Post by Cindy on May 12, 2016 9:32:52 GMT -5
How could God be so cruel??? That's what many people think and some are brave enough to say and in fact, it's what Job's wife thought when all those horrible things happened to him. OK, let me be more personal here and tell you exactly how I was feeling after the accident that caused me to become disabled.
I felt betrayed and hurt. I couldn't understand how God could let that happen to me. True, I was no where near as good a person as Job was, but still, I was saved, I was obedient to God and always tried to do whatever He told me to, including studying His Word daily with Him and praying. But that made it even worse, because the morning of my accident, I had prayed for safety! Here I'd thought God would protect me, keep them safe from horrible things like this, and yet He obviously hadn't! How could I ever trust Him again????
Unlike Job's wife though, I didn't turn from the Lord, instead I turned to Him and I told Him what I felt and asked Him why...what had I done wrong? What was I misunderstanding here??? Help!!! And of course, He answered me. It's His answer that I want to share with you all, because with all the horrid trials that so many of have been through, or are currently going through, or may go through in the future, I think it's something we should talk about.
When we ask about things like this, what we're really asking about is God's sovereignty. I've got to tell you though, when I consider God's sovereignty for too long and get too deep into the questions of why, and what it's, and how some bad thing or another be allowed to happen, that I wind up giving myself a headache trying to understand it all.
Because it is so difficult to understand, I freely admit to you that I'm quite sure that I don't completely and thoroughly understand it even now. But you know what? I'm OK with that. I know I have a basic grasp of it and more importantly, I know my God and who He is and His attributes, so I'm ok with leaving the working of the universe and all that's in it to Him and trusting that He really does know what He's doing. I've written this post innumerable times trying to explain His sovereignty and have finally come to the conclusion that I can't do it well enough to satisfy myself. It's something that I understand, but can't seem to put into words very well. So probably the best thing to do is just state the facts to start with and we can take it from there.
First, we know that God is sovereign--He has complete and total power over everything and everyone; He is omniscient--He knows everything there is to know about everything and everyone; and He's omnipotent-having unlimited authority and influence; He's transcendent or exists above time and space and isn't limited by them.
Usually when we're asking why God allowed something to happen, it's because we in our great knowledge, think that He messed up and made a mistake or that He wasn't being "fair". When I got down to brass tacks with Him over my accident, that's exactly what I was getting at. "I was a good born again woman, so it was wrong for Him to let that happen to me." Period. But my thoughts came back to haunt me.
I was "good"??? Really? And I remembered my sins of that day and of the day of the accident, and I even realized that I was still learning what attitudes were sins because it hadn't been that long ago that I'd thought sin was when you broke one of the commandments. So I recognized that even with all the sins I realized I'd committed, there were probably twice as many that I wasn't even aware of yet.
"But they been forgiven!" Yes, they had, thanks to a loving merciful Father who had loved me and saved me even though I didn't deserve it. I was beginning to feel a bit humbled by now as you can see, but there was still a spark of rebellion in me too. "But I'd prayed for Him to keep me safe that day!" And I recalled my husband and my boss telling me after they'd seen the car, that we were really lucky to be alive. "But now I can't work or do anything and You could have kept it from happening at all!" And the Lord led me to Job 38 on. I won't post it all, but just enough for you to get the idea...
Job 38:1–7 — Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?........
Basically, the Lord reminded me of just who I was, and more importantly, who He was.
Romans 9:20 — But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”
Isaiah 29:16 — You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”?
Isaiah 45:9 — “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?
Even as I read though, I knew He was being gentle and loving with me and that He wasn't angry. (at least I hadn't pushed Him that far yet) As I read, I thought about it in relation to what had happened to me. Yes, I'd been hurt, but not killed, and could have been killed in either my accident of the one that happened right next to us while the police were there helping us! So really, He HAD protected me, not just once, but twice! I thought, how do I know that if I hadn't been hurt the way I was, that someone else might have gotten hurt worse? I was thinking of a huge quilt and that I was like one colored thread in that quilt. I didn't even know everything about my own thread, much less the thousands of other threads that intersected or interacted with mine at some point or another, and every little thing that happened to me, would also affect them in some way too. And there was also the idea of if I hadn't had the accident, could something worse have happened later? For example, we've all heard stories of people running out of gas only to find out that if they hadn't, and had kept going, they likely would have been involved in a terrible accident that happened exactly in a place they would have been in at that time. The more I thought about all of that, the more ignorant I realized I was.
Then, just as I was feeling humbled by all this, the Lord really surprised me. He led me to Matthew 4 and suddenly I saw something I'd never noticed before: Who led Jesus into the desert to be tempted?
Matthew 4:1 — Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
It wasn't Satan, it was God! God led His Son into what we would surely see as a horrible situation! Why??? And of course when I thought of that, I also remembered other things, like the way He was tortured, reviled, and ultimately hung on a cross. Jesus did all that, went through all that, in obedience to His Father's Will for Him. In obedience to Our Father's Will for Him. Of course we know why He did it, it was to save us...Suddenly I was remembering a lot of other things too. What about the disciples What about Stephen being stoned to death? Or all the times Paul was beaten literally within an inch of his life, or stoned and left for dead, or put in prison and mistreated? Or how about how most of the apostles ultimately died??? I think we can all agree that we'd consider any of those things pretty horrible!
Here I was saying it wasn't fair because I was a good born again woman, and yet these folks, who I'm sure were a lot more spiritually mature then I was, and who could more correctly be considered "good", had all been through things much more horrible then my experience. Was that "fair"? Was that good? Yes, we know that because of all those things, the gospel spread like wildfire and millions have been saved, but still..... Do you really think that Stephen understood "why" God was allowing him to be stoned to death when it happened? Or any of the others for that matter? Yet the Lord used what happened for tremendous good. At the time I was asking God about all this, I didn't understand how these things could have worked for their personal good, but I did see that God did use it for good in general and for others. Now I also understand how it worked for their personal good as well, because they will each receive tremendous rewards in Heaven at the Bema Judgment for all they went through; and their rewards won't waste away because they'll last for eternity.
And that brings us a big problem, because most of us think this life is pretty great and don't really see this life as the drop in a bucket that it really is. Compared to what even the worst born again Christian is going to have in Heaven, this life is more like Hell! When we study the Gospel, we find that the Lord was constantly trying to get people to see the eternal perspective instead of just an earthly perspective. We do have the capacity to have an eternal perspective, because if we didn't, the Lord wouldn't tell us to have one. I think part of the reason we don't is because again the church has failed to teach us about this, as they've failed to teach about so many important things. You know how when a woman is pregnant, she's always thinking ahead? She thinks about what to name the baby, what the baby is going to need when he or she arrives, how she's going to take care of the baby, what she needs to do to get the house baby proofed for when the baby starts to crawl and then walk; she imagines what the baby will look like, what the baby will sound like, and how the baby will act and what it will feel like to finally hold her child in her arms... What if when the mother was pregnant, she absolutely refused to think beyond the pregnancy? She didn't think about names, didn't consider what she'd need or buy anything for the baby, didn't talk about the baby and how she would care for the child, or anything at all. Instead, she just continued on as though she was going to be pregnant for the rest of her entire life and that's all that was important. Wouldn't that be totally ridiculous??? Yeah, it would even be pretty stupid! Yet, that's exactly what we do every day! We continue on in this life as though THIS is what's important and as though this is all that mattered! About the only time we peak beyond this life at all is when we consider where we're going to go when we die. Once we've made our decision though, we quickly run right back into this life and stay here. It makes me wonder if we really believe there's a heaven or not. But then, when I think about it, I realize that most people don't study their bibles and so they really don't know what's going to happen to them or what it's going to be like, and most churches don't preach about it so we generally remain ignorant. Yet Paul truly longed to be in heaven, and would have much preferred that to continuing to live this life!
Philippians 1:21–24 — For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
And no, he wasn't suicidal! Having studied God's Word myself, I can honestly say the same thing. I understand now that this is just a short prelude and my real life will begin when I get to Heaven. That's my Home, and I am truly homesick and long to there. Yet I can't tell others that, not even other Christians really because they'll think that I'm either depressed, suicidal, or maybe affected because of the pain I live with, or if nothing else, then just plain crazy. They just don't understand. But Paul did, as did the other apostles..
When we finally can see beyond our pregnancy, and see this life the way the Lord sees it, we also begin seeing the things that happen to us now in a completely different light, because we begin to not just think or believe that this is all just temporary, we know it is.
Again, here I was, thinking God wasn't being fair because He didn't keep me from getting hurt at all in that accident, and the Lord showed me that I wasn't looking at the big picture. I was still focusing on the "now" or as I put it before, I was still focusing on being pregnant and not on what would happen when the baby came. When I finally began to look past the present, I began to realize that this is just preparing us for our real life. As I studied I began to see that the Lord and the apostles were constantly talking about our eternal lives and the rewards we'll be getting, and what those rewards will be for and warning us of the consequences of disobedience.
I relate most things to parenthood since that's what I'm familiar with, and it seems reasonable too since God is our Father. We're in a kind of difficult position because we're adults and yet we're His children and He has to grow us up so that we'll know how to behave properly in our real lives. So we all need to "grow up" spiritually now that we've been saved.
1 Peter 2:2 — Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
Ephesians 4:15 — Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
When the bible talks about "growing up in our salvation", we're being told that we're to become spiritually mature. God doesn't want a bunch of spiritual babies inhabiting heaven after all, instead He wants us to be mature adults who can enjoy and appreciate all He's done for us. Just as earthly parents discipline their children when they misbehave, so our heavenly Father disciplines us when we're misbehaving and living according to the worlds standards instead of His standards. Obviously, if we don't know His Word, we can't know what His standards are or what His Will is or even, really know Him, so the very first thing He commands those who are born again is that they study His Word and grow up in their salvation.
Especially now that we're so close to the end of this age though, He is disciplining those who aren't doing that. He also disciplines us for other misbehavior and generally we see that discipline as a trial. So sometimes, that's the cause of our hardships. God isn't like earthly parents who make mistakes, nor does He ever discipline us in anger or to hurt us. His discipline is always to help us and He wants us to know when we're being disciplined and why. That's why He tells us that if we can't figure it out, that we should ask Him for wisdom and He will give it to us.
James 1:2–5 \ — Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
Again the Lord showed me that He's growing us up so that we'll be ready for the day our salvation is finally complete....that glorious day when we finally receive our new bodies and leave this awful sin nature behind forever! The Rapture!
You know, we've talked in many threads about how the world seems to have come full circle now. Full circle from when Jesus rose again and the age of the law ended and the age of grace started, to now when we're at the tail end of what the Bible has called "the end times". A lot of people don't realize it, but the end times actually began back then. They didn't just start. That's why I always say we're at the very end of them. Jesus assured His followers that He would return for them and they thought it would be in their lifetime. That's what He meant for them to think, because it was that that gave them the strength to get through all those horrible things that happened to them.
When the early Christians were horribly persecuted, and when they went through severe trials, they could sincerely rejoice because they KNEW it wouldn't be long and Jesus would return and everything they went through till then would be repaid to them 100 times over when He did! So they knew exactly what Paul and Peter meant when they said to "Rejoice in the Lord always" Philippians 4:4 and that they should "rejoice even though for now they're going through trials and suffering".
As I also said in that thread, this is another way we've come full circle, because once again, just as He said He would, the Lord has brought the knowledge of the rapture to light to remind us of this and now many of us too realize that He could return at any time.
That's good to know, but there's another part of coming full circle that we need to recognize too. Back then the whole known world was in complete turmoil. Bad economy? Many people then were starving to death! No jobs now? Same problem then! Persecution? They could tell us a thing or two about that! All the problems the world has now, were present then too and just as bad if not worse. It was during this time that Jerusalem was destroyed and later Rome was also destroyed. Knowing this, we too shouldn't be surprised at all that's happening to us.
Yes, us, God's church. The followers of Jesus went through terrible times at the end of their age and the beginning of ours but instead of asking how God could be so cruel as to allow these things to happen to them, they rejoiced knowing that He would work it all out in the end and their trials wouldn't be for nothing. Instead of focusing on what they lacked or how much they hurt, they focused on what these trials were accomplishing in them, what the trials were teaching them; how the trials were helping them to grow up spiritually to be the person God had created them to be for all eternity.
They even realized that some of the trials might not even be about them at all, however that didn't mean they couldn't learn from them. What do I mean about the trials not necessarily being about them? I mean that while God will discipline us, there are also times that the trial we're going through really has nothing to do with us, but is instead to teach others. For example, if someone is going through hardship and has no money etc. if the trial isn't discipline, it could quite well be to teach fellow Christians various lessons and/or to give others a chance to see how they should respond to such a trial in their life when/if it happens; or even to give other believers a chance to respond the way God wants us to when we see a brother or sister in need. It might be to teach others about how God calls us not to just give to others that are in need, but to give sacrificially to them, putting them above our own needs. Or, it might be to give someone a chance to repent of the wrong way they've reacted to that person in the past and now help them; or all kinds of other things. See most of us don't mind being on the giving end of the stick, but when it comes to being on the receiving end, it makes us mighty uncomfortable. That too is another lesson that the Lord might be trying to teach; or He could be giving someone who was once on the receiving end, a chance to be on the giving end. After all He's growing us up to be perfect as He is so He's going to cover all the angles.
Again the problem with our viewpoint is that it's usually way too short, considering only this life, and generally only "right now" and it generally doesn't take into consideration all the other people who are affected by what we're going through and the many different ways they're affected by it. Look at all the people who were and who still are affected by all the things that Paul went through and I'm sure we don't know about most of them.
There are many reasons why the Lord allows these terrible things to happen to us, the children He loves, and we've discussed most of them in threads like the Trials and Tribulations one.
The bottom line is first that the Lord WILL allow horrible things to happen to us; or at least things that we generally consider are horrible. And second, that the Lord allows these things to happen, NOT because He's cruel or mean or unfair, but because He loves us and really does have our best interests at heart. Not our best interests for this life, but rather, our best interests for our "whole" life which unlike unbelievers, will stretch through all eternity. Certainly He wants us to have good things now, but there are times when "bad things" are allowed to ensure that our whole life is the best it can be. This is why it helps to truly know the Lord through studying His Word, because when we do that, then, we can really know we can trust Him and that He would never, ever, betray us.
That my friends is the bottom line of what the Lord showed me all those years ago when I had my accident and cried, "How could I ever trust Him again????" I can tell you all about the Lord and what He's like till I'm blue in the face, and so could many others, but that's something we simply cannot really know in our hearts until we've studied His Word with Him, regularly for ourselves. That's how we grow our relationship with Him and get closer to Him. Those who do are never put to shame as He Himself promises, for when we do, then we know that we can trust Him with our very lives without a single hesitation, worry or backward glance. This is what Peter is saying here:
1 Peter 4:16–19 — However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
I felt betrayed and hurt. I couldn't understand how God could let that happen to me. True, I was no where near as good a person as Job was, but still, I was saved, I was obedient to God and always tried to do whatever He told me to, including studying His Word daily with Him and praying. But that made it even worse, because the morning of my accident, I had prayed for safety! Here I'd thought God would protect me, keep them safe from horrible things like this, and yet He obviously hadn't! How could I ever trust Him again????
Unlike Job's wife though, I didn't turn from the Lord, instead I turned to Him and I told Him what I felt and asked Him why...what had I done wrong? What was I misunderstanding here??? Help!!! And of course, He answered me. It's His answer that I want to share with you all, because with all the horrid trials that so many of have been through, or are currently going through, or may go through in the future, I think it's something we should talk about.
When we ask about things like this, what we're really asking about is God's sovereignty. I've got to tell you though, when I consider God's sovereignty for too long and get too deep into the questions of why, and what it's, and how some bad thing or another be allowed to happen, that I wind up giving myself a headache trying to understand it all.
Because it is so difficult to understand, I freely admit to you that I'm quite sure that I don't completely and thoroughly understand it even now. But you know what? I'm OK with that. I know I have a basic grasp of it and more importantly, I know my God and who He is and His attributes, so I'm ok with leaving the working of the universe and all that's in it to Him and trusting that He really does know what He's doing. I've written this post innumerable times trying to explain His sovereignty and have finally come to the conclusion that I can't do it well enough to satisfy myself. It's something that I understand, but can't seem to put into words very well. So probably the best thing to do is just state the facts to start with and we can take it from there.
First, we know that God is sovereign--He has complete and total power over everything and everyone; He is omniscient--He knows everything there is to know about everything and everyone; and He's omnipotent-having unlimited authority and influence; He's transcendent or exists above time and space and isn't limited by them.
Usually when we're asking why God allowed something to happen, it's because we in our great knowledge, think that He messed up and made a mistake or that He wasn't being "fair". When I got down to brass tacks with Him over my accident, that's exactly what I was getting at. "I was a good born again woman, so it was wrong for Him to let that happen to me." Period. But my thoughts came back to haunt me.
I was "good"??? Really? And I remembered my sins of that day and of the day of the accident, and I even realized that I was still learning what attitudes were sins because it hadn't been that long ago that I'd thought sin was when you broke one of the commandments. So I recognized that even with all the sins I realized I'd committed, there were probably twice as many that I wasn't even aware of yet.
"But they been forgiven!" Yes, they had, thanks to a loving merciful Father who had loved me and saved me even though I didn't deserve it. I was beginning to feel a bit humbled by now as you can see, but there was still a spark of rebellion in me too. "But I'd prayed for Him to keep me safe that day!" And I recalled my husband and my boss telling me after they'd seen the car, that we were really lucky to be alive. "But now I can't work or do anything and You could have kept it from happening at all!" And the Lord led me to Job 38 on. I won't post it all, but just enough for you to get the idea...
Job 38:1–7 — Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?........
Basically, the Lord reminded me of just who I was, and more importantly, who He was.
Romans 9:20 — But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”
Isaiah 29:16 — You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”?
Isaiah 45:9 — “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?
Even as I read though, I knew He was being gentle and loving with me and that He wasn't angry. (at least I hadn't pushed Him that far yet) As I read, I thought about it in relation to what had happened to me. Yes, I'd been hurt, but not killed, and could have been killed in either my accident of the one that happened right next to us while the police were there helping us! So really, He HAD protected me, not just once, but twice! I thought, how do I know that if I hadn't been hurt the way I was, that someone else might have gotten hurt worse? I was thinking of a huge quilt and that I was like one colored thread in that quilt. I didn't even know everything about my own thread, much less the thousands of other threads that intersected or interacted with mine at some point or another, and every little thing that happened to me, would also affect them in some way too. And there was also the idea of if I hadn't had the accident, could something worse have happened later? For example, we've all heard stories of people running out of gas only to find out that if they hadn't, and had kept going, they likely would have been involved in a terrible accident that happened exactly in a place they would have been in at that time. The more I thought about all of that, the more ignorant I realized I was.
Then, just as I was feeling humbled by all this, the Lord really surprised me. He led me to Matthew 4 and suddenly I saw something I'd never noticed before: Who led Jesus into the desert to be tempted?
Matthew 4:1 — Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
It wasn't Satan, it was God! God led His Son into what we would surely see as a horrible situation! Why??? And of course when I thought of that, I also remembered other things, like the way He was tortured, reviled, and ultimately hung on a cross. Jesus did all that, went through all that, in obedience to His Father's Will for Him. In obedience to Our Father's Will for Him. Of course we know why He did it, it was to save us...Suddenly I was remembering a lot of other things too. What about the disciples What about Stephen being stoned to death? Or all the times Paul was beaten literally within an inch of his life, or stoned and left for dead, or put in prison and mistreated? Or how about how most of the apostles ultimately died??? I think we can all agree that we'd consider any of those things pretty horrible!
Here I was saying it wasn't fair because I was a good born again woman, and yet these folks, who I'm sure were a lot more spiritually mature then I was, and who could more correctly be considered "good", had all been through things much more horrible then my experience. Was that "fair"? Was that good? Yes, we know that because of all those things, the gospel spread like wildfire and millions have been saved, but still..... Do you really think that Stephen understood "why" God was allowing him to be stoned to death when it happened? Or any of the others for that matter? Yet the Lord used what happened for tremendous good. At the time I was asking God about all this, I didn't understand how these things could have worked for their personal good, but I did see that God did use it for good in general and for others. Now I also understand how it worked for their personal good as well, because they will each receive tremendous rewards in Heaven at the Bema Judgment for all they went through; and their rewards won't waste away because they'll last for eternity.
And that brings us a big problem, because most of us think this life is pretty great and don't really see this life as the drop in a bucket that it really is. Compared to what even the worst born again Christian is going to have in Heaven, this life is more like Hell! When we study the Gospel, we find that the Lord was constantly trying to get people to see the eternal perspective instead of just an earthly perspective. We do have the capacity to have an eternal perspective, because if we didn't, the Lord wouldn't tell us to have one. I think part of the reason we don't is because again the church has failed to teach us about this, as they've failed to teach about so many important things. You know how when a woman is pregnant, she's always thinking ahead? She thinks about what to name the baby, what the baby is going to need when he or she arrives, how she's going to take care of the baby, what she needs to do to get the house baby proofed for when the baby starts to crawl and then walk; she imagines what the baby will look like, what the baby will sound like, and how the baby will act and what it will feel like to finally hold her child in her arms... What if when the mother was pregnant, she absolutely refused to think beyond the pregnancy? She didn't think about names, didn't consider what she'd need or buy anything for the baby, didn't talk about the baby and how she would care for the child, or anything at all. Instead, she just continued on as though she was going to be pregnant for the rest of her entire life and that's all that was important. Wouldn't that be totally ridiculous??? Yeah, it would even be pretty stupid! Yet, that's exactly what we do every day! We continue on in this life as though THIS is what's important and as though this is all that mattered! About the only time we peak beyond this life at all is when we consider where we're going to go when we die. Once we've made our decision though, we quickly run right back into this life and stay here. It makes me wonder if we really believe there's a heaven or not. But then, when I think about it, I realize that most people don't study their bibles and so they really don't know what's going to happen to them or what it's going to be like, and most churches don't preach about it so we generally remain ignorant. Yet Paul truly longed to be in heaven, and would have much preferred that to continuing to live this life!
Philippians 1:21–24 — For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
And no, he wasn't suicidal! Having studied God's Word myself, I can honestly say the same thing. I understand now that this is just a short prelude and my real life will begin when I get to Heaven. That's my Home, and I am truly homesick and long to there. Yet I can't tell others that, not even other Christians really because they'll think that I'm either depressed, suicidal, or maybe affected because of the pain I live with, or if nothing else, then just plain crazy. They just don't understand. But Paul did, as did the other apostles..
When we finally can see beyond our pregnancy, and see this life the way the Lord sees it, we also begin seeing the things that happen to us now in a completely different light, because we begin to not just think or believe that this is all just temporary, we know it is.
Again, here I was, thinking God wasn't being fair because He didn't keep me from getting hurt at all in that accident, and the Lord showed me that I wasn't looking at the big picture. I was still focusing on the "now" or as I put it before, I was still focusing on being pregnant and not on what would happen when the baby came. When I finally began to look past the present, I began to realize that this is just preparing us for our real life. As I studied I began to see that the Lord and the apostles were constantly talking about our eternal lives and the rewards we'll be getting, and what those rewards will be for and warning us of the consequences of disobedience.
I relate most things to parenthood since that's what I'm familiar with, and it seems reasonable too since God is our Father. We're in a kind of difficult position because we're adults and yet we're His children and He has to grow us up so that we'll know how to behave properly in our real lives. So we all need to "grow up" spiritually now that we've been saved.
1 Peter 2:2 — Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
Ephesians 4:15 — Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
When the bible talks about "growing up in our salvation", we're being told that we're to become spiritually mature. God doesn't want a bunch of spiritual babies inhabiting heaven after all, instead He wants us to be mature adults who can enjoy and appreciate all He's done for us. Just as earthly parents discipline their children when they misbehave, so our heavenly Father disciplines us when we're misbehaving and living according to the worlds standards instead of His standards. Obviously, if we don't know His Word, we can't know what His standards are or what His Will is or even, really know Him, so the very first thing He commands those who are born again is that they study His Word and grow up in their salvation.
Especially now that we're so close to the end of this age though, He is disciplining those who aren't doing that. He also disciplines us for other misbehavior and generally we see that discipline as a trial. So sometimes, that's the cause of our hardships. God isn't like earthly parents who make mistakes, nor does He ever discipline us in anger or to hurt us. His discipline is always to help us and He wants us to know when we're being disciplined and why. That's why He tells us that if we can't figure it out, that we should ask Him for wisdom and He will give it to us.
James 1:2–5 \ — Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
Again the Lord showed me that He's growing us up so that we'll be ready for the day our salvation is finally complete....that glorious day when we finally receive our new bodies and leave this awful sin nature behind forever! The Rapture!
You know, we've talked in many threads about how the world seems to have come full circle now. Full circle from when Jesus rose again and the age of the law ended and the age of grace started, to now when we're at the tail end of what the Bible has called "the end times". A lot of people don't realize it, but the end times actually began back then. They didn't just start. That's why I always say we're at the very end of them. Jesus assured His followers that He would return for them and they thought it would be in their lifetime. That's what He meant for them to think, because it was that that gave them the strength to get through all those horrible things that happened to them.
When the early Christians were horribly persecuted, and when they went through severe trials, they could sincerely rejoice because they KNEW it wouldn't be long and Jesus would return and everything they went through till then would be repaid to them 100 times over when He did! So they knew exactly what Paul and Peter meant when they said to "Rejoice in the Lord always" Philippians 4:4 and that they should "rejoice even though for now they're going through trials and suffering".
As I also said in that thread, this is another way we've come full circle, because once again, just as He said He would, the Lord has brought the knowledge of the rapture to light to remind us of this and now many of us too realize that He could return at any time.
That's good to know, but there's another part of coming full circle that we need to recognize too. Back then the whole known world was in complete turmoil. Bad economy? Many people then were starving to death! No jobs now? Same problem then! Persecution? They could tell us a thing or two about that! All the problems the world has now, were present then too and just as bad if not worse. It was during this time that Jerusalem was destroyed and later Rome was also destroyed. Knowing this, we too shouldn't be surprised at all that's happening to us.
Yes, us, God's church. The followers of Jesus went through terrible times at the end of their age and the beginning of ours but instead of asking how God could be so cruel as to allow these things to happen to them, they rejoiced knowing that He would work it all out in the end and their trials wouldn't be for nothing. Instead of focusing on what they lacked or how much they hurt, they focused on what these trials were accomplishing in them, what the trials were teaching them; how the trials were helping them to grow up spiritually to be the person God had created them to be for all eternity.
They even realized that some of the trials might not even be about them at all, however that didn't mean they couldn't learn from them. What do I mean about the trials not necessarily being about them? I mean that while God will discipline us, there are also times that the trial we're going through really has nothing to do with us, but is instead to teach others. For example, if someone is going through hardship and has no money etc. if the trial isn't discipline, it could quite well be to teach fellow Christians various lessons and/or to give others a chance to see how they should respond to such a trial in their life when/if it happens; or even to give other believers a chance to respond the way God wants us to when we see a brother or sister in need. It might be to teach others about how God calls us not to just give to others that are in need, but to give sacrificially to them, putting them above our own needs. Or, it might be to give someone a chance to repent of the wrong way they've reacted to that person in the past and now help them; or all kinds of other things. See most of us don't mind being on the giving end of the stick, but when it comes to being on the receiving end, it makes us mighty uncomfortable. That too is another lesson that the Lord might be trying to teach; or He could be giving someone who was once on the receiving end, a chance to be on the giving end. After all He's growing us up to be perfect as He is so He's going to cover all the angles.
Again the problem with our viewpoint is that it's usually way too short, considering only this life, and generally only "right now" and it generally doesn't take into consideration all the other people who are affected by what we're going through and the many different ways they're affected by it. Look at all the people who were and who still are affected by all the things that Paul went through and I'm sure we don't know about most of them.
There are many reasons why the Lord allows these terrible things to happen to us, the children He loves, and we've discussed most of them in threads like the Trials and Tribulations one.
The bottom line is first that the Lord WILL allow horrible things to happen to us; or at least things that we generally consider are horrible. And second, that the Lord allows these things to happen, NOT because He's cruel or mean or unfair, but because He loves us and really does have our best interests at heart. Not our best interests for this life, but rather, our best interests for our "whole" life which unlike unbelievers, will stretch through all eternity. Certainly He wants us to have good things now, but there are times when "bad things" are allowed to ensure that our whole life is the best it can be. This is why it helps to truly know the Lord through studying His Word, because when we do that, then, we can really know we can trust Him and that He would never, ever, betray us.
That my friends is the bottom line of what the Lord showed me all those years ago when I had my accident and cried, "How could I ever trust Him again????" I can tell you all about the Lord and what He's like till I'm blue in the face, and so could many others, but that's something we simply cannot really know in our hearts until we've studied His Word with Him, regularly for ourselves. That's how we grow our relationship with Him and get closer to Him. Those who do are never put to shame as He Himself promises, for when we do, then we know that we can trust Him with our very lives without a single hesitation, worry or backward glance. This is what Peter is saying here:
1 Peter 4:16–19 — However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
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