SALT Week 4
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GAME: Would You Rather?
GAME: Would You Rather?
Although the game we just played was semi-humorous, sometimes in real life, when bad stuff happens, it can feel as if we’re stuck between two bad choices. Would you rather lose your arm or your leg in a car accident? Would you rather lose your home to a tornado or a hurricane? Would you rather see your mom lose her job or your dad lose his job? In the real world, sometimes these kinds of bad things happen, regardless of our best efforts to make good choices and our best attempts to be good people.
Although the game we just played was semi-humorous, sometimes in real life, when bad stuff happens, it can feel as if we’re stuck between two bad choices. Would you rather lose your arm or your leg in a car accident? Would you rather lose your home to a tornado or a hurricane? Would you rather see your mom lose her job or your dad lose his job? In the real world, sometimes these kinds of bad things happen, regardless of our best efforts to make good choices and our best attempts to be good people.
These are incredibly difficult questions that can be real stumbling blocks for people when it comes to believing in God. So this is the question we’re going to be tackling in today’s video: Why does God let bad things happen?
These are incredibly difficult questions that can be real stumbling blocks for people when it comes to believing in God. So this is the question we’re going to be tackling in today’s video: Why does God let bad things happen?
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
In the end God will make everything right for those who trust in Him. Revelation 21:4 puts it like this: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” But let’s take a closer look at the verse 2 Peter 3:9. It’s on your handout. It says: “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
In the end God will make everything right for those who trust in Him. Revelation 21:4 puts it like this: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” But let’s take a closer look at the verse 2 Peter 3:9. It’s on your handout. It says: “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
It’s true that we don’t always have all the nice answers to difficult questions that doesn’t keep us from experiencing God’s comfort personally in the midst of the hard stuff of life or from bringing comfort to others.
It’s true that we don’t always have all the nice answers to difficult questions that doesn’t keep us from experiencing God’s comfort personally in the midst of the hard stuff of life or from bringing comfort to others.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Experiencing pain and suffering in our lives, or watching it hit the lives of those we love, is a difficult thing. When we find ourselves on that road, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love us or isn’t there with us in the midst of the hurt.
Experiencing pain and suffering in our lives, or watching it hit the lives of those we love, is a difficult thing. When we find ourselves on that road, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love us or isn’t there with us in the midst of the hurt.
As believers, we’re promised access to God’s comfort. What does that look like? Well, it looks different for different people.
As believers, we’re promised access to God’s comfort. What does that look like? Well, it looks different for different people.
It takes sensitivity to have the right timing when it comes to talking about highly emotional, painful topics. Sometimes, people need you to just be there with them for a while in their pain, before they are ready to hear anything at all about sin and evil and God’s love for them. You can say something like: “I know I can’t completely understand, but I’m so sorry and I’m here.”
It takes sensitivity to have the right timing when it comes to talking about highly emotional, painful topics. Sometimes, people need you to just be there with them for a while in their pain, before they are ready to hear anything at all about sin and evil and God’s love for them. You can say something like: “I know I can’t completely understand, but I’m so sorry and I’m here.”
So you need to pray and use good judgment. Try to ask plenty of follow-up questions after you share the video with someone, so you can get a sense of where they are in terms of being angry at God about something bad that’s happened in their life.
So you need to pray and use good judgment. Try to ask plenty of follow-up questions after you share the video with someone, so you can get a sense of where they are in terms of being angry at God about something bad that’s happened in their life.
Once you get a pulse on where they’re at, you can decide whether it’s a time to just comfort someone in pain or it’s a time to explore this theological question with them. Either way, your goal is to take them to Jesus’s Gospel message of hope at some point in your relationship with them. The Gospel is good news, because it is the only thing that ultimately deals, once and for all, with the problem of evil in our world.
Once you get a pulse on where they’re at, you can decide whether it’s a time to just comfort someone in pain or it’s a time to explore this theological question with them. Either way, your goal is to take them to Jesus’s Gospel message of hope at some point in your relationship with them. The Gospel is good news, because it is the only thing that ultimately deals, once and for all, with the problem of evil in our world.
Once you’ve opened up the conversation, talk about the Gospel. Say something like: Did you know that God wants the kind of intimate, personal relationship with you where you can always come to Him with your anger and pain? Then explain the message of the Gospel. Share how Jesus identifies with our suffering, because He suffered too. Explain what the Bible says about how, in the end, God’s going to make things right because of what Jesus did on the cross.
Once you’ve opened up the conversation, talk about the Gospel. Say something like: Did you know that God wants the kind of intimate, personal relationship with you where you can always come to Him with your anger and pain? Then explain the message of the Gospel. Share how Jesus identifies with our suffering, because He suffered too. Explain what the Bible says about how, in the end, God’s going to make things right because of what Jesus did on the cross.