Hope After Loss - Leaning on God After Losing a Loved One to AddictionНамуна

Why Did This Happen?

I was just certain God was going to heal my daughter from her addiction and use her to help other people. Lexi had experienced God’s loving grace, had fought to turn her life around, and had lived in sobriety for almost a year. She had such a testimony, and such a love for sharing it with others. I felt like I had been believing and trusting in God for her healing for so long. And then: relapse, and suddenly, she was gone. Many times God had preserved her life in the past. Why not now? It didn’t make any sense. I felt betrayed by God. Why, God? Why?

At the Christian school where I teach, the kindergartners are taught catechism questions based on the Westminster Confession of Faith to help them learn truths about God at their level. One day as I was lamenting the loss of Lexi, the first few questions rang through my head:

Who made you?

God.

What else did God make?

God made all things.

Why did God make you and all things?

For His own glory.

The answer to my “Why?” was right there at the beginning of this children’s catechism. God created everything that exists. He sustains His creation, works through His creation, and allows all things to happen with one purpose in mind: HIS OWN GLORY.

But what about sin, suffering, and death? Can God even use those awful things for His glory? He can and He does.

Examples of this are found throughout the entire Bible, but one of my favorites is the story of Joseph. Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Isaac, is hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, and unjustly imprisoned in a foreign land. But through all of these trials, he remains faithful to God, and is eventually raised up to be second in command over all of Egypt. This allows him to save not only his family but the entire country from famine. In the end, he is able to forgive his brothers and acknowledge, “...you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” (Gen. 50:20).

Did he understand why everything happened at the time, why evil seemed to keep prevailing in his life? No. But even through years of betrayal, isolation, and unjust punishment, he continued to be obedient and faithful to God. Our continued faith and obedience to God, in the midst of hard things, brings Him glory.

Isaiah 57:1 says, “Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come.” Could it be that God chose to rescue our loved ones from their battles on this earth for their own good? Or that He was protecting them from future sufferings they would have had to endure?

The bottom line is we may never know the answers. And that is okay. We have a loving God whom we can trust. His sovereign plan is like a pillow we can fall back on, with the comfort that His way is what is best for us and our loved ones, and that he is working all things together for our good and His glory.

Today’s Challenge:
Can you continue to trust and obey God, even though you do not have the answers?

Prayer:
Lord, today I surrender to your will. You tell us that everything works together for those who love you and are called according to your purpose. Let me rest in your sovereign will and your glory.