Struggles Makes Us Stronger

Many people refuse to believe in a God who would create such a suffering world. It was not in God’s original plan for us to suffer! He desires the best for us. He wanted us to have the best, therefore He created the best. However, we sinned against Him, bringing the consequences of sin on our own heads.  

God is all good. Therefore, how can anything bad come from Him? We are living through the consequences of our own sins. When your parents punish you for something you’ve done, is it correct to turn around and blame them for the consequences? You can let God use traumatic events to strengthen you. However, know that nothing bad comes from Him.

  
           Sometimes our eyes need to be opened. Satan wanted to tempt Job to prove to God that Job was only a servant of Christ because of the many blessings God had bestowed upon him. God allowed Satan to put Job to a test. 2 Corinthians 4:17 says, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” We can allow our struggles to be used for His glory.

            2 Corinthians 12:7 explains why Paul was given the thorn in his flesh. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” He was given this “thorn” in his flesh in order to serve as a reminder that he was merely a man. This “struggle” (or whatever it was) was used to glorify Christ. NASB translates it as, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in my flesh…to keep me from exalting myself!” CEV says, “…so that I would not feel too proud.”

           I’ve heard countless people ask, “Well why is there so much pain and suffering in the world then? Is God just sitting back and watching it happen?” Have we not seen countless miracles in our day? We can’t honestly say that God “sits back, letting this all happen”. He is watching over us! When we decided to eat of the tree, the world became corrupt. (I say we, because anyone of us most likely would have done the same thing when placed in the situation.) This was our fault, not God’s. His world was perfect, and we destroyed it because of our vain attempts to become like Him! The world started its aging process then and even now continues to age. World catastrophes are a result of our sin. Some catastrophes are even foretold in the Bible, but I won’t get into that right now.

         Another question that some may ask is, “Well…why did God allow us to choose to eat from that tree, anyway?” God gave us free will to decide if we would eat of the tree. “Why did God give us free will?” With free will to sin came the free will to love. If we had not been given free will, we would all be mindless robots, loving Him just because it’s “programmed in us” to do so. God desires our heart. He doesn’t want us to go “through the motions”. We have free will to decide if we want Him not. No one wants anything stuffed down their throat. He is the true gentleman; He knocks and does not enter unless we invite Him.

            Genesis 50:20 is a popular verse, visited by me many times: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” This verse does not imply that God intended their harm for good. However, God used the circumstances that Joseph was placed under to save many lives. He didn’t enjoy seeing him suffer. It is not God’s will that any of us perish. He desires that all be saved. He doesn’t choose who He wants to go to Hell. He doesn’t sit in Heaven, planning the next bad day that you’re going to have. Rather, He’s up there, helping us through the day as we continue to go about our daily existence on this earth that has been corrupted by our own fault, not His.

            Imagine you build a beautiful house (Barbie size, of course, haha). Next, you create a village for the house to reside in. Your final touch is complete after you make the dolls to go in the village. Now, one of the dolls decides, “I’m going to rob the bank.” Before this, no one else knew anything but how to live pleasantly. They weren’t expecting anything bad. They couldn’t even imagine anything bad happening. However, the day “Steve” robs the bank, their eyes are opened to what crime really is. The scales on their eyes fall as they come to ponder all of the sins that they themselves can commit. The whole town begins to become corrupt as you watch, sadly. You intervene, trying your best to make things better. It’s not your fault. You created with good intentions. Your creation simply decided to go against your will and ultimately, your plan. Was it not like this in the Creation?

            It’s not God’s will for us to be hurt but because of the consequences of our sins, this world has been corrupted and we face the consequences of it. If we don’t go through any trials in this life, our faith wouldn’t be quite as strong, would it?