When God Doesn't Fix It: Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn, Truths You Can't Live Without

by Laura Story

Looking back, it’s easy to see that all the arrows in my life pointed to me, not to God.

I heard a message reminding me how much God loves me. I had nothing to offer him in return.

the speaker said God didn’t want anything from me; he had something for me. I was God’s child, and he wanted me to stop running so he could love me.

Every day during our month in Mongolia I watched the JESUS film,

I was struck by how he had lived a perfect life and died a death he didn’t deserve, just for me.

As the Mongolian people heard the message of the film—that God loved them, sent Jesus to die for them, and had a purpose for their lives—their eyes would widen and tears would well up.

“Why did Jesus go to the cross for me?” they asked. “Why did he h...

Two months earlier, I was asking a lot of “Why me?” questions. But mine were out of selfish pride. “Why am I not getting flowers?” “Why do I have a broken arm?” “Why can’t I drive my sports car?”

I had such a sense of entitlement.

I started asking the same question as the locals: “Why did Jesus come to save me?” God knew me inside and out.

In that moment, I no longer needed the stuff I once thought I couldn’t live without.

I didn’t need material comforts. What I needed was more of God. My thoughts turned to prayers. It’s not stuff that makes me happy. It’s not even recognition or achievements that make me happy. It’s you who makes me happy, God. I want to give my life to you and to telling other people about you.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10)

God, I know this trial is an opportunity for Martin and for me. I know we are on a scary new adventure and I have no idea where it will take us, but I am willing to go.

I believe I am your masterpiece, not because I feel it but because you say it. Though I can obsess about my deficiencies and my insecurities, I know you designed me perfectly for the good works you set before me. Help me in this time of trial to follow in your footsteps, so that I may complete those works for your glory.

MYTH: TRIALS ARE A CURSE. TRUTH: TRIALS ARE ...

Our desire is for God to fix broken things. But God’s desire for us is to fix our relationship with him.

God wants to restore our relationship with him more than anything else. Though he loves us, he’ll allow us to feel the pain of this world’s unhealed hurts if it brings us closer to him.

more than healing us physically, God wants my relationship with him to be

healthy. Jesus came to heal, but he doesn’t always fix the broken things I want fixed.

But if I allow him to, God will always heal my broken rel...

MYTH: GOD’S PRIMARY DESIRE IS TO FIX BROKEN THINGS.

TRUTH: GOD’S PRIMARY DESIRE IS TO FIX MY BROKEN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM.

A God who leaves physically sick people to preach the good news to spiritually sick people is a God who cares more about our soul than our body. That is who our God is.

It’s tempting to think that what we do for God will bring the favor of God. We think if we’ve done enough for God—gone to church on Sunday, dropped some money in the collection plate, read our Bibles, and said our prayers—then he will repay our good deeds with answered prayers and a pain-free life.

somewhere deep inside I believed that if I did all the right things for God, then he would do the right thing by me. When he didn’t, I felt as if God hadn’t kept up his end of the bargain.

The problem was, I couldn’t find any verse that said he owed me anything. Or a verse that said if I was good enough, I deserved something.

my disappointment with God wasn’t something he’d done to me;

it was something I’d done to him. I had put conditions on our relationship that w...

I had a sense of entitlement. I thought I d...

But I ...

Nowhere in Scripture does God say that if we’re good, then h...

In fact, the Bible says the opposite. It says we’re not good, y...

On my very best days, I was maybe 66 ...

Is 66 percent good enough? Or did I have to be 77 percent ...

When I compared myself to the Bible, I could see I always fell shor...

despite our lack of goodness, God is always good and is always good to us.

from the beginning of creation to the end of time, the narrative breaks down into four parts: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.

War, poverty, greed, gossip,

jealousy, gluttony, cancer, and brain tumors are just a few of the ways sin manifests itself. Everything is distorted and broken.

The biggest break is our relationship with God. It’s called the “fall” because we’ve fallen away from God, an...

Outside of Jesus, we can’t stop sin or the consequences of sin.

But with our faith in God’s plan and in Jesus, we can now turn from our rebellious ways and have victory over sin.

But the story doesn’t end there. God promises to renew the whole world. Father God promises that one day, Christ will return to judge sin and to escort in righteousness and peace.

Sin and evil will be gone forever.

The world will be perfect, the way God int...

we will be in perfect relationship with him for eternity.

Pain, sickness, and betrayal are brutal consequences of the fall.

We still feel the results of sin, and things won’t be made right until Jesus comes back.

Our hope comes in Jesus, even when he doesn’t do what ...