Zophar the Naamathite speaks up today, and basically says the same thing that people asked Jesus back in the day... "Is this man suffering because of his own sin or the sin of his parents?"
Jesus told them neither.
And many of us find ourselves in the same question. Why am I suffering? Why is life so hard? My spouse left me. My family member died. I lost my job. Why did this happen to me? Why does God hate me?
Well, the answer is that God doesn't hate you. It might feel like that, when things go wrong. When you've been hurting for a long time. When it's hard to get up in the morning, facing a day that doesn't seem to hold much joy. But God IS working all things for your good. Even when it doesn't feel like that.
So why does it hurt, if God is working it all for my good?
Well, there are these other things out there called people. And they have free will. God has given us the great gift of actually being able to DO things that impact other people's lives. And some of us use that gift to make each other's lives wonderful and happy and amazing. But other people don't. They are selfish, and they make decisions that hurt us. And God allows that to happen, because if He didn't, then we wouldn't truly be free.
Some people pray and try very hard to do what God wants. They make life decisions based on what they think God has told them. And then... other people happen. The selfish spouse runs off. The selfish employer fires you. The selfish people break into your home and steal your things. The selfish driver drinks or texts while driving, and your loved one dies. Why did God not keep me from being in that marriage, in that job, in that house, or on that street? Well, He does protect us. But there are times when other people's selfish choices DO affect us. And there is pain.
Is it God's will that little girls are abducted and raped for years? Does God hate them? Of course not. Is it God's will that ISIS bulldozes churches and kidnaps 100's of Christians to rape or burn alive? Of course not. But He has given us free will, and some people abuse that free will. People hurt people.
But God will work even those things for your good. It hurts now. No one said it wouldn't... the Bible never says it won't hurt. But joy is coming. God promises us that the joy we experience with Him will be so great, it will make the suffering we experience now seem like nothing.
Our joy will be so great that even little girls being abducted and raped, even Christians being decapitated and burned alive, will seem like nothing. That's some powerful joy. And that's what we have to look forward to.
I know it hurts now. But trust Him. He is on your side. He loves you more than you can fathom, and has greater joy than we can imagine waiting for us.
It can't rain all the time.
God, thank You for the joy you have in store for us. Please be with us as we pass through this valley of tears.
2 comments:
Amen
Read "Eye of the Storm" helps me all the time. Amen
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