If you ever wondered if God was punishing you for bad choices that you’ve made, then this article will help you answer the question: Is God punishing you for your bad relationship choices? There are common Scriptural misunderstandings about relationships that result in Christians making unhealthy choices in relationships. These misunderstandings come from our families, church teachings, other Christians, and our own personal beliefs. In addition, we also tend to have rigid black and white interpretations of selected Scriptures. One of these is the belief that God punishes us for our wrong choices in our relationships.

God allows you to make your own choices because he has given you freewill. The flip side of that is that you are allowed to experience the consequences of your choices. When you marry a person with problems, you will experience the struggles that result from those problems. If you marry an unbeliever, you won’t have like minds in many areas and some of those will be painful. If you marry someone with children, you will have adjustments and sacrifices to make. If there is dysfunction in your family, your children will be affected.

We often deny the things we see and minimize the red flags in relationships, because we don’t want to face the truth. We react to problems in ways that we later regret. We have times in our lives that upon reflection, we realize we did things that were wrong that we wouldn’t do again. All of us make mistakes and in hindsight would do things differently. When we experience the consequences of our choices, it doesn’t help to interpret them as God’s punishment. It is better to see them as they really are-the direct consequences of our choices for the following four reasons:

1. It helps us to know that God is there for us as a loving and compassionate Father.

2. It helps us to get insight on our past choices.

3. It helps us to be responsible for our choices.

4. It helps us to make better choices in the future.

Just like we allow our children to experience pain to teach them valuable life lessons they need to know, God allows us to learn life lessons that include pain. He doesn’t need to figure out how to punish us for our mistakes because he has set in motion the law of reaping and sowing (Galatians 6:7-8). He can allow us to grow and learn and love us through the process. As a Christian seeking relationship help to understand the answer to the question “Is God punishing me for my bad relationship choices,” you can rest in the fact that he isn’t, but he is allowing you to experience the natural effects of your choices.