> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part 4) - URL: https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-4/ - Published: 2026-08-08T19:19:39.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-08T21:35:32.000Z - Author: m - Tags: Bible, Christian, grief, hope, loss, verses, why do bad things happen to good people ## How understanding why bad things happen helps us to respond well *This is the fourth in a multi-part series on what the Bible says about why bad things happen to ‘good’ people. You can*[ *read Part 1 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/),[ *Part 2 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-2/)*, and* [*Part 3 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-3/)*.* When I was a girl, I was the type of kid who would ask ‘but why?’ approximately 525,600 times a day 😁. Yes, I know, I was *that* kid. I think sometimes, for the adults around me, it seemed like I was trying to ‘know it all’. Or maybe they thought I was just trying to drive them insane. I promise I wasn’t. If you are a quintessential, ‘but why?’ kid at heart like me, maybe you can relate. If not, you may find this entire series unnecessary. Or maybe just not that helpful for you. That’s OK. We are all different and different things help different people. There may be other tools or articles that would provide more comfort or help to you (feel free to let me know if you’d like other recommended resources)! But if you *are* like me, then all those whys weren’t an exercise in futility, but a tool for understanding. Correctly understanding a situation allows you to find the best solution, which is sometimes different than the first one suggested or even the most popular one. The better we understand ‘why’ something happens, the more effective our response can be. That’s why digging in to understand what the Bible says about why bad things happen was so important to me. I started this study over 10 years ago, and then when I went through a series of losses in my life, my understanding of who God is and why these things happen helped me to endure the pain without it shaking my faith. The premises we hold about God… the things we think are true… we use to form conclusions. And if those premises are wrong, our conclusions are likely to be too. Those faulty conclusions can end up causing a lot of hurt and pain when our expectations are crushed by reality. On the other hand, when we have a more accurate understanding of who God is and what He’s promised, they can provide hope, even in the midst of really difficult circumstances. **In today’s article, we’ll look at some common ways of feeling when we have an overly simplistic understanding of why bad things happen to ‘good’ people. And we’ll explore how understanding the truth of what God says in His word can help.** In Part 1 of this series, we explored the faulty premise that people often have around why bad things happen. People often have a simplistic view that God will cause good things to happen to good people and bad things to happen to bad people. This is not what the Bible teaches, but it seems fair to us on the surface. I won’t go into why this is not accurate since that is covered in [the Part 1 post](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/). Here, we’ll look at what types of emotions come up, when we have that erroneous way of thinking. **This 2 X 2 chart helps show some of the feelings we naturally have when bad things happen to good people. These feelings tend to come up when we start with an incorrect view of who God is and how He works.** ![chart showing how we feel when bad things happen to good people](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/c5/51c5be2e-d563-4526-ac8b-651e4546a19c/content/images/2026/08/chart-showing-feelings-when-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-2-1.jpg) What the chart shows is that there are some common unhelpful ways we can feel, if we don’t understand what the Bible says about why bad things happen to ‘good’ people’. We are going to focus on these responses. **When bad things happen to people we see as good, often our natural responses are to either blame the person suffering or to feel God is being unfair.** **Victim blaming happens when we assume someone must have secretly done something bad to cause the bad in their life.** Sometimes people try to point out what they think the specific thing is. We see this happen to Job when his friends blame him for the bad in his life. It’s important to note that God says at the beginning of the book of Job that he is more righteous than anyone else, which would presumably include his friends. > …“Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” > Job 1:8 (ESV) So here, not understanding how bad things work causes Job’s friends to make the mistake of insulting him when he is already going through unimaginable loss. It’s important to realize that Job’s friends aren’t ‘bad’ people either. They may even be trying to help Job by telling him what they think will end his suffering. They just don’t understand the complexity of why bad things happen. This mistaken understanding though, can lead to unintentional hurt. **Eliphaz (one of Job’s friends) says this to Job:** > Come to terms with God and be at peace; > in this way good will come to you. > Receive instruction from his mouth, > and place his sayings in your heart. > If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed… > Job 22:21-23a (CSB) Can you hear how much this speech from Eliphaz can sound like us today? Eliphaz is basically saying to Job (perhaps while shaking his finger!), “If you are suffering the solution is to return to God!” It sounds like good advice- even godly! But can you see the hidden implication there? Eliphaz is implying the reason Job is suffering is because of some sin Job must have committed- straying from God. He says if you return to God- happiness guaranteed! Doesn’t that sound like the simplistic way of thinking about suffering we looked at in [Part 1](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/)? Eliphaz’s response sounds somewhat logical to us. Especially when we have a simplistic understanding of why bad things happen. But consider what God says about his response. **God says to Eliphaz:** > After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. > Job 42:7 (CSB) **Job’s wife makes the second mistake, by blaming God.** So we see one of Job’s friends make the mistake of blaming the suffering person. Job’s wife makes the second common mistake when bad things happen to ‘good' people, she blames God. Perhaps because she is closer to Job, she doesn’t suggest that he’s done something wrong, but instead she makes the mistake of wanting to curse God. Just like with Job’s friends, we don’t want to look down on her. It’s important to stop and recognize the pain she must have felt. She lost all of her children too. They all were killed in just one day. Unimaginable suffering for most of us. And in her pain, she mistakenly concludes that God isn’t fair. She thinks He just can’t be trusted. She gives up in despair and tells Job they should just give up on God and die. This is one of the other common responses we see when disproportionately hard things happen. Her lack of understanding leads her to feel OK cursing the same God who has been the source of all of her blessings. The One who created and blessed her with the children she loves and misses so much. **So if blaming the person hurting or blaming God are not the correct responses, what is?** How does God call us to respond to suffering based on our understanding of what Jesus did ([explained in Part 2](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-2/))? There are many verses that talk about this, but one I find encouraging is Philippians 4:13\. Looking at Paul’s response when he is suffering. > I can do all things through him who strengthens me. > Philippians 4:13 (ESV) Sometimes this verse is mistakenly applied to hustle culture, but it’s not saying if we work hard enough we can make anything happen. Instead Paul is expressing a resolute trust in our God who is powerful to sustain us through any bad thing. We see this by looking at the passage in context: > I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. > Philippians 4:10-13 (ESV) Paul isn’t saying here that he doesn’t have any needs because he has things all on his own. He’s trusting in God, even in the middle of bad things happening. At the time he writes ‘I can do all things’ he is in prison unjustly. This faith Paul expresses seems almost unrealistic. Sometimes faith can almost look like pride- especially from a distance. The difference is that pride is trusting in oneself. Faith is trusting in God. From the outside, if all someone sees is trust, they may misunderstand the source. **The chart of how God calls us to feel is more like this:** ![chart showing what God says in the Bible about how people are to feel when bad things happen to good people](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/c5/51c5be2e-d563-4526-ac8b-651e4546a19c/content/images/2026/08/chart-showing-how-God-calls-us-to-respond-when-things-happen-2-1.jpg) **No matter how bad the things are that we experience in this life, when we are trusting in Christ, we can always rejoice that the pain is temporary but the joy will be eternal.** By looking at what the Bible really says about why things happen, we can avoid the trap of sinning against God and hurting others in our response to them. And we can trust in the True Hope that Jesus brings. At the end of the book of Job we see God restore so many of the things Job lost. He even allowed him to have more children, but it’s hard to imagine that Job and his wife did not still carry the pain of the children they’d lost. This Old Testament restoration seems to hint at the full restoration that will come for everyone who is trusting in Christ. [Because Jesus succeeded at being perfectly good](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-3/), even the most painful losses in Christ, will be restored. > Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. > Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.”... > Revelation 21:3-5a (CSB) Consider this: the Bible doesn’t tell us explicitly- so we don’t know for sure, but based on what it does tell us, we have lots of reasons to believe that Job and his wife are reunited with their children now, even as we read about their lives. Can you imagine the joy! They suffered for 140 years without their older children, but now it’s been thousands of years that they’ve likely been reunited. Even more unimaginable is that Job’s greatest joy is not that he’s in the presence of his children again, but that he is in the presence of his Savior, Jesus! God used the suffering in his life to encourage believers for millennia. God used the faith Job expressed to help encourage us. And one day, all of us in Christ will rejoice with Job “I know my Redeemer lives!” (Job 19:25) Thank you for reading. *This is the fourth in a multi part series on what the Bible says about why bad things happen to ‘good’ people. You can*[ *read Part 1 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/),[ *Part 2 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-2/)*, and* [*Part 3 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-3/)*.* If you would like to receive an email as soon as a new article posts, you can sign up[ here](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/). This copy in this article was written by a real person, me 🙂, not AI. (Note: All of the text in the charts, their layout and copy were written by me. The graphical elements were created with the help of AI.) For true hope and joy, \~m