All of us, at some point in our lives suffer loss, grief, disappointment, agony, ill health. Most of us bewail our sad experience and wonder why God has done this to us, or, as Christians wonder why He allows such miserable things to happen.
When our children go astray and ruin their lives, our hearts are broken. Some parents refuse to accept that their offspring could do whatever it is that they have done. Some parents break all ties with their children. Others try to keep the communication lines open and pray for them earnestly and continually, trusting that at some point, God will restore them to a right relationship with Himself.
When our health fails and we just want to die, our soul often despairs because our bodies remain in agony. We wonder why the Lord has left us to live in such a state. Sometimes we feel as if no one cares. We become lonely and depressed.
Sometimes a storm, such as a hurricane, tornado, or sink hole, destroys everything we have. Some people have suffered these calamities more than once. Anger and bitterness are normal reactions when calamity steals everything from us, or a loved one is brutally taken from us.
Friend, God has not left you alone. If you don't know Him, it is possible He has allowed this into your life so that you would come to the realization that you cannot handle everything on your own. You would realize that you do NEED GOD. He cares for you as no one else ever could. He wants to comfort and strengthen you. He wants to give you His peace but He cannot, out of His good nature, override your determination to shut Him out.
Sometimes God allows things (sometimes horrible, unspeakably painful things) into our lives so that the rest of the world, who don't know Him, can see how He helps you through those most difficult circumstances, so that they, too, may want to know their Creator.
Satan goes to God every day, according to scripture, to tattle on we, God's children. (As if God didn't know and see everything.) Read the book of Job. In one day he loses everything, as he was the wealthiest man in the world at the time. All ten of his children die; all of his cattle and crops are gone; his wealth is plundered; and his wife wants him to curse God and die. After all that he is stricken will a very painful illness. Three of his "friends" come to him and for many days, accuse him of offending God and suffering the consequences for his unconfessed actions.
Job gets depressed and grows weary of his "friends" trying to get him to confess to something he hasn't done.
Yet, in the end, God heals him and gives him twice as much wealth as he had before and gives him ten more children. God also heals his body. Why did God allow all of this calamity? To deepen Job's love and resolve for his Creator, to show Satan that Job's love was deeper and greater than Satan's desire to destroy, and to show Job's friends that they were not as righteous as they thought they were. All of it worked to strengthen Job's character and solidify his faith in God.
Two of my favorite verses in the Bible are: Romans 8:28—"For we know that all things work together for good, to those who love God, and are the called according to His purpose;" and Psalm 34:7—"The angel of the Lord encamps round about those that fear Him."
No matter what you are going through, though it may be the hardest thing you have ever done, trust God no matter how dark the day, no matter how bleak the circumstances or the horizon ahead. He loves you and only wants your best. God bless.
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