Far too often we hear of random violence in which innocent people are the victims. A shooter stalks into a church or school, for instance, and good people are slaughtered. Any virtue the dead and wounded possessed mattered nothing to the perpetrator.

Bad things, like random violence, happen to good people all the time. Accidents, disease, natural disasters—all forms of crime and a host of other circumstance impact their lives. We are left to ponder, “Why?”

People might wonder: “Is God fair? Is He just?” to allow such things to constantly befall good people. The answer from Scripture is that God did not intend our world to be like this. He did not ordain violence, death, disease, disasters and crime to be the lot of mankind.

The reason bad things happen to good people is that our world continually reaps the results of sin. Mankind has forsaken God, and we are paying the consequences. Perhaps that seems over-simplified, but at the core of all the heartache, this is the reason for the suffering in the world.

No one is immune from the effects of sin. Scripture shows that God’s servants have quite often been the innocent victims of bad things. Even the completely sinless son of God, Jesus Christ, endured the “hostility from sinners against Himself” (Hebrews 12:3) and was brutally executed.

The good news is that God is working a plan to fix all the wrongs and injustice in the world. To those who believe in His plan, all things that happen to them will be for their advantage. For “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Yes, that includes the bad things. The apostle Paul, who wrote that verse, had a unique perspective on the bad things that happened to him. He also wrote, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

This world is not the way God meant it to be. For a while, He is allowing it to go on for His purposes. When the time comes, Jesus, the Son of God, “will come in the glory of His Father with His angels” (Matthew 16:27). Then He will fix all that is wrong with the world. He will take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

The suffering of good people who obey God will end. He will “wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain” (Revelation 21:4).

No longer will bad things happen to good people. May God speed that day.