Why is God allowing this?

Question

A dear friend of mine is a strong christian woman & is truely selfless with everything she does, as most of what she does is of benefit for someone else. She has a strong faith in God & is always doing her best to learn more about the bible & her christianity.
She has a rare type of cancer, & it has nearly killed her. She tells me that she believes God will heal her, so I have been believing this, as I have seen people that have been healed from illnesses. But as time has gone on, she has been getting so ill, that now she is at deaths door, & yet God still wont heal her, even when so many people are praying for her.

I don't go to church, but I have kept a belief that God exists, but I struggle with alot of things. What I do know to be true, & what I'm finding not to be true, is more of a struggle, & I can't understand why God tells us in the bible that prayer is important (you know that bit in the bible that says if two people get together to pray...) I'm angry with God for this.

Answer 1

Maybe it's God's will that she goes home. God has His reasons for everything. Can you accept His answer that no, He may not heal her? Can she?

Answer 2

Don't be angry with god, be angry with the church that feeds you lies. I'm sorry about your friend and I'm sure she is a wonderful person, but god will not heal her. Think of all the starving children in the world, of all the abused and neglected children. The war the poverty, the birth defects that affect so many people. Does god help them at all? Why should your friend be more important then them. Don't you see that God does not interfere with human lives. He just lets us be, it is a learning process and he lets us learn on our own. In my opinion the bible is a good book for inspiration but it should not be taken so literally. Although your friend is dying it is all part of life. Think of god as goodness, goodness exists because we have all experienced it at one point or another. But if good things do not happen you should not be mad at the virtue of goodness. The church has given god human attributes, it makes you think that he is there on a throne, looking down and deciding not to help your friend. Do you really think it works that way? If He heals her then what about the other million faithful people that have cancer? If things were like that then the world would be perfect. Your wasting your energy being angry with god, use your energy to make your friends last days on earth the best she has ever experienced, and how much she means to you. That is all that you can really do.

Answer 3

I am really sorry to hear about your freind. I can totally relate to you and your pain. I can also relate to the "anger" you have towards G-D. There isn't anything I can really say to alleviate your feelings, except that imagine going through this WITHOUT belief in G-D. As I write this, I have a dear freind which is in the hospital in and out of a coma state. He is a healthy and strong athlete which was hit by a truck while out cycling. If it is G-D's will to save his life, he may not be able to walk again. He has a wife and 3 small children. How do you explain that? Besides, he has done SOOOO much for so many people. So, is it that "bad things happen to good people"? I think "bad things happen" to all kinds of people, regardless of wether they are "good" or "bad". Why do these things happen? I have NO idea, but we must keep the faith that G-D can save in an instant just as he can make ill in an instant. Obviously it is beyond our comprehension, but what else do we have if not to beleive that G-D is All Powerful and can save in a fraction of a second.

I am Jewish, and we beleive that it can help if we add a daily Mitzvah (Good Deed) to what we already do in order to bring down G-D's mercy. You may want to give some charity on a daily basis (it could be just a .25 coin to a homeless person) but you should commit to doin it everyday and keep in mind you are doing it in the name of G-D. You may also want to recite a Psalm or do some other Good Deed in the merit of your freinds recovery. May it be G-D's will that your freind recover to her full health along with all those that are not yet well. Take care.

Answer 4

Dude, I'm sorry that you had to find out about it this way, but "god" is not real. I have also found the "If two or more are gathered in his name, it will be done" to be a lie. But, there are many more reasons not to believe. The more you seek, you will find that the bible is a book full of stories written by old dead jewish guys who wanted to paint a picture of their people as "god's chosen people" and better than everyone else, to the point of attributing mass genocides to be his will. No one truly knows for sure if "god" ever existed or still does. But I know one thing, he doesn't really listen or do anything to stop bad things from happening to good people. I personally, after being brought up in church by a southernbaptist pastor as my dad, have decided that "god" is not real. If I find out someday that I was wrong, I will not fall on my knees and apologize. Rather, I will ask for some answers to alot of angry questions.

Answer 5

First of all, no matter what people tell you, it's ok to be angry with God. It shows that you have a relationship with Him, not just blind faith. Second, even though your friend believes God will heal her, and He certainly does have the power to do so...what if it's not in His plan to heal her? He has some huge plan that we don't know about. Perhaps her suffering is helping someone else, even you, deal with their own problems and inner struggle. If He should call her to Him, try not to be angry, just remember she had a purpose.

Answer 6

Just remember that whatever God decides to do, He will do so to glorify Him. He is omnipotent and does not make any mistakes or half steps.

Maybe she is suffering so that those who have never prayed are now finding relationship with God and praying. Maybe their diligence will eventually bring forth healing.

Remember His delay is not His denial. Just keep praying. No matter what… He is still God. If He does not heal your friend and she dies, remember to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord (something like that). She would have transcended to the place we are trying to go. Is it so bad?

And if He does decide to heal her body; remember that she will be a living testimony for many. And those who prayed will never be the same.

Answer 7

I consider the jewels of life to be:

our memories
our dreams
our relationships
our loved ones

The friendship you have with her is what is important. Faith is an ever-mysterious thing; the second we think we have put the harness on it, it bucks and kicks and runs free onto its own unknowable path. Her knowing that you and all her other friends and family are there for her are the true gifts from Divinity, unto ourselves and eachother. Focus less on God answering or not answering prayers and more on the things we CAN control, like holding your friend's hand, making her some soup and making her laugh. You will feel less powerless.

Answer 8

Why do bad things happen to good people? No religion has ever been able to answer this question satisfactorily.

The easy answer for believers is, "It's God's will." I can't buy that. The idea that God is kind and loving, and the fact that horrific suffering exists, are mutually exclusive. A kind and loving God would not "allow" tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes that kill tens of thousands of innocent people. If God is kind, he is not all-powerful. If he is all-powerful, he is not kind. This is why I have come to believe that the universe is a purely random place.

Answer 9

I believe our lives are all interlocked in some ways. When it's our time, it's our time. It might not be in her own best interest to continue living here. I'm sure she's taking comfort in knowing that she'll be someplace a lot better, a place where God really is in charge. You will miss her, but there's a good chance that you'll see her again. It's normal to be angry when things don't go the way we want them to. When prayers aren't answered, there's a reason… usually a reason only God knows.

Answer 10

There are things more important than our physical health. Of course, we do what we can to preserve our health, but at a certain point we must leave it in God's hands, that He will take care of the matter up in heaven in the manner of His choosing.

Let me ask you something - what is a greater victory:

1. having the cancer go away, or

2. getting a new metastatic tumor every two days in your lymph nodes, the operation isn't for another two weeks yet, only God knows whether they will catch it in time - and sleeping with angelic peace through all that?

Let's say God gave me the opportunity to find out the answer to that question from experience :>

Answer 11

Hey! u dare not get angry with God. take note, for the fact that a child who needs to be opearated through surgery should not be allowed by the parent coz of the pains the child will pass through... this does not mean uncaring on part of the parent if they agreed to their child's operation. So, for the fact that God allowed painful experiences to happen to u does not mean- He caused it coz James chapter 1 verse 13 says-"with evil, God does not try anybody"...this means there is somebody behind our painful experiences who does not want our happiness at all- SATAN.

However, God's purpose 4rm beginning of creation for human has always been - "a place of delight"- PARADAISE, that's why He placed Adam and Eve in this beautiful garden but they choose the painful experience which human are experiencing 2day but He (GOD) has promise to fulfil His promises-Paradaisic condition. So, cheer up, if it is in God's memorial, ur friend may still come back to life during ressurection according to John chapter 5 verse 28 and 29.