There has been quite a few people who asked me this question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  Hmmmm …. You may have some reasons in your mind why, but one major answer that I could think of is that we live in a fallen world where we have an enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion fiercely hungry seeking someone to devour.

But our God Who is rich in mercy and abounding in love gave us a redemptive word that is the sword of our spirits that we may not be ignorant of his devilish schemes.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [set aside self-righteous pride], so that He may exalt you [to a place of honor in His service] at the appropriate time, ⁷ casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. ⁸ Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour. ⁹ But resist him, be firm in your faith [against his attack—rooted, established, immovable], knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being experienced by your brothers and sisters throughout the world. [You do not suffer alone.] ¹⁰ After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace [who imparts His blessing and favor], who called you to His own eternal glory in Christ, will Himself complete, confirm, strengthen, and establish you [making you what you ought to be]. ¹¹ To Him be dominion (power, authority, sovereignty) forever and ever. Amen.”  (1 Peter 5:11 AMP)

I once read a testimony of a pastor’s daughter who was gang raped in her own bedroom at their own house.  She and her friends were supposed to go out and just have clean fun but her parents thought it would be safer for them to be home and so they did, little did they know that something horrific was about to happen.

It was so shameful on her part because she kept herself pure just as what her parents told and taught her as the right thing to do.  She was devastated when her purity was violated by people who she did not even know.  Her heart was crushed knowing that she is a daughter of a pastor.  What would other people say?

But towards the end of her testimony, she was fully and wholly restored by the Lord our God ALMIGHTY!  Her horror past was cleansed by the Blood of Jesus and made her a NEW CREATION in Christ.  She was and is still being constantly and consistently washed by the power of His Word that are SPIRIT and LIFE that sustains her identity in Christ!  Her restoration was exceedingly beyond what one could think, dream or imagine.  Now she has a God-fearing, faithful husband and beautiful children.

Her life has been made awesomely beautiful that one will not find any trace of what she had gone through apart from sharing her story.

Her testimony is akin to the three Hebrew boys who were cast into the burning fiery furnace that was heated seven times more than normal, bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments just because they did not serve Nebuchadnezzar’s gods or worshipped the gold image that he had set up.  Yet while they were in the fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar said, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and THEY ARE NOT HURT, and the form of the fourth is like the SON OF GOD.” (Daniel 3:25)  When he commanded them to be taken out from there, they saw these men on whose bodies the FIRE HAD NO POWER; the hair of their head was NOT singed nor were their garments affected, and THE SMELL OF FIRE WAS NOT ON THEM. 

Indeed, what the devil meant for evil, God turned it to good that gives Him all the glory and praise.  Every time she gives her testimony of what Jesus has done in her life, it becomes a spirit of prophecy to those who have been bound with a similar experience as hers and bring HOPE, a confident expectation that something GOOD is about to happen to them, too, when they have Jesus in their hearts as their Lord and Savior.

In truth, we may not be able to fully comprehend how she lived with what happened  but because we believe in the GRACE, MERCY, FAVOR and LOVE of the Lord Jesus Christ Who brought GOOD NEWS to the humble and afflicted, sent to BIND UP THE WOUNDS of the brokenhearted, to PROCLAIM RELEASE from confinement and condemnation to the physical and spiritual captives and freedom to prisoners, we perceive things differently.  Jesus was sent to PROCLAIM the favorable year, the day of vengeance and retribution of our God, to COMFORT all who mourn, to give them BEAUTY for ashes, the OIL OF JOY for mourning, the GARMENT OF PRAISE for the spirit of heaviness, that we may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Oh how the Lord God called her out of darkness and into the kingdom of His marvelous light.  Oh how He drew her up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and set her feet upon the SOLID ROCK of Who Jesus is and His finished work at the cross, making her steps secure and sure-footed.

Our God is not a respecter of persons.  If He has done it to her who may have experienced something too deep to comprehend, He surely will do the same for us as we put our trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17:7-8)