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Over and over again, I hear people say “If God loves me, then why did this happen?” – and you can fill in the blank with almost anything. If God loves me, then why did I get sick? If God loves me then why did this person die? If God loves me… then He would’ve prevented it. This is a real stumbling-block for a lot of people. And it’s okay to admit that. It’s okay to ask the question, and it’s okay to admit feeling that way. And I want to prepare you for what I am going to share with you today, because I am not going to give you the standard canned-response that most religious leaders would… I’m not going to tell you that the bad things that happened were actually good. I’m not going to tell you that you just need to grin and swallow it because God works in mysterious ways and we can never understand it so just suck-it-up and take it. Absolutely not!

Now here’s the shocker… The Bible also does not tell us to behave that way! Those are all things that religious leaders have come up with. Distorting the truth of scripture, usually not on purpose, but because they themselves didn’t have the answer and they were trying to protect people’s feelings and emotions, but ended-up doing more harm. So what I want to share with you today, is what the Bible actually says about the love of God – specifically in hard times – and how His love can be clearly seen in it.

I know that right at the start some people are going to want to bring up Romans 8:28, citing that all things work together for good… and that is absolutely true; all things do indeed work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. That is part of our inheritance in Christ Jesus. However not all things are from God, and not all things are good… the verse simply says that all things (good or bad, from God or not from God) all things work together for good. Good is the end result of all things, because God will eventually work it to be so, but it certainly does not mean that all things are individually, of themselves, good. Not at all.

The comfort, is in the fact that in all things, whether they are good or bad, the end-result will end up working for our good. And it is God Himself who works it out to be so. It’s not something that you need to push towards or strive for… it is a comfort and a promise from a loving God specifically for you. One that you can rely on, even when times are tough.

Nowhere does it say that God causes the bad things for some higher purpose or master-plan that we are too small to understand. Nowhere does it say that God is placing evil in our lives in order to punish us or teach us a lesson. In-fact there are numerous promises directly from God regarding protection from evil. And furthermore, if there ever is any doubt regarding God’s intentions or His character towards you, remember what I always like to say: simply look at Jesus, look at His life, and you will see the intention and character of God – always.

Take for example, one of the most painful experiences that anyone could ever go through: the death of a loved one. Because there is a whole lot of man-made theology, and false-doctrine around this specific circumstance, and it’s all because we are trying to make sense of it all, and it is so easy to simply blame God for it. And what we end up doing is sacrificing the truth of God on the altar of our own experiences, thoughts and feelings… and it costs us more than we can possibly imagine. We start to become bitter and angry at God, and it harms our personal intimacy with Him – and it’s all based on a lie. A man-made, human-invented idea… that God was personally responsible for your loss. I’ve heard it communicated in a variety of ways, but it’s all the same lie at the core…

– God wanted another angel in Heaven, so He took Uncle Tom home.

– God prescribed a certain number of days for everyone, and it was simply Aunt Jane’s time to go.

These are one-hundred percent, made-made lies designed to protect hurt feelings and spiritual confusion regarding the truth. God is the God of life, and the author of life! He is not the author of death! Sin brought death! Sin brought sickness and disease! Jesus spent His earthly time curing the sick, healing the diseased and raising the dead… and we still find ways to question His motives and doubt His intentions. And if you happen to be watching this right now after suffering a loss and you think that somehow God was the cause or that He was complacent in it, let me tell you right now. God did not take your loved one from you. It grieves Him more than you can even imagine that your loved one left you and this earth; because God’s original and perfect plan for man never included death. Death was never part of God’s blueprint for mankind. It wasn’t His idea.

In John 11:35, it is recorded that Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus… but this is actually the second time it is recorded. The first is two verses up in verse 33. The word “weeping” in verse 33, is klaio in Greek, which is loud weeping or crying. Whereas in verse 35, Jesus “wept” is dakruo, which is silent tears. He cried inwardly because He knew that death was never part of His plan for creation. He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead (which He wouldn’t do if death was His natural plan), but the very fact that death was even there, was enough to make the very Author of life itself, weep.

The Bible never says that God takes people’s life. So if you are here today thinking that God took someone from you, I’m here to tell you that is not the case. Death grieves Him more than we even realize. What He does do, for all who believe on Him for salvation and eternal life in Christ, is He receives them to Himself, and this too is a comfort and a promise.

The scriptures never say that God proactively terminates the very life that He has given those who are in Christ. He doesn’t need to fill vacant angel jobs in Heaven by taking your loved ones from you on the earth either. Those are both man-made fictions.

In-fact, 1st Corinthians 15:26, clearly states that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death is an enemy, not a friend. Death is not an ally to God, nor to death, but it is an enemy to be defeated, and indeed has been defeated through Christ Jesus.

What the Bible does say about the loss of a loved one is actually much better. It is found in 1^st Thessalonians 4:13-18:

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Why comfort one another with these words.”

What we can see right in verse 13 is that these things are written here concerning them which are asleep. And I want to point this out, that every single time the Bible mentions a believer in Christ Jesus who has passed on, the Holy Spirit is always very specific in that they are never referred to as being “dead”, but always “fallen asleep”. This is a very important distinction. And we also see that it is written here so that you do not sorrow as those who have no hope.

It’s okay to feel the loss, and mourn the fact that they are not with us on the earth. However God specifically wishes for us to avoid sorrowing without hope. Because we do indeed have hope. Our loved ones in Christ are not dead! They are very much alive! The LORD Jesus Himself has received them, and we too will see our loved ones again with Him! This is precisely why verse 18 says to comfort each-other with these words… because they are not words of despair; nor are they words of hopelessness, but indeed great hope!

The point of what I am sharing with you today is this… when bad things come our way (and sometimes they do) it’s important to remember a few things. The bad things are not from God. In-fact the Biblical truth of the matter is that believers have been tricked into lying-down, rolling-over and accepting a lot of things in their life, thinking that they were acts of God, when in-fact they were attacks of the enemy that should’ve been stood-against and resisted in Christ! Proverbs 26:2, says very clearly that a curse cannot come without a cause. And if we stop for a moment as believers and consider that we are in Christ Jesus, we will suddenly realize that no curse has any right to be in our lives because we are safe and secure in Him! So if anything that is defined in the Bible as a curse tries to encroach on your life in Christ, you have all right and authority to stand against it.

Now when the pressure that is natural in this fallen world comes your way, you likewise have the promise that greater is He that is within you, than he that is within the world. You are never left as food for the devil. And everything that we see that the love, care and character of God can come into play here. He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6), Nor will have ever be angry with us or rebuke us – because again, we are in Christ Jesus (Isaiah 54:9, Colossians 1:21-22).

The big thing is this: So many people ask “If God loves me, then why did this happen?” and they focus on the negative. Personally, I think that they are asking the wrong question. If God didn’t love you, then why did all of this happen? Let me explain that…

You are here, right now having this personal study with me… and you might not be thinking much about everything that got you here. However just for a moment, stop and think about the vast series of circumstances, choices, results, and things that most people would consider as pure luck, that happended up placing you here with me right now. If you spend a few minutes thinking about it, you’ll realize that a lot of things contributed to this moment – more than we typically consider. And that’s just your end of it. Then we stop to consider not only your side of the equation, but mine, and the many people involved which allows us to be connected for this study over the internet, and suddenly it becomes a huge thing.

It’s so massive, that only God could work out that many variables. All so that you could be here at this moment, and to see the love of God for you. If God didn’t love you, He would’ve never worked it out. And it all began, over 2,000 years ago, when it would’ve been much simpler to destroy creation and start again, but a loving God said No, I’ll take their place. And as Romans 5:8 says, God demonstrated His love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He took our place. He died for us, so that we could live through Him. We live through His life. The life that He freely gave, because of His perfect love for us.

So yes, God loves you that much, to orchestrate even the things that we typically don’t think about, all for the purpose of showing you that you are not unloved. You are not forgotten, you are not worthless. You have great worth and value. Not all things are from God, but He does turn all things for your good. You can’t lose! Yes, God loves you that much.