“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”
John 14:1–2
Sometimes God allows terrible injustices to occur in the world. For those who understand that God is sovereign—that He controls all things and is perfectly just, perfectly loving, perfectly holy, and perfectly good—this can feel deeply confusing. How can things that feel so wrong exist under the authority of a God who is so right?
The disciples faced this very tension.
For them, the idea that Jesus would be arrested, falsely convicted, tortured, and killed was unthinkable. How could that possibly happen? Jesus was the Messiah—the Son of God. He was loving, powerful, humble, wise, generous, kind, holy, sinless, and anointed by God. Surely the Father would never allow something so unjust to happen to Him.
The disciples understood God’s sovereign control. They knew He was just and powerful. And they loved Jesus. They were not about to stand by while authorities brutalized their teacher, their friend, and their hope of salvation. No way.
And yet—Jesus knew something they did not. He knew that sometimes the Father allows the injustices planned by sinful people to become the very means by which He accomplishes far greater good for those who love Him.
“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
Jesus explains to His disciples that His “going” will result in something wonderful for them. He tells them not to let their hearts be troubled—not because what is coming isn’t unjust, but because it isn’t meaningless. He does not deny the pain of their earthly circumstances. He gives them a reason to trust the Father’s purpose beyond what they can see.
I experienced something like this recently—on a far smaller, far less eternal scale.
A few months ago, I was forced to allow someone in my care to be taken advantage of financially. He was made to pay for something he should never have been expected to pay. On that day, I was outraged—angry, frustrated, and heartsick. It was so obviously wrong, and yet there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I did not understand why God was allowing it.
After praying about it for a couple of days, though, I found peace—not because the situation changed, but because my heart did. I remembered that my lack of understanding did not limit God. How small my perspective truly is—finite, mortal, human—compared to Him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8–9
So after a couple of days of agonizing over it, I gave it to God and let it go.
“Casting all your cares on Him, because He cares about you.”
1 Peter 5:7
Two months later, the record of that very payment—the injustice I had been so angry about—became the evidence that protected us from a false accusation. What felt like an intolerable wrong was the very thing God used to prevent a much greater one and to expose impure motives in others.
I could not have known how it would turn out. But in the face of injustice—when my flesh screamed “This isn’t fair!”—my spirit whispered, “Trust Him.”
And trusting God—truly, wholeheartedly, without reservation—is always the right response, especially when things don’t make sense.
I suspect—no, I believe—that God uses every injustice for good in some way. This time, I was given the rare gift of seeing how He did it. Most of the time, we don’t get that clarity.
But not seeing the purpose doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
“Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.”
1 Corinthians 13:12
a surrendered life 