tough trials

Psalm 121:5-8 

‘The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.’ (NIV)

What a beautiful piece of scripture! To know that God literally never glances away, never blinks, never sleeps. He watches over us all day, all night ALL LIFE. Everything God plans for us is for our good.

Why then do we face horrible situations? Why then do Christians still get cancer? Why then are Christian families torn apart by death of a child? These difficult questions are popular from the non-believer, that’s for sure, but another sure thing is that God hasn’t left us on our own, the answers lie within scripture.

John 16:33

“I have told you these things, so that I me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcame the world” (NIV)

You see in this statement from Jesus we are told that in this world ‘you will have trouble’ not maybe have trouble, or might have trouble, but WILL. Being a Christian is hard work, but it is so worthwhile. We will face opposition, we will face hard times, and most of the time it will seem like it isn’t fair. But think about this, is having your own son put to death to save a bunch of disobedient, sinful, hateful people fair? 

1 Peter 4:16

'However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.’ (NIV)

Here we are told to not be ashamed of suffering, sometimes when we are under the weather, if something is going wrong, if we are really struggling, we are embarrassed, right? But here Peter tells us that there is no shame for suffering, in fact he goes further than that, he tells us to praise God because of our suffering. How amazing would it be to be able to say ‘yeh, I went through a really tough time, but the whole time I was able to trust God, and now I can see why I went through it’ ?? This is the way we need to live!

James 1:2-4

'Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ (NIV)

Sometimes God wants to show us what real faith is, what we can learn from just trusting in God is so immeasurable. This is a very difficult way to live, because when we face something horrible the last thing we want to do is be joyous, in fact we just want to crawl into our shells, we want someone to blame, but here James is telling us not to blame but to thank.

 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

'Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (NIV)

It’s not a one off within scripture to be told to rejoice always, to have joy during suffering. It’s probably the most challenging thing in my life. It is hard, it really is, but the fact is we have strength to do it, although it isn’t our own strength, it is the mighty and unbreakable strength of God.