If we Thank God for good things that happen to us, could we blame God for bad things that happen to us? If not, then why not?
Answer
If your mother gives you good things and you thank her, then you get beat up by a bully on the playground, can you blame your mother?
Ultimately, I guess you could blame God for all the bad things that happen, because he gave us free will. Most of the bad things that happen to us are the result of bad choices, either by us or by others. The family that is killed by a drunk driver is the victim of somebody else’s poor choice, for instance. That doesn’t mean that God caused it. Could he have prevented it? Perhaps, if he took that close a control of human affairs. In general, though, he gives us freedom, and doesn’t interfere with that. Even when we make our own bad choices, he gives us freedom to sin, but hopes we will choose not to. When you balance free will against the inability to enjoy the good things (because you have no free will), most people would be thankful for the ability to choose.
Scriptures that might apply:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:13-15)