Why?
knowing truth when
nothing else makes sense
a 7 day Bible study
for teens
by Heidi Kreider
Smashwords Edition
copyright Heidi Kreider 2012
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for Makayli~
may you find truth
when nothing else makes sense
This Bible study was originally written for an incredible young lady who lost her home to a house fire when she was 13 years old. I wanted her to know that it is okay to ask the hard questions and it is okay to not have all of the answers. All we need is Jesus!
This is her letter of introduction.
Dear Makayli,
I feel compelled to write a Bible study just for you. I know that right now so much doesn’t make sense. It’s hard when you feel like you have lost everything and people say “at least, you’ll get a new house”. Do you look at people and wonder how they can go on with life as if nothing has happened and you want to yell “look at me!”?
I promise you that no one is trying to be insensitive. I also promise you that all of the conflicting feelings inside are normal. It’s hard to be the one going through the hard time! It’s hard when everyone is looking at you and watching you. Especially when, you just want everyone to go away and for everything to be the way it was before the fire.
I also promise you that there are answers in the Bible for such a time as this. God never leaves us without hope. He has many promises that are still true today for you as they were when the words were first written. He loves you and He promises you a future and a hope.
Spend some time in God’s word with me. I’ll show you some of His promises for you. I have one more promise. I promise you that if you seek Him, God will be found by you. You will see how much He loves you.
Though I can not understand what you are going through, I know that Jesus does. He wants to use this event in your life. I hope you will learn to let Him.
I’m so proud of you! You are so brave! My heart’s desire is that through this Bible study you will fall more in love with Jehovah and His holy word! I pray that you will find comfort in the midst of this heartache.
I love you,
Heidi
Peace
Sometimes things happen in life and all we can ask is “why”? There seems to be no answers. People offer simple words and acts of kindness, but the hole in our heart remains.
What do we do in these times?
How do we cope?
Where do we find answers?
Where to we go for the hurt?
I don’t know the answer to your why? But, I do know Who you can ask. His name is Jehovah. You may know Him better by the name Lord or God but He’s the same Being. He is our Creator and He is our Savior. He knows you better than you know yourself. And, He wrote you a love letter where we can look for some healing to the why in your life.
Did you know that when Jesus was walking on this earth, He promised that we would have times of trial and tribulation in our lives? YES or NO
He also promised the cure for those times.
Find John 16:33 in your Bible and read it
What did Jesus promise we would find in Him?
What does the word peace mean to you?
Now turn back a few pages and look at John 14:27.
What did Jesus promise to leave with us?
His peace is so different from anything that we can comprehend. His peace is the calm in the storm. His peace is the presence in the fire. His peace is the rest for a weary soul.
He wants to give you this same peace! Remember, Jesus promised that there would be hard times. He didn’t leave us without the cure for our hard times. All we have to do is ask.
Read Psalm 4:8 in your Bible.
Look up one more verse for today. Find and read 1 Corinthians 2:12.
How does God give to us?
Tonight you can lie down and sleep in peace. Ask Jesus for His peace. He freely gives to all who ask!
Comfort
When someone goes through a hard time in their life, many people want to do “something”. They want to comfort the person by buying them something, making food for them, or fixing a broken item. During the hardest trials of our lives, there really is nothing that anyone else can do to fix the problem. Sometimes God doesn’t even fix the problem.
Do you think it is impossible for God to fix problems? YES or NO
Read Matthew 19:26.
These were Jesus’ own words! He tells us that with God nothing is impossible. However, that doesn’t mean that God will choose to fix all of our problems. Sometimes we want God to just come in and make the bad things go away. Sometimes God has another plan.
It is through the hard times in our lives that we learn to rely on God. If we never experienced anything difficult, we would never realize the comfort that God can provide.
Look up 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
What word is used more than the others in these verses?
What does the word comfort mean to you?
To some people the word comfort means to be content. Let’s use a baby as an illustration to define the word comfort. Think of a baby all snug-as-a-bug asleep in its mother’s arms. Let’s pretend that this baby is sleeping peacefully and calmly without a care in the world. Just a few minutes ago, this baby was crying uncontrollably. The only thing that mattered to this baby was to be comforted by its mother. As soon as the mother holds her baby, the baby will be comforted and most often falls asleep peacefully forgetting all about how upset she was.
God can comfort us in a similar way. God’s comfort can help us rest in Him and not worry about the trial or bad time that is going on around us. When He comforts us, sometimes He uses verses in the Bible that remind us that He is in control and we can forget about why we were upset. Sometimes God uses people to comfort us by just being with us as we go through our hard times. And, other times, we can actually physically feel God holding us as we go through our trial.
Later we will look again at the passage in 2 Corinthians 1. For now, allow yourself to be comforted by Jehovah.
As you lay down to sleep tonight, imagine God with His wings around you.
Hope
Have you noticed in this Bible study that I still haven’t answered the why in your life? YES or NO
I don’t know why your house burned. I don’t know why your family lost most everything. My hope is that even though I don’t have the answer, I hope you are finding peace and comfort in the midst of the why.
I also hope for hope for you. When we have hope, we look to the future. We hope in what God will provide for us and we hope that things will be better.
What does the word hope mean to you?
God is the God of hope. He created it and He wants us to have it. He wants us to look to Him with hope, expecting Him to do great things for us.
Look up Romans 15:13.
God wants us to abound in hope! Even when we are in the trial or bad time and we are asking why, God wants us to hope! He wants us to look forward to what He can do for us.
Now find Psalm 38:15.
King David wrote Psalm 38. He hoped for what God would do in his life and for him. How about you?
Are you hoping for what God will do in this situation? YES or NO
David’s psalm was a prayer. Write your own prayer to God telling Him that you are hoping in Him and what He will do for you.
Future
Do you wonder what the future holds? YES or NO
Are you afraid? YES or NO
Do you dread what could happen next? YES or NO
Jehovah tells us that we don’t need to fear the future. He has a plan for each of us and a special plan for you. He wants you to know this.
Look up Jeremiah 29:11.
Our future is God’s plan for our life.
According to this verse in Jeremiah, what two things does God promise us?
There’s our word “hope” again! Hope and future go together because it is with hope that we look forward to the future that God has promised us.
Find Proverbs 23:18 and read it.
What are some things that you are hoping for your future?
It’s okay to talk to God about them. He wants us to rely on Him for everything, even what is to come.
As you think about your future, what do you anticipate?
What are you hoping for?
What are you looking forward to?
Make a list of 15 things that you are anticipating in the future.
Share them with Jehovah. He knows your heart!
Truth
Look back at the entire title of this Bible study, what is it?
I want you to know the truth when nothing makes sense in life.
Do you know the truth? YES or NO
What is truth to you?
Look up Psalm 119:160, what is the first sentence?
Now, find John 17:16. This is another verse that Jesus spoke when He was here on earth.
What does Jesus say is truth?
Read John 8:32.
What will set you free?
When you know the truth then the why problems in life don’t seem as overwhelming. We still ask why and we still seek out the answers to the trials that come to us but we also know the truth that God is still God and He is in control of our lives.
Since we know the Bible is truth. We can know that God will provide peace, comfort, hope, and a future for us. When nothing else in life makes sense, God does! He is our peace, comfort, hope and future and we can fully rely on Him.
In John 8:32, what does Jesus say will set you free?
Since we know the truth, we can be set free from the burden of being overwhelmed in our circumstances. Freedom comes when we fully rely on God and we no carry the burden of solving the “why” question.
Are you carrying the burden of trying to figure out why you lost your home?
If so, you need to find the freedom in letting God carry that burden for you. The peace, comfort, hope and future come with the freedom that we can rest in God’s care. When we know that He has everything under control, we no longer have to know why, we can just know Him and his peace, comfort and hope.
Spend some time praying and finding freedom in the truth of Jesus and His word. Sometimes it helps to write your prayer out. Give it all to Him. Tell Him that you know that He has everything under control and you are going to simply believe His truth!
Trust
You can not believe in Jehovah’s truth without trust. Trust is belief in action. It is taking what you believe in and applying it to every area of your life, even the areas where life doesn’t make sense.
Look up Proverbs 3:5-6.
This passage was probably written by King Solomon.
What does Solomon tell us not to rely on?
There are many things in life that we will not understand. We can not rely on our own understanding to make sense of the circumstances of our life. Only God can see His plan for our future and hope. Only He can see how it all fits together.
Read Psalm 25:1-2 and Psalm 31:14.
Do you remember that we looked at John 16:33, and we saw that Jesus promised that there would be trials and hard times in the world? YES or NO
Find and read John 16:33 again.
What is the last sentence?
We have nothing to fear because Jesus has overcome the world! He is our salvation and we can put our full trust in Him. He has not left us to dwell on the problems in our lives but has given us a reason to trust Him.
Now find and read Isaiah 12:2.
As you read this verse, pray it out loud.
Do you trust God/Jehovah in this tough time? YES or NO
A Different Question
After all that we have learned together, I still don’t have an answer for your questions of why. However, I want to ask you a question instead.
Instead of asking God, why me, why us, why our house?, maybe you could ask Jehovah what now? We’ve learned that He has a future and a hope for you.
Does it make you curious as to what that future and hope could be? YES or NO
Are you wondering how God is planning on using a burned house for your future and hope? YES or NO
Do you remember that I told you we would go back to 2 Corinthians 1? YES or NO
Go back and read 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 again.
Here’s the answer to my question what now?
Why does God comfort us in our sufferings?
God has given you an incredible privilege. Someday He will use you to comfort someone who looses their home to a fire. You will be able to say “I know how you feel” and really mean it. God will use you to comfort that person in a special, personal way because you will know the pain and suffering that they are experiencing.
Jehovah may not choose to use you, if you are not willing to be used by Him.
Are you willing to no longer ask why but to find your peace, comfort, hope, future and trust in Jehovah? YES or NO
Are you willing to change your question from why to what now? YES or NO
If you are, tell Him. Tell Him your how your heart hurts and then ask Him to use you to comfort someone else. He may not use you today or tomorrow, but His Word promises He will use you!
I hope your question is no longer why and that you have learned truth when nothing else makes sense. And, I hope you have learned to trust the One who gives you peace, comfort, hope, and a future.