In my early Christian life, I'd get frustrated when problems crept up while I was attempting to do something for the Lord. Even getting to church Sunday morning could be a battlefield as breakfast burned, one child couldn't find a shoe, another was bereft over his lost Bible, and the baby had a blowout diaper just before time to leave.
I've known people who were actively serving the Lord ministering to others when disaster struck: a serious accident, a cancer diagnosis, a child's death. We might wonder why God allowed this to happen when these people seemed to be doing everything right.
Of course, we know we don't really do everything right. We fight sin every day. Our motives aren't always pure. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength---so the biggest sin would be failing to keep that commandment. And we all fail to do that daily.
But God, as a loving Father, chastens His children when they do wrong, cleanses them when they confess their sins to Him (1 John 1:9), and blesses obedience. Anything we receive from Him is due to His grace, not our "earning" His favor.
Most of us realize the "prosperity gospel" is wrong---the belief that if you obey God, especially in giving big offerings to their evangelists, you'll be blessed with health, wealth, and prosperity.
But we unwittingly buy into a version of the same thought: if I am doing God's will, then everything should work out. We don't expect wealth or perfect health, but we feel there shouldn't be any obstacles and God should bless us.
Job's friends displayed the corollary of this idea. Since Job was suffering so severely, they reasoned Job must have done something really awful to deserve it. Much of their council tried to convince him to fess up to whatever he'd done wrong.
In Be Loyal (Matthew): Following the King of Kings, Warren Wiersbe wrote, "Many Christians have the mistaken idea that obedience to God's will produces 'smooth sailing.' But this is not true. 'In the world ye shall have tribulation,' Jesus promised (John 16: 33)."
Trying circumstances aren't always a sign that God is displeased with us.
How do we know this?
We see several Biblical people besides Job who suffered through no fault of their own: Daniel, Joseph, Paul, even Jesus.
Things might go wrong for any number of reasons.
We live in a world that's been fallen since Genesis 3. That's one reason Jesus said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:19-20). Tires go flat, metal rusts, moths and termites and mold destroy.
We also have an active enemy who tries to trip us up. Satan will attempt to put obstacles in our way or damage our testimony when we get frustrated.
God allows suffering to produce something in us. "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:3-5). Suffering refines us, purifies us, increases our steadfastness, prunes us to produce more growth.
Some suffering is not for our sake, but for others. Jesus said one man was born blind not because he or his parents had sinned, "but that the works of God might be displayed in him" (John 9:3). Peter wrote " In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7). After Jesus told the disciples that He must go away soon, He said, "I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father" (John 14:31).
Think of how Elisabeth Elliot and Joni Eareckson Tada and others have glorified God and helped multitudes through their trials.
Elisabeth Elliot wrote in Keep a Quiet Heart:
The disciples' worst fears were about to be realized, yet He commanded (yes, commanded) them to be at peace. All would be well, all manner of things would be well–in the end. In a short time, however, the Prince of this world, Satan himself, was to be permitted to have his way. Not that Satan had any rights over Jesus. Far from it. Nor has he "rights" over any of God's children… But Satan is permitted to approach. He challenges God, we know from the Book of Job, as to the validity of His children's faith.
God allows him to make a test case from time to time. It had to be proved to Satan, in Job's case, that there is such a thing as obedient faith which does not depend on receiving only benefits. Jesus had to show the world that He loved the Father and would, no matter what happened, do exactly what He said. The servant is not greater than his Lord. When we cry "Why, Lord?" we should ask instead, "Why not, Lord? Shall I not follow my Master in suffering as in everything else?"
Does our faith depend on having every prayer answered as we think it should be answered, or does it rest rather on the character of a sovereign Lord? We can't really tell, can we, until we're in real trouble (emphasis mine).
The Warren Wiersbe quote I referred to above doesn't stop with Jesus' promise that we'll face tribulation. Dr. Wiesrbe goes on to say, "When we find ourselves in the storm because we have obeyed the Lord, we must remember that He brought us here and He can care for us."
Asaph wrote in Psalm 73 that he was so confused and upset over the fact that the wicked seemed to prosper while the righteous suffered, it seemed like his attempts to do right were in vain (verse 13). "But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end" (verses16-17). God will deal with them in His own time. Meanwhile, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). God has "no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11).
God's reckonings don't all occur in this life. We're not in heaven yet. Whatever we suffer here, whether minor irritations and obstacles or major disasters, God has promised to be with us and help us. And then, when He takes us up to be with Him, our troubles will seem light compared to "the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" that He is preparing for us (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
The middle stanzas of William Cowper's poem, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," bring out these truths:
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev'ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow'r.
When things go wrong even when, especially when we think we're on the right track, God knows, God is with us, and He will give grace and help to deal with the situation.
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