Why does God allow tough things and bad experiences in a believer's life?
God may bring tough things and bad experiences into a believer's life for His own purpose: to bring them to the place He wants them to be. The context connects this with the truth that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.
Les explains that this is the joy of being a believer: yes, God may bring some tough things into our life and may bring some bad experiences, but it is for His own purpose to bring us to the place He wants us to be. He says this is what every believer has already experienced, and he quotes the promise that all things work together for good to them that love God. In contrast, people who do not love God often only reveal it when they are in a tight spot; when things go bad they ask, 'Where's God?' But God is there, and it is their problem, not His. Les also warns against a fatalistic view of predestination—the idea that God has already fixed whether a person goes to heaven or hell and there is nothing they can do—saying that is not what predestination means and that we must see what we are predestined to.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
More Questions
Why does God allow things that don't seem good at the time?
The 'good' God works may include things that aren't good at the time, but years later a believer can look back and praise the Lord that it happened because it brought them to where they are.