Why are we supposed to thank God for the good in our lives but not blame Him for the bad things?

Question

Why is everything good supposed to be from God but bad things have other explanations...chance, human will etc?

What about bad things that occur through no decisions/fault of your own or anyone else?
Exp: miscarriage

Answer 1

Honey, there are no "pat" answers to this. The Bible tells us that God intends good for those that love Him, and it also tells us that satan hates us, he wants to take away our life, our happiness, and wants to take us to hell with him. Sometimes when people say "have faith", it doesn't help right then, and you feel hopeless. It's really hard, and it took me a while to learn it, but I have found that when you can't see His hand, trust His heart. He loves you like you love your own child. Trust that fact, hang on to it and you'll come through.

Answer 2

We should thank God for the good in our lives because God is not in need of us but we are instead in need of God who is most merciful and without God's mercy humans would have nothing. Do not blame God for the bad in your life but instead be patient because perhaps the bad could be a test which will bring about reward and blessings if you are patient and on the other hand we as humans cause bad to happen to our own selves. If you don't study well for class and you fail the course that is your own fault. Or if a person gets drunk and suffers the consequences of their bad choices then once again they brought it on themselves. So we should not blame God for the bad things that happen to us rather we should ask God to remove the bad from our lives and patiently endure. And we should thank God also when something bad should have happened due to our own actions but instead we were spared.

Answer 3

The good things and the bad things in life are ALL the result of seemingly unimportant decisions we make on a day to day basis.

When good results happen, we made good decisions.
When bad things happen, we made bad ones.

If we would learn from the bad ones and figure out what made the good ones good, we would all live happy, healthy lives.

If we are waiting for God to make things better, we will still be waiting when Jesus returns.

Free will and intelligence are humanity's most wondrous gifts from God. Giving both up for the "will of God," will only result in disaster. God's will is that we all do the best we can and learn from all our mistakes and vow to not make them again when we realize what went wrong. Predestination is not a good doctrine. Our lives are not planned out by God. We get to choose our path every step of the way... and every decision/choice reflects what we have learned and what we haven't.

Answer 4

It's OK to ask God why. Am I going to tell a greiving mother that she can't ask why? No. God is greater than we are and it is only natural (sometimes) to ask Him why. As mere humans we can never fully understand the workings of a perfect all powerful God. As long as we keep our relationship with God and in the end trust him, he will heal whatever's hurting, if we let Him.
Even Jesus, when He was on the cross asked His Father why He had forsaken him. Was this because he had no faith in His father? Of course not. If this were the case He would not be or stay on the cross in the first place. He was simply expressing how he felt as, when the Sins of the world were upon Him, the presence of His Father seemed so far.

I would make a distinction in words though. To ask why is O.K. But to straight out blame God is to pass judgement upon His actions. Who are we to pass the final judgement on an all knowing, all powerful, loving and wise God? Just because we don't understand what's happening in our life doesn't mean the God is trying to ruin it for us.

Answer 5

Thank God for ALL events and experiences. Those that you perceive as both good and bad. Thank God for everything. There are lessons and meaning even in negative events, that we cannot see in the moment. Sometimes it takes some (or a lot) of time and sometimes we may never see the meaning because it may have been meant for someone else who was involved, not for us.

Thank God for giving us the power (free will) to create our own reality.

The universal law of attraction suggests that the vibrations (via our conscious or unconscious beliefs, thoughts, words, actions) that we put into the world, and whether they are positive or negative, love-based or fear-based, lead to the events that we experience in return, in one form or another. These vibrations occur singly, by individuals and collectively, by societies and cultures.

Answer 6

We thank God for the good things in our lives, because if it weren't for Him, there would be no good or bad.

It comes back to the free will thing. He gave us the free will to chose. Therefore bad things came from our free will to chose to do right or wrong. The things go bad in the world not because God made them go bad. They go badly because some poor misguided soul/souls made a wrong decision somewhere down the line and now we are facing the consequences.

We also blame him, if you can call it blame, because we feel like HE is the one with the answers. We have to say "why" to someone... for their is no one else to answer.

Answer 7

Sin comes from our own heart not from God. As far as trials in life why would we complain. We still sin and are worthy of nothing good from God. Yet those who are saved by Him He is so great and merciful that He makes even the so called bad things turn out for our good. A prime example was the killing of the Son of God. This was the worst thing man could do yet God used it to save many people. His ways are always good even if in our sin darkened eyes we can't see it.

Answer 8

I don't personally believe that ONLY good things should be credited to God. Lots of bad things happen and God allows it... but its usually to make us stronger, teach us something, remind us that we are not invincible.

Sometimes we don't know what's best for us. He does. Also, when something bad happens and its based on hate (i.e. 9/11), its kind of impossible to say that God did that. He may have allowed that, because he doesn't CONTROL us... and that action was hate, hate is sin, sin is the Devil.

We praise him for the good in our lives because there are a lot of elements involved in... having a beautiful life, a good family, a wonderful significant other, exceptional talents that get you into the job you want... because those are all gifts that he gave us. The reason that good came of it was because WE made the right decisions and WE allowed his blessings to blossom to their full potential.

Answer 9

We are to give God praise. We praise him for good but we need to realize that he is in control of EVERYTHING. Good and bad. He has a reason for everything and it is not for us to know why. I think it is human nature to be thankful for the good things but we dont thank him for the bad. I am not saying to thank him for the bad but we do need to acknowledge him for it. It is all his will and what he wants. If you think about the bad things that happened in our lives we can see where it made a definate difference in where we are today. Now think what may have happened if that b ad thing didnt happen. For instance.....I go in for a job interview of a lifetime. I dont get the job. I now work with a handicapped boy, helping him with his physical therapy and rehabilitation. I can honestly say that this job has humbled me in realizing that even though this little boy had almost died and cannot walk on his own nor see...it has brought him to Christ. At the same time, had I gotten that job of a lifetime...it could have caused me to be prideful, greedy and unGodly.

Answer 10

GOD created everything good, we have from the beginning of all things taking free will and and turned it into our pleasure and desire which is sometimes bad,when it dint go our way and doesn't work we always want to blame GOD for what we do, we say, and how we do it, how is that GODS purpose for lives? read the bible old and new and you will know that GOD is not at fought, read it for yourself and dint take the answer from nobody else, just between you and GODS word, the bible says to seek first the kingdom of GOD and all other things will be clear.

Answer 11

A good question.

The answer gets a little befuddled if you are constrained by your religious beliefs. I believe, as human beings, we are responsible for our actions. Consequently, the good and bad in our lives is the result of our decisions and our actions.

Every religion is based on faith, not on "knowing" - hence in the end, there has to be a leap of faith between knowing and believing.

I believe in GOD because that is the only way I can explain creation and existence. So, I pray to God and leave dogmatic religion to all those followers of their beliefs. I have no problem going to a church, a temple, a mosque, a synagogue or wherever to pray, but I pray to God. I do not believe in taking chances, going through a 'middle-man' and KNOW that GOD will understand and accept my prayers. Religion is for power hungry people trying to force their beliefs on others. No one KNOWS - they just keep the faith, and cling to their beliefs.

In the end, it does no good to blame or thank God for your bad or good fortune - you have only yourself to blame!

Good luck to all of you!