Why Does God Permit Bad Things
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Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?

The next lesson God taught me was that HE doesn’t let bad things happen – WE do!

Have you ever had an impulse? Has a little stray thought ever popped into your head saying something like “you should walk to the shop for the milk this time” or maybe “why don’t you go the long way home today”? If you have ever had such little thoughts pop into your mind did you follow through and walk to get the milk or take the long route home? I always try to follow those little whims and impulses now. I have done so ever since I asked God why he lets bad things happen and He gave me an answer.

One day I read in the news that the body of a two year old girl had been found at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Someone had raped her then he threw her body away like a dirty tissue.

I went ballistic. I confronted God and said “Why did you let that happen?” I said I don’t WANT an answer to this question – I NEED an answer! I told God I cannot, I will not, worship a God who stands by and allows an innocent baby to endure such horror!

I told God if he was as powerful as he claimed to be there was no excuse for him to stand by and just let that happen.

I could feel Gods pain as he answered me.

“I did not stand by”, he said, “I was with her every moment. I built shock and the ability to disconnect mind from body into the human system to help my children at such times. My little one went into shock so she suffered less than you might think. I did everything I could to help and save her.”

I swore at God. I said that’s bullshit! I said you could have made the rapist drop dead or transported him to the other side of the world – you can part the sea and send down plagues so you could have stopped him.

God said there is one thing he cannot do. He cannot override our free will. He could not stop Eve from eating the apple. He could not stop Adam from giving in to temptation and nothing has changed since then.

He told me he was forced to part the sea and send down plagues to convince one man to do one thing – let His people go. What He could not do was interfere with that man’s ability to resist God’s will!

Then God told me all the things he had done to try and stop the little girl from being raped.

“I tried to make the rapist change his mind but his mind was closed to my voice. He refused to listen to me.

I tried to make the child turn around and go home but she was too young to listen to me.

I prompted the child’s mother to go looking for her but she put it off.

I spoke to every single person in the entire block of flats and not one of them listened to me. Not one of them obeyed the impulse to act that I put into them.

One woman told herself the child was not her responsibility and she ignored her impulse to take her home.

A man was too tired to go get the milk when I suggested it so he did not run into the rapist. If he had run into the rapist, if any of the people I tried to make step outside their doors had run into him, I could have made him afraid of being identified and he would have left the child alone.

I tried to save my little one but nobody would listen to me. In the end all I could do was suffer beside her.

There is only one thing that can tie my hands – human free will. My hands were tied that day. I was as helpless as my little one.”

I was crying by then. The sadness and pain I could feel in the voice that spoke into my mind was overwhelming. Then the voice spoke again and this time there was anger. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and a chill ran down my spine as the voice spoke.

“Know this – What he did to her he also did to me. I felt everything she felt and more because I do not go into shock. I am not able to dissociate. I was with her every single second and you cannot begin to imagine what I am going to do to him when the time comes.

I tell you this – what I am going to do to him will make you weep tears of pity for him! Vengeance is mine and he will pay. Have no doubt about that. He only thinks he got away with what he did. They all just think they get away with sin but there is a price and they WILL have to pay it.”

The answer satisfied me but God decided to let me see the truth of it.

Soon after this conversation my Mother came to visit me. She told me she had been having a bad time and was feeling unloved so she prayed. She said she got on her knees and begged God to give her a sign that He loved her. She asked Him to send one of her friends to visit her as proof of His love. She wanted to know He was listening to her and a visit from a friend would prove to her God did listen and did care but nobody came and she was devastated.

The next day one of her friends did visit. The friend told my mother she had come because she felt God saying my mother needed her. She said she felt it the day before but she had so many things to do she had put the visit off.

My Mother took comfort from knowing God had tried to answer her prayer so no harm was done by the friend putting off doing what God had prompted her to do.

That was not the case for the little girl in the elevator shaft.

That particular lesson from God was one of the most powerful ones I have had.

God does not stand by and LET bad things happen – WE do!

For a follow up on this entry see Why does God permit illness and disease?

15 Comments

  • proud 2b chritian

    hi, i am 15 years old and as a teen ager, i have strugled a lot with that quiestion. So finally i decided to search for and answer in google and thankfully this website was the first one i cheked out.
    As i was reading “why does God let bad things to happen?” i started to cry. Not only because of the aful story of the little girl, but because it is amaizing to know how much God loved that little girl.

  • Kim

    Hi Proud,

    Thank you for telling me your thoughts on this entry – I am so glad it helped you the way it helped me but you need to know one thing.

    God loves YOU every bit as much as he loved that little girl and he is with YOU in your times of trouble too.

    Cheers – Kim

  • thisguy95

    I have something to add to this article, in John 9: 2-3 is says “2His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” To me, this suggests that God let’s bad things happen, so he can FIX THEM! He lets us get sick, so we can be healed!

    God promised us, no matter what, he would be here for us. Think back to when you were 3 or 4. And Mommy, or Daddy is walking beside you. Does this mean you can’t stumble? NO! But they’ll be there to pick you up after. God is beside us. And he may watch us stumble, but he’ll pick us up, too!

    I am only a young teenager, but I delivered a message in my church about the subject, remember this next time you are hurt and ask this question. Also, if a time comes and God doesn’t heal someone and they slip away, don’t ask, “where was he!?” Because he is in the same place he was when his Son was killed.

    God is Love!
    In Peace

  • Kim

    Thanks for your comment and I guess I agree that, in some cases, God does permit bad things to happen so He can fix them or bring good things out of them.

    In 2005 I was attacked in my own home by five young people. I am glad God permitted that to happen as I gained the most important knowledge about myself I could ever have from that experience.

    I refuse to believe God permits all the bad things that happen to occur without making any effort to prevent them though.

    As a parent I will stand by and watch my child stumble as he learns to walk. I will let him fall and I will pick him up and comfort him after he falls but I would never stand by and watch him fall down a cliff to his death!

    I would never permit someone to attack, rape, or murder him without trying to prevent it and I simply don’t believe I am a better, more caring parent than God.

    There was no glory for God to gain from permitting the little girl in my entry to be raped and murdered. There was nothing she could learn from being murdered in such a horrible fashion.

    I couldn’t worship a God who would permit such a thing to happen and I don’t believe He did. I believe He tried to stop it from happening.  He is the perfect parent and no parent would stand by and let certain things happen to their child.  I don’t think God stands by and lets these things happen to his children either.  I think, as I explained in the entry, He tries to stop this sort of thing from happening.
    Cheers – Kim

  • musiclover123

    I have been so mad at God for years. I kept telling myself that it was his fault that my best friend raped me and i was at a christian youth leadership in Kentucky called life. it happened the very first night and i had no fun. after reading this… i changed my look on things it wasn’t his fault he felt every single pain that i felt, every emotion, i bet he felt every inpulse to bash his head in too. All my friends at youth group are now distaint from me but i still go anyway for who knows why. i’m still fighting through but thatsnks to you i now know that god really does love me.

  • Kim

    Hi musiclover123,

    Thank you for letting me know this entry has helped you.

    Like God, churches and youth groups have no control over the people who go to them and much evil has been done by people who claim to be Christian.  You might want to think about letting the leadership know what happened so they can ensure it doesn’t happen again and it would be good to try and get some support for yourself and talk to someone about what happened if you can.
    I’m so sorry this happened to you and I hope, now your anger with God is gone, you will let Him comfort and heal you so you can live your life to the full and not be held back by the emotional scars.

    I wish you all the best for the future and may God bless you!

  • Dawn

    Hi Kim – I have been searching and searching for a “real” answer to this question for some time now.

    Most of the time I find “churchy” answers such as “so God can use you”, “because we live in a fallen world”, or “it makes us stronger” which are of NO help at all.

    I wanted/needed an answer straight from the mouth of God…so to speak.

    I wanted/needed to know from HIS perspective, HOW did You protect me, HOW did You help me, HOW do I trust You again?

    Thanks to you I have finally received my answer. Now I feel like I can realign my thinking and recovery and see God/Jesus as loving me and as my Protectors rather than – just standing by and “letting it happen”.

    Yeah God for restoration and trust renewed !

    Yeah God for you letting Him use you ! Great work !

    Big Blessings to you !

  • Kim

    Hi Dawn,

    Thank you so much for letting me know this lesson God gave me has helped you as much as it helped me and thank you for reassuring me that He DOES use this site to do His work at times.

    I pray God will speed your recovery and be as much a comfort to you as He has always been to me.

    Cheers – Kim

  • Kim

    I got an email from SC who was commenting on this entry. He wanted to point out.. well.. I will post his comment here so you can read it for yourself. SC makes some extremely good points and I agree with what is said so completely that I felt I had to add it to this post!

    “Hi, I just read “Why does God let bad things happen” and was really blessed and reassured from what you shared.

    I also wanted to share something as well from your post, about when you said: “I tell you this – what I am going to do to him will make you weep tears of pity for him! Vengeance is mine and he will pay. Have no doubt about that. He only thinks he got away with what he did. They all just think they get away with sin but there is a price and they WILL have to pay it.”

    Despite the rapist’s sin, God still loves him. God does not love us any less for the sins that we commit or any more for the good works that we do. He simply loves us unconditionally. Yes, God is a God of Justice and hates the sin the man was committing, yet in the midst of man’s sin God is there loving him (his creation), and I think that is the greatest testament to how great and unfathomable His love is for us.

    He has already forgiven that man of his sin, but that man, like you mentioned, has blocked God out of his mind/life and until he repents and seeks God he will suffer the punishment of sin. But there is still hope for redemption, even for a man that rapes a 2 yr old girl, how amazing our Savior’s love is! 2 Corinthians 5:19 “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, NOT COUNTING people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

    Haha, just wanted to share that even that man’s punishment is not set in stone, that he still has the free will to turn back to God.

    Also I have a question as to “why God lets bad things happen.” What about natural disasters? Or times in the Bible when He would order to kill in wars and such? Thanks and God bless! SC”

    I have asked Him that question SC and I’m still waiting for an answer. God tends to tell me what He wants me to know, or thinks I need to know, and He’s given me nothing on the natural disasters etc lol.

  • JustinIsAlwaysWright

    Sup, I’m a Christian, like, hardcore New Testament Bible-Basher kind of Christian, and I’d just like to say that your use of foul language and the fact that you claim to have actual one-sided conversations with God kind of worries me…

    I mean, yeah, I understand having divine revelation and things like that, but actually TALKING to God? Were you being metaphorical, or do you actually claim to be able to speak with God, like hear His sentences the way Jesus did?

    Don’t get me wrong, I understand we all talk to God, but there’s a difference between saying “I prayed to God and He answered me with X,” or “I asked God how the weather was, and he said ‘Partly cloudly with a chance of rain.'”

  • Kim

    Hi JustinIsAlwaysWright,

    I’m glad to hear you are a committed Christian and sorry if my foul language upset you but do be careful that you “Judge not lest ye also be judged”.

    I don’t hear God with my ears if that is what you are asking. Moses may have heard God speak from within a burning bush but I don’t hear God that way.

    I don’t know how Jesus heard God so I don’t know if I hear God the same way Jesus did either.

    I hear God in my own thought processes. Sometimes He responds to me in complete sentences and other times He will bring to mind an image or a thing I have read, heard, seen, been told. Quite often it will be a line from scripture but a few times it has been a full and detailed conversation.

    If I asked God how the weather was I think He would answer me with a question about why I am not saying what is really on my mind.

    I am, of course, fully aware what I hear might just be my own imagination. You will have to read the words yourself and see what God says to you about them.

    All I know is sometimes what I hear seems to come from outside me in some way.

    I know who I am, how I think, what I know and what sort of things are likely to occur to me. Sometimes what comes to my mind doesn’t fit with anything I know about myself and those are the times I tend to think I have been hearing from either God or Satan.

    Whenever it happens I check to see if it could harm anyone else before I pass it on to others because the last thing I want to do is help Satan mess anyone up.

    I believe this is the explanation God gave me for why He may seem to let bad things happen but I am not saying anyone else has to believe. It’s up to God to use this or not as He see’s fit.

    I do believe God talks to me. I also believe God will talk to anyone who wants to hear from Him.

    Jesus died to pay for the sins that separate us from God. Anyone who has accepted that sacrifice has direct access to God himself 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year!

    God is not some divine being so far out of reach He has no interest or part to play in our daily lives. He is our loving father and He walks beside us every step of our journey through life.

    Why is it so hard for people to believe He would like to have conversations with us as we walk?

    I hope that has answered your concerns and thanks for commenting.

  • angeld

    Thankyou for this. I believe in God but am not a churchgoer. I was sexually abused by a 43 year old man when I was 14. I have not been able to forgive God and only came to terms with the abuse 20 years later.
    Other Christian websites suggest that the child is a sinner/not pure and that is why bad things happen. So, so glad I came across this too. Maybe he does care after all 🙂

    I will start listening more to that inner voice and take it from there.

  • Kim

    Thank you for your comment angeld and I am sorry to hear you went through so much pain.

    God does care and I pray you will soon know that for sure.

    Cheers – Kim

  • connor15

    Hi, im 17 male from england ,i was looking for a torrent movie to watch i come accross The Boys of St. Vincent i didnt read up on it it just sounded good so i watched it, i realy dont know what to say about the film i realy do suggest that you read up on it before replying to this unless you have heard or watched it before its based on a true story

    Film : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_of_St._Vincent

    True Story : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Cashel_Orphanage

    once youve read those youll understand the following :

    i dont know how to explain how i felt but if i knew who those people were i could have quite easy slaughtered them like never before anyway i took the dog out to try and clear my head walking through tesco at night time all closed big car park silence i was very angry i didnt neel down and pray but i did scream up to the sky asking why do you let these things happen, i didnt get any answer, so i decided to search google i seen this link and decided to skip it becuase it said God doesnt let bad things happen i was scrolling down and i just got like a nudge you could call it to go back to the top and click on it i did and my question was answered i may be wrong but i think that this was the answer he gave me.

    But i dont care what anyone would say though not the bible not god if i knew who these people are i would try my hardest to torture them like you could never imagine because no matter what anyone says THEY DESERVE IT.

    i do reccomend you watch that film you may learn a few things about yourself, it is a very very disturbing film & you shouldnt enjoy watching it one little bit if you do then something is seriosly wrong in your head but it does realy explain what these things are actualy like.

  • Kim

    Hi Connor15,

    Thank you for your comment and I am glad to hear you found the answer to your question here.

    I understand the rage and need for vengeance you feel but I hope you will do your best to let it go and trust that God will deal with those people.

    Whenever we let hate into our hearts it hardens us and damages us far more than it can ever harm those we hate.

    I pray God will soothe and comfort you always.

    Cheers – Kim

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