad things to happen to "good" people?

Our life on earth is not the end of the matter. No matter how much we suffer now, it is incomparable to the time we spend in eternity. Likewise, no matter how much bad people enjoy life now, it is incomparable to the suffering they will spend in eternity if they persist in their sins.

There is no one righteous, not even one. No one is good enough on his own, for God’s standard of goodness is too high and holy for any human being to attain on his own. Our righteous acts to God are just like filthy rags. Only in Jesus Christ can we obtain the righteousness of God by believing in Him.

Job was a righteous man who did all the right things and walked steadfastly before God, but God allowed him to go through terrible suffering without any apparently good reason. Yet, through the suffering he went through, a great book of poetry was divinely created which serves as a wonderful source of inspiration and encouragement to millions throughout eternity. Through the suffering, Job learned to focus on the truly important things in life, which at the end of it, was God’s presence. After his suffering, God blessed Job even more bountifully and his capacity to appreciate and enjoy what he had was multiplied exponentially because of the memory of the sufferings he endured.

Joseph lived in misery for most of his young life, descending down from favored son to slave and prisoner. However, at the end of it, he realized God’s amazing plan to use him as the Savior of his family, and also giving him more fame and power that he could ever imagine. Because of his sufferings, he was also perfectly equipped to handle the responsibility and power with the right humility and wisdom to be a great Prime Minister.

Sufferings always draw us closer to God, if we choose to come to Him for Help and Comfort. God is my refuge and my strength, and ever present help in time of trouble. Quite often in the Bible, men and women of God had to endure suffering they did not understand, but chose to trust God anyway. They realized that God’s ways are higher, and He sees things that they do not. In the end, all things will work out well for those who love God and obey His commands.

When several young missionaries were martyred in God’s service in South America, many questioned where God was. However, the wives of the missionaries took up their husbands’ work and brought revival to the country where their husbands’ blood spilt into the ground. Even the murderers of their husbands’ were saved.

Another question we may ask, is why God allows His salvation to reach some very bad people who repent later in life. A perfect example is King Manasseh, most evil among the kings of Israel and Judah, who repented later in life and was shown mercy and blessing by God. Like the older brother in the Prodigal Son, it is not our place to question God’s mercy, but to concentrate on living our own life righteously before Him and accepting the lot that has been given us.