While God never does anything evil, He does do things that on the surface appear to be bad. That is, until His wisdom is proved right by its results (Jesus said that wisdom is justified by its children). I said to God when I was in my late teens that I wanted to be a Christian like they were in the Bible . I wanted God to tell me how pleased he was with me, and congratulate me on how well I have done so far and that I was so close to being perfect. Instead God told me I was "a sinner." Not your average church going sinner that we all are, but evil, vile, repulsive. I recoiled at what He said about me. I said, "No, I'm not" twice to Him. And then He gave me mental illness for ten years.
Now, I have said that "God gave me mental illness" to others and they have "corrected" me and said that God "allowed" me to have mental illness. They said that He was not responsible for giving me mental illness. Yet, when I rebelled against Him, He said He would "humble me for ten years." And what followed the statement was mental illness for ten years.
Dr. Charles F. Stanley of In Touch says that if God does something that we think is "bad" but God uses it for good, isn't it ultimately "good" for us? I wouldn't wish mental illness on anyone. Yet, now that I have the right meds and the pain is over I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Because God used it to change me from being fake nice and self-centered, to being willing to surrender to Him and being very concerned about other people.
If you are going through something that is bad, God may be using it for your ultimate good. He will only keep you in a problem until you have learned what He knows you need to learn. And any pain you endure will not be wasted. You will be able to offer credible help to others in a similar situation. And the joy you experience helping others through what you went through will make the former pain worth it.
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