As I woke up recently, the Lord had me reflecting on last year, 2006. I thought about the failures and the successes. I thought especially on the bad times, times when I said "Lord, how could you let me go through that?" At this point, I heard the Lord say "Good!". I replied in my mind "Good? What do You mean by that?" It was then that I remembered what the Bible says in Romans 8:28 - "ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those called according to His purpose."
The more I pondered these things, the more I realised that God isn't in the business of always sparing us from difficulties, heartaches, insults, disappointments etc. Really He isn't! In fact, God will have us go through extremely difficult situations. A few examples from scripture are:
- The three Hebrews in the furnace (Daniel 3)
- Joseph, envied by his brothers and sold into slavery (Genesis 37)
- Paul and Silas, thrown into jail for the sake of Christ
- Daniel in the lions' den
There are dozens of other examples in the Bible of people who overcame various obstacles. Why does God allow us to go through such rough storms of life? Let's look at a few reasons.
To mould us into His image
As mentioned before, the Bible assures us that God can use all things we go through for our benefit, even bad experiences. He can uses these experiences to mature us and equip us to overcome. The key is to be like Him in any given situation. Let me illustrate. Suppose you are suddenly made redundant from your job. Philippians 4:19 promises that "God will provide for all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus". The real issue is - do you believe this? Do you trust God enough to fulfil His promise to you? If not, you will be prone to worry..."How will I pay the bills?" "I don't know how I will cope!" A second scenario is if someone has insulted or mistreated you. Jesus says in Matthew 5 states that we should do good to those who hate us and speak well of those who insult us. Will you obey His command or will you go along with your natural tendency to avoid such a person or seek revenge? You see, God allows these circumstances to give us the opportunity to obey Him and be blessed. The insult or mistreatment is not nice to take, but yet, if we look beyond the offence, we will discover opportunities to use our faith, obey the word of God and life victorious lives. To test our faith
The Lord allows our faith to be tested so that we can 'grow up' into all He wants us to be. James 1:3 says that testing produces patience in us so that we will lack nothing. Our faith is essential. In fact, the Bible says that we should live by it (Habakkuk 2:4). It is essential that at times we face tests and challenges. These times have a way of showing us where are hearts really are with the Lord. A good example of this is in Exodus 15 and 16. Here, the children of Israel had just crossed the Red Sea miraculously. They gathered together, singing songs of worship to God for His mighty deliverance from the Egyptians. However, as they journeyed on a little further in the wilderness, the Bible says "So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea...and they journeyed 3 days into the wilderness and found no water". At this stage, after experiencing the miraculous power of God, they were again facing a tough situation. They had a chance here to reflect on His goodness, and trust Him to provide for their needs. The same God who parted the Red Sea could provide water for them. However they did not remember this. Instead, they chose to complain bitterly, to the point that they wished that the hadn't left Egypt, saying "Oh that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full" (Exodus 16:2).
It is easy to rejoice when God comes through for us as we desire. However, what about the tough times, those times when He allows us to lack of has us to wait? What will we do? Our love for Him and faith in Him should hold firm whatever the situation may be. To reveal Himself to us and others
There is a line of a song that says "If I didn't have a problem, I wouldn't know that God could solve it". The Bible contains many examples of how God has rescued, healed and provided for people like you and me. You may be facing some turmoil in your life. Whether it is a result of your own actions or not, God is willing and able to reveal Himself and His ways to you in that situation.
Romans 5:8 declares "...but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us." What love! God loved us so much that He revealed His love to us in the most sacrificial way possible, while we were yet most undeserving! Therefore, in our financial struggles, He can reveal Himself as provider. In times of loneliness, He can be our friend. In our marriages, He can be our counsellor. In whatever way we need God to reveal Himself to us, He can.
Over the last few years, I have faced difficulties in every area of my life, whether it be my marriage, finances, spiritually or career wise. However it has been in these seasons of life that I have experienced God in ways I never did before. In my time of loneliness was when He comforted me the most. In times of rejection, He encouraged me the most. When I was afraid, He delivered me. When I was at fault was when He forgave me, and helped me forgive myself. In each situation, there has been a scripture, or experience in the word of God that dealt exactly with what I was facing. The Lord never let me down.
Not only will God use our experiences to reveal Himself to us, but to others also.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were led by the Holy Spirit to go to a region called Macedonia. Verse 10 says "...we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them." After coming to the main city of the region - Philippi - things 'seemed' to take a turn for the worse...
"Now it happened as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters great fortune by fortune telling" (Acts 16:16). This girl followed them around mocking them. Eventually Paul cast the evil spirit out of the girl, but "when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities" (v. 19). Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into the prison. However they kept their focus on God. They didn't say to themselves..."how could the Lord have us go through this...we've been beaten and put in jail as innocent men". Instead, "...at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.." How extraordinary, that these men would respond in such a way! They knew their God was faithful and would see them through. God indeed honoured them for their worship as, "suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed" (v.27). God in His infinite wisdom was using these events to reveal Himself to the keeper of the prison. He was so scared and fearing that he would be punished for allowing the prisoners to escape, that he sought to kill himself. However Paul stopped him, and amazingly the jailer subsequently asked "Sirs what must I do to be saved?" The jailer had gone from a position of seeing these two men as common criminals to actually believing in the God they served and wanting to accept Him! That same night, the jailer and his whole household accepted Jesus Christ and were baptized. Paul and Silas suffered that day, but were still victorious because God used what they went through to reach the jailer and his family. In the same way, at times you we may face very tough situations like Paul and Silas. However as we put our trust in the Lord, He can use our suffering, our inconvenience to reach someone. It is therefore important that we conduct ourselves as God would have us to, so that He can be glorified in whatever we face. In concluding, I would encourage those of you who like myself have accepted Jesus into their lives, not to allow the storms of life to drive you away from God. Let them instead drive you towards Him. In this manner James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you..." There is no one better to have near to us than the Lord - the One with whom nothing is impossible.
If you don't yet know the Lord as your Saviour, I implore you to take that step. Don't wait until life takes an unexpected or challenging turn before you acknowledge Him. You don't have to try everything else then try Jesus as a last resort. If you come to Jesus first, you will not need to seek fulfilment in anyone or anything else.
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