Do you find yourself amidst what seems like an endless stream of difficulties? Have you suffered some recent loss which causes you to question your existence or for that matter, the existence of God? Do you feel like you are always paddling upstream and can’t seem to catch a break? Do you feel like, for reasons presently unknown, life has gone south on you?
First, it’s important for you to understand that life, at some point, takes a negative turn for all of us. The negatives that confront us and challenge us are a part of life not because it is God’s plan, but because of a violation of God’s plan that led to God’s enemy, the devil gaining access (by man’s choice) to God’s creation. God never intended for life to be so full of difficulties as His plan was just the opposite. But, because man has free will he can choose whatever he wills and at one time that choice introduced evil into the world. It is that evil, whether you believe it or not, that is behind every bad thing that ever happened to you. Life is not random and your struggles are not random. They were designed, planned, and artfully and masterfully executed by an opponent you cannot see nor readily discern.
No-one living is exempt from this conflict, though they pray a thousand well-intended prayers. It is just the way it is. God’s believing people are assaulted if not more than those who choose not to believe, because they belong to God. As such, God never promised life would be without the fight, but rather promised that in the middle of the fight, we can always win! There will be times when things go wrong on you or bad things happen to you causing you to wonder where God is… Your temptation will be to foolishly conclude that God isn’t there for you or worse that your own wrong behavior has led to all these difficulties. Well, the reality is that the challenges will come no matter how you behave. Of course, you can do your part to add difficulties to your life, but whether you brought it on yourself or your enemy just sucker-punched you, God’s will is always your deliverance; your recovery; your complete restoration to wholeness! And, He will never allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able along the way.
In order for you to aggressively fight back instead of quietly acquiescing or giving up, you first need know who and what you are fighting. If you think that God is behind your struggles, you could not be more wrong! If you have allowed someone to talk you into some nonsensical bullshit about how God has some greater plan for you and is thereby kicking your ass, or some similar phraseology that subtly assigns the present distressing evil to God, again you could not be more wrong! I can assure you that if God were behind your struggles, there would be no remedy! But, He isn’t behind it in any form or fashion, not even in the most minute detail. The reason you have even considered this notion is because that’s what people say; people wholly unaware of their opponent. It’s no accident however, because in order to whoop you up real good your enemy has to convince you first that he doesn’t exist and next that the trouble must be coming from God (Your only source of help!). Like I said, it is quite the masterful operation and it is causing you a lot of unnecessary pain.
So, here you are wondering what the hell happened to you and questioning your every thought, motive and behavior for the past 10 years. Question no further. Evil sucks and it’s after everyone. Remember the Apostle Paul from the Bible? He probably did this life thing a little better than you and me, right? Yet Paul, when accounting his troubles said, “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.” Capisce? You get it? The great Apostle Paul, God’s believing man, was challenged, not because of his sin or wrong, but because God’s enemy hated him and what he stood for in life! I mean come on! Once when he survived the shipwreck, as he gathered sticks to make a fire, a venomous snake came out of the wood and bit him. But, he just shook the beast off and kept on keeping on…
So what should you do when life seems to smack you in the face or gut punches you? Don’t spend a moment of time in consideration of how good or bad you are or worse what the evil lesson is trying to teach you! God doesn’t need the devil to help him teach you anything! Instead, go to God immediately looking for the solution. Whether it be restoration of your health or your finances or a relationship, get yourself to your only real source of help. Don’t fret yourself or allow yourself to be filled with anxiety because everything seems to be going south on you. God can show you and help you to get it going north again! But, like Paul, you have to keep moving forward. Your enemy walks about like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. So, you can’t sit there paralyzed with fear waiting for the next catastrophe. You gotta get yourself up and move ahead. Don’t rehearse it to everyone you know or glorify the evil work by repeating the story a million times over. Get quiet in your heart, ask God for His help (as many times as you need to), and do your best to move forward. As you move, and not until you move, God will make the path clear for you. And after a time, He will even teach you what led to it so you can be that much stronger in the future.
Life goes south for everyone at one time or another, but that doesn’t mean you cannot prevail. Think good things about yourself and never again consider that God is behind your challenges. The adversary is behind your challenges and if you don’t fold, you cannot lose…
Just some good thoughts…