The Consequences of a Bad Choice (Does God Cause Bad Things to Happen?)

Does God cause bad things to happen to us?  This week, I've had multiple conversations with people about dealing with consequences.  They asked why God caused bad things to happen to us, so I would like to address this question head on.  This morning illustrated God's grace perfectly.  As I was leaving for church, I narrowly missed walking into a really big spider web stretched between my car and my husband's truck.  There was a very hairy spider sitting right in the middle of this web.  Thankfully, I missed walking into the web, or I would have alerted the whole neighborhood of meeting the itsy, bitsy spider.  I mentioned to my daughter that I would have to destroy the spider's web in order to leave, and she said a very wise statement.  "The spider chose to build his web in a dangerous place."  I very gently reversed my car so that the spider web fell toward my husband's truck.  The web was completely destroyed, but the spider lived to rebuild his web in a safer place.  We are created as amazing beings.  We were not made to be robots, but were given the freedom of choice.  This freedom of choice comes with the reminder that every choice has a consequence whether good or bad.  I can choose to study for a test and have the consequence of doing well on it, or I can choose to blow off studying only to fail the test.  I can choose to grab my son's skateboard and work on my skateboarding down a steep hill.  This would probably have a consequence of me braking my leg.  The results are based on my choices.  Instead of seeing God as a furious Father in Heaven that is throwing lightening bolts at his disobedient children, we have to change the way we see God by taking responsibility for our own actions.  We are the spider choosing to build our webs in dangerous places.  When consequences catch up and we face danger, our caring Father may allow our work to be destroyed because He cares the most about saving our lives.  That way in the future, you can rebuild stronger.  This happened to Jonah.  He was swallowed by a whale, but would he have been swallowed if he hadn't made a choice not to listen to God and get on the boat in the first place?  He faced the consequence of his bad choice, but God spared his life so that he could get in a right place with God and have a future.  If you look at this life as all there is, then God could be seen as hard at times.  But this life on earth is not it!  There is an eternal life.  God's desire is not that you live in pleasure forever here on a temporal place.  He wants you to be complete, not just for a little while, but for eternity!  So He is going to do what He needs to do to secure that eternal joy for you.  We live in an evil world where we face the consequences of our actions, but our loving Father is with us during the hardships (not causing the hardships) turning them into something good for our future!

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (ESV)

Have a great week high-heeled warriors!

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