I often ask the question, “why did God let this bad thing happen?”

As a pastor I deal with a lot of people issues. Sickness, job loss, economic difficulty and family issues. There are time when you can explain why bad things happen. Age is going to bring on inevitble decline in health. Economic downturn can result in a job loss. Sometimes we make a bad decision and it has consequences.

And then things happen that are not fair and leave us wondering “where is God?” We get angry, fearful, sad and depressed. We are tempted to abandon faith.

Trials are a time when we have opportunity to examine a critical question in our walk with God. “Why don’t we love God more?” I submit it is the question to ask after we ask, “”Why did God let this happen?”

Here is a episode from Jeremiah’s life to consider. In Jeremiah 33 we find the prophet shut up in prision in the king’s house for doing nothing more than God’s work. God speaks to him and tells him to “listen up!”

“Thus says the LORD…‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not [yet] know’” (verses 2-3).

It is only when we get in a tight place that God can sometimes show us the deep spiritual lessons of life. It is a time of trial when our character is formed and hardened if we turn to God and love Him with all our heart, mind and soul

Our walk with God will encounter many diferent types of terrain. It is when we are going uphill over rough and rocky roads that we exercise and build character to get through. We will do this because we love God beyond the questions.