Does God Give Us Tools for Good Times and Bad Times?

In life, all of us have to go through patches of good times and bad times. This may cause you to ask, “If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, why does God give me bad times? Why can’t I only experience just the good times?”

In other words, you are asking, “Why doesn’t God pamper and mollycoddle me 24 hours a day, seven days a week?” Do you want to know why? Because doing so will make you weak and soft, unfit for life’s rigors.

Let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s suppose there are two children, Jack and Johnny, who are being reared by different parents. Jack’s parents teach him to face his problems and use the tools at his disposal to try to solve them. Contrarily, Johnny’s parents shield and protect him from all of life’s problems. Who do you think would be better equipped to handle life’s rigors? It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?

In the Bible, Isaiah 45:7 NLT states, “I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things.” So God gives us both good times and bad times. But God also gave us tools to handle the good times and bad times.

Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, discusses some of these tools when he said, “Be generous in prosperity and thankful in adversity . . .” If you want to be happy during good times, generosity is the ideal tool to use. If you share your good fortune with others, you will experience profound joy. We are wired this way.

On the other hand, if you want to be happy during bad times, thankfulness is the ideal tool to use. Though your life may be a living nightmare, if you thank God for the good things in your life daily, you just might find yourself smiling on the inside. This is because gratitude elicits the emotion of joy.

The End

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