Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Why do bad things happen to good people? : follow Him Favorites

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from Genesis 37-41.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/episodesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers/SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: MarketingLisa Spice: Client Relations, Show Notes/TranscriptsJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Rough Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Transcripts/Language Team/French TranscriptsAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.

Hello my friends welcome to follow him favorites this year for come follow me John and I are answering a question That goes with each week's lesson and this question John is one that we're not just gonna hit this week We'll be hitting it for the rest of our lives Because this this happens all the time happens. I get this question frequently I think I just got it yesterday It it comes in different forms, but really what it is is, I was trying so hard to be good. I was doing my best and this bad thing happened to me, right?

We're talking about Joseph of Egypt, who was doing his best and here all of these terrible things happen to him and the question is why? Why do these bad things happen to people who are trying to be good? I'm sure this is something that comes up in with your friends, family, students, because it comes up with mine all the time. What do you think? What do you say? Boy, Hank, we could talk about this both of us for hours. I think sometimes you have to look at what are bad things

because sometimes we cause our own problems. Sometimes other people misuse their agency terribly. Tragic stories about that. Sometimes things are pretty random, but some better ways that I try to approach it is what do we know for sure? We know God loves His children, but we don't know the meaning of all things

to quote Nephi, right? And the thing that's wonderful is God can even turn bad things into something wonderful. When we look at the story of Joseph at the end, he says like three times in a row, God sent me before you to prepare you to save you. And I mean the brothers could have been going, no, we sold you. We remember the story. But Joseph has this great perspective. He's like, I get it now. God didn't ask you to sell me. You did, but God turned that into something wonderful.

And I think it was President Steve Lund. I heard, say once, the young men's general president that God doesn't cause all suffering, but he never wastes it. He'll find something to turn it for our growth and our good. We know that a Bennett I burned. It's possible to do everything right and still suffer, but we know Shatterak, Meeshak, and Nabadnego didn't. And so that's kind of a puzzling thing that we see. Bad things happen to good people.

Joseph Smith, Liberty Jail, and what does the Lord say to him? The Son of Man have descended below them all. I mean, it's a constant question, and it's a good question, but it comes down to trusting God, doesn't it, I think? We probably come into this with a bad assumption, and the bad assumption is, if I do what is right, if I really strive to keep the commandments and do what God has asked me,

then no bad thing will ever happen to me. And when it does, then I, what did I do wrong? What, why would this happen to me? Where our assumptions probably off. If we look in the scriptures, there's plenty of examples of people doing really well, keeping the commandments, being obedient, and things turn wrong, things go against them. But you're right, John. Second, if I too, right there in the beginning, God will consecrate thine affliction for thy gain. I can take something terrible and make it beautiful,

but you gotta give him time, you gotta give him trust. Isaiah says, he gives us beauty for ashes. For ashes. And we're not talking about a God who says, well, I'm gonna stay up here drinking piniacal adaz while you go down there and suffer. Here's Jesus saying, I will go down there too. I will experience all this suffering, rejection, heartache with you. Like you said, section 122, I will descend below them all. So I can experience this too. So I know how to help you, Alma 7. That vision of Enic that we talked about that's so beautiful. How is it that

thou canst weep, you know? And it's so it's poetry, it's beautiful. Thy tears is rain upon the mountains. It's Satan looks up in laughs, God looks down in weeps. And the thing I love about that is it teaches us God is not unaffected by our problems. Like you said, I heard somebody say something once that I just loved. I had to write it now. God is more interested in our growth than he is in our comfort. Again, sometimes we cause our own trial, sometimes other people's bad agency, but God will find a way to help us to grow through that. And then we find out really even our bad things can be turned to our benefit eventually. And I just love the word eventually, Hank. All the be attitudes are eventually blessed.

Are the are right now, poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are mean for they shall be eventually. There's a future possibility. So we got a trust in Lord. Yeah, we trust in the plan. There's this story in John chapter nine where this man is blind and his apostles, the Savior's apostles say, who did sin? This man or his parents? Yeah, there must be a reason. Bad thing happened. There's got to be someone who made a mistake. And Jesus says, nobody sinned, right? This is this is God's plan for him, but nobody sends, nobody does anything wrong for this bad thing to happen. It's kind of a pervasive doctrine that bad things are always attached to sin and that good things are always attached to obedience and keeping the commandments. We'll be coming up on Job and we'll see that same thing.

Everybody's, well, maybe you did this, maybe you did this. They call it the doctrine of retribution or law of retribution or something. There must be a reason. And in this case, this is the Lord giving him something puzzling that they wrestle with, but Job is amazing through the whole thing. We're here to become something. Remember King Benjamin? We're here in the natural man's, in enemy to God, and and will be forever unless he or she yields to the

enticings of the Holy Spirit puts off the natural man and becomes a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord and become of this child's submissive meek humble willing to submit to all things. It's the Lord's he has fit to inflict upon him even as a child thus submit to his father. So this idea of your difficulties and trials are creating something, right? They're a pathway to becoming more like God is an important perspective so we can keep going

down that plan, trust in the plan. The end result is gonna look beautiful. I've often said that when the provostavronackel bird down it was probably pretty mad at God, right? He's saying, hey I tried really hard to be a good building. Look what happened. Thanks a lot. There's other buildings on this street that deserve this. There's a good church for 124 years and then I get burned down. That's a good beauty for ashes. Thank you so much. And then here the Lord might say to it, hold on, hold on, let me,

let me do my work, let me do, and then you know, you end up with the Provo city center temple where the Lord would say, see, I had a plan for you all along. I like to see myself or others in that same, you know, in that process that the Lord sees the end result. He sees the end from the beginning. He's saying, hold on, hold on. I see the end, it looks good, the end looks good. And sometimes when we go through something difficult, we become such a tool that the Lord can use when somebody else is going through it. And he can put us in their same space

and we can say, oh, I know what you're going through. And it's a huge benefit to people when they have a trial just to know that somebody else has been there. Been there and made it through and you can sit with them and it's firm in the faith. Yeah, you call it same boat therapy. Same boat therapy. I've been in the same boat and really, oh, then you can help me and we can become something together. Love that word become. Go find October 2000, President Oaks, the challenge to become. What a great talk. It's not about what we know, it's not even about what we do, it's what we are becoming

in the process. The other day I was at a fireside and I met with a family whose father had just been killed in a car accident. He was fine that morning. Things were going great, right? Family was happy. Everybody's doing well. And by that evening he had been killed. And their faith was amazing. We trust in the plan they told me. We trust in God's plan for us. Even though it's hard right now, we know he sees the end. We know. And I was just so amazed by it's incredible the faith that is shown by saints across the world when difficulty happens and they

stand up on the earth. I think Joseph Smith said that to the 12th, stand up on the earth. You know what I love about that is some people will say, well, religion is a crutch for the weak or something like that, but I think, ah, it's not a crutch. That is power. To be able to respond that way after that. Yeah. And so I like to say, it's not a crutch, it's more like a sword.

And sometimes we have to lean on it. But faith in Christ is a power and to power to get through things. And it's like, I lean on my sword for a minute, but I know in whom I have trusted, my God has been my support to quote me, fire, right? And to see an example, just like you gave, and I saw it in my own Sunday school class last Sunday, like that, where wow, that's not weakness, that's power.

Trust in God is power to get through life. It's a beautiful thing, and it's inspiring. The people who are listening to this right now going through, I'm going to really hard things I'm suffering. The fact that you're listening to this, that you're still moving forward, that you're still grasping at faith. That is inspiring to the people around you. And that's one of the ways God's going to consecrate this affliction for your gain is you're going to become an instrument in his hands. And often, John, it's just you can't understand the wisdom comes from walking through it. I hate to say that, but

there's some things you just can't learn through reading about them or hearing someone talk about them. Just going through that terrible, hellish darkness yourself, you come out different. You can come out holy. I remember our friend Chris Belcher said, hard times can become holy. She talked about her cancer and her brain and the meningitis she had and the pain she went through

and she said, my hard times have become holy because I turned to him. I turned to the one who can make my hard times holy. He did it for me. My hard times became holy. Now I'm thinking to section 58. You cannot be hold with your natural eyes for the present time, the design of your God, with those things which will come here after. And it's kind of just hold on. God can do great things with even our hard times. I have to remind myself that we signed up for this, right? Elder Maxwell said, because it says,

the sons of God shouted for joy in the book of Job at the prospect of coming to earth. And he says, now that we're here, we're wondering, what was all the shouting about? You know? See how long we could go on in this topic, Hank? We hope that maybe something today has been a blessing to those of you who are struggling.

Keep going, keep going. Whatever you're going through. Yeah, Lord knows. He knows you, he knows the end from the beginning, and you will see his hand as you move forward. We hope that you will join us next week for another follow him favorites. Come over and listen to the full podcast this week. We're talking about Joseph of Egypt. You're going to want to hear this.

It's a great story. Speaking of bad things happening to go to someone who took a difficult turns of other people's choices and just difficult things of life and tried to make the best out of them. And God turned them into holy consecrated efforts. Come on over and join us. But if not, that's okay. Join us next week for another Follow Him Favorites. you