Why did this happen to me?

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.                                                                                                                                                                 1 Corinthians 10:11

Rick Warren, a pastor who speaks to some 12,000 people every week, says that the question that people ask more than any other is, “Why did this happen to me?” Has that question ever come from your heart? Has a phone call in the night brought tragic news, were you laid off at work or has your child gone astray?

Job’s world collapsed as God allowed Satan to sift and test him. First, his children were slain. Then lightning destroyed his flocks. The Chaldeans stole his camels and killed his servants, and a great wind collapsed his house. Talk about your world coming apart!

Repeatedly Job cried, “Why?”

So does God simply ignore your questions? Or does He answer in ways that you find hard to understand and, therefore, you assume He is ignoring you?

First, God understands the anguish of your heart, and, fortunately, is more understanding with you than you are with Him. As the psalmist put it,  “He knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). God eventually showed Job His hand clearly – which refined him, taught him, and blessed him, taking him through the adversity.

Second, God is not obliged to explain everything that happens to us. God is God and He answers to no one. Sometimes we look back in retrospect and understand clearly why something happened, but in most cases if God should tell us why something happened, we still couldn’t understand. Far better it is to know that He cares and will eventually lead you out of your pain than to know why He allowed it.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.