Have you ever been a situation that seemed so devastating it would crush you, only to find out later that God not only brought you through it but also made you stronger for it? My recent guest on Your Hope-Filled Perspective, Patricia Durgin, shared how her family came through financial devastation and found that what the enemy intended for harm, God really did use for good. If you missed that episode, you can listen here (How to Maintain Your Hope in the Face of Financial Catastrophe – Episode 74). Sometimes when crisis hits, we ask If God loves me so much, why is this happening to me? I’ve asked Patricia to share what she learned here.

Why Is This Happening to Me?
By Patricia Durgin

Christians throughout the ages have asked the question, If God loves me so much, why is this happening to me? I have. You, too? No one can answer it to our satisfaction except God, and He rarely does.

Instead of explaining His plan—and how our loss, sickness, or tragedy will work for our good and further His cause—He tends to let our story play out with no fast-forward button.

Popular Christianity proclaims that God wants us to be happy, that He guarantees to keep us from all harm, and that anytime we call upon Him, He will immediately deliver us. That once
we accept salvation, hardships will no longer be part of our lives. Alas, none of this is true.

The Bible teaches authentic Christianity instead…that God honors obedience above all (we’re told flat-out that we’ll suffer). That He commits to keeping our spirit from all harm (though not necessarily our physical bodies). And that when we call upon Him, He will send His peace (and His endurance) while we await deliverance. The Holy Word teaches that hardships are sent or allowed to strengthen our ties—and our relationship—to God. To empower our witness for Him.

This is not how I want it to be! When tragedy strikes, I want Jesus to swoop down, scoop me into His arms and rescue me from all danger, much like Superman repeatedly rescues Lois Lane. Christ hasn’t done that once!

Sometimes He leads us right into danger.

In obedience to God’s directions, my husband David and I purchased a business in March 2015. We opened the business with high expectations of serving clients well for years and eventually selling the business when we retired, to then move into full-time volunteer service for God.

Instead, the business failed and was closed in November 2017. It was a financial catastrophe that still affects us now, years later. In His kindness, God has lifted us almost out of the pit. We now stand on its rim, our back to it. A single step more and we’ll breathe free air once again. Hallelujah!

Almighty God led us into this disaster, then He led us through it, and now He’s delivering us from it. He intended us to walk through the Scary Forest, to further His cause in ways we cannot yet see. We may never understand this side of heaven, and once in heaven, it won’t matter.

Some Christians announce that calamity only visits those believers who disobey God. “Repent and be forgiven!” is their go-to-response for every bit of bad news.

The other side of this wacky Christian coin reads, “If God told you to do it, it’s guaranteed to be a success!”

Obeying God was how David and I got into that mess. Clinging to Him closer still is how we’re escaping it. Our business failed to the uttermost. Our losses, oh, our losses! To be rescued from near death of any kind sinks faith roots 20, 50, or 100 feet further than they’d grown before.

Our enemy tells us the words “believe” and “understand” are synonymous. Another lie. Swallowing that fiction can keep us trapped in a spiritual limbo, half-believing, half-doubting God for years. This must not be!

We so want to hear our Holy Father assure us that our pain accomplished something. That it righted some great wrong. “That would make the pain worth it,” we think, without realizing we’re thinking it.

God offers no such assurances. Yet He’s proven that He won’t ask us to sacrifice anything for Him that His Son didn’t first sacrifice for us.

Are you inside a whirlwind of pain and trouble today? Do unanswerable questions assail you every moment? When you look into your future, do you see only a gray, empty void?

God doesn’t mind if we wonder, “If You love me so much, why did this happen?” But He doesn’t answer the “Why?” question, instead asking us to trust Him come what may.

To stand hip-deep in the shards of our life and declare, “I still believe!” is the greatest gift we can offer humanity, for every individual desperately seeks Someone to believe in.

Perhaps what’s happening to you is because God Almighty loves you so much. Because He trusts you so much. Because He looked to and fro to see which of His beloved children could take His message to those in your circles of influence, and He chose you…to glorify Him.

How have you seen Him work through times of disaster? We’d love to hear in the comments below.

Patricia Durgin

About Patricia Durgin

Patricia Durgin began studying online marketing in 1995, the year Amazon sold its first book. Since then, she’s invested thousands of dollars to learn from leaders in the field, and countless hours adapting those principles for Christian writers and speakers. Online marketing is a confusing tangle of technology and messaging. Patricia helps Christian communicators cut a straight path, so they can escape the maze and fulfill their true calling, which is to reach more people for Christ.

Connect with Patricia here:  Website / Facebook Profile / Facebook Business