"Is not fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?”
Job 4:6
Bad things happen to good people. Good people get cut from the team. Good people lose big games. Good people suffer from serious injuries.
I hate it, but bad things happen to good people.
Knowing this, the key is learning how to respond when bad things happen. Do you feel sorry for yourself, blame others, and stay down and depressed, or do you accept the good with the bad, take responsibility for your actions, and learn and grow from each situation?
If you know that bad things will happen, you can prepare to respond as you should.
But how should you respond when bad things happen?
The story of Job in the Bible is a good example.
In Job 1:1 it is written, “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”
Later in Job 1:8, God told Satan, “There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”
In Job 1:10-11, Satan said to God, “You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all he has; he will curse you to your face.”
Satan then took everything away from Job, including destroying his property and killing his children.
But even after all this, it is written in Job 1:22, “Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”
In Job 2, Satan attacks Job’s health. He struck Job with sores covering his body, but he didn’t curse God. When 3 of his friends came to see him, they couldn’t even come close because of how bad Job looked.
One of Job’s friends reminded him of all the support Job had given others when they were struggling and told him, “Is not fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?”
But then, the friends take turns giving Job bad advice by trying to help him discover the root cause of his suffering. They didn’t know about the conversation between God and Satan in heaven.
In Job 38-41, God speaks to Job and gives him insight into His character and power, and Job responds with humility. In Job 42:7-9 God rebuked Job’s three friends, gave them a task to do, and told Job to pray for them all.
Finally, God accepted Job’s prayer and doubled Job’s wealth and family.
Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. Sometimes those bad things just can’t be explained. All we can do is continue to have faith in God, and believe that all things work together for the good of those who believe, pray, and do good works.
Hopefully, if we stay faithful in the end, God will bless us as He did Job.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1 - What is something difficult that has happened to you that you can’t really explain?
2 - How can you remain faithful and prayerful, while continuing to do good things?
Pray Our Father, thank you for all the blessings you have given me. I know this world can be hard, and I know that bad things sometimes happen to good people. But I also know that all things work together for the good of those who believe. I know that You sent Your only son, Jesus Christ, to die for and so that we may have and enjoy life, to the full. Please look after me and bless me like you did Job. Though Job had His struggles, you never left Him, and in the end, Job ended up with double what he had. In Jesus’s name, I pray, amen.
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