Friday, June 14, 2024

WHEN THINGS GO FROM BAD TO WORSE

The facts of life are that we will each experience good things and bad things; we will know great blessings, and some tragedies. Happy good times and sad bad times will be dealt to each of us, just as we see in the lives of people in the Bible.

Some have the false impression that if they just give their lives to Jesus – if they would only get saved! THEN they would have the blessed life where nothing goes wrong. Smooth sailing all the way. NOT!!!

However, it’s important to know that even when bad times come, GOD is still on the throne! He is still in charge! So why do bad things happen? Why does GOD allow them?

Many answers to that question, but one very good answer is that GOD wants to show us that He can take the worst of circumstances, situations that to us look like the worst of the worst – utter tragedy and bring something good out of it.

How? I don’t know, because …

ISAIAH 55:8-9
 8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts
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So when it comes to understanding how and why GOD does things, 99% of the time, it’s over my head!

Any time trouble strikes and trials come into your life, that’s GOD’s way of asking you,
“Do you trust me?” And quite often when your answer is yes, and GOD knows what you can and cannot handle by His grace, He will dial it up, things get worse and He asks, “OK, how about now?”

Remember what Job said?

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” That’s complete abandonment to the will of GOD!

So when things go from bad to worse, this is an opportunity to see what GOD will do for us, and how we can trust Him in the midst of any storm in life we’ll face. Bear in mind, sometimes GOD doesn’t calm the storm for His child – sometimes He calms His child in the midst of the storm!

Six Examples where things go from bad to worse:

1] Consider Adam and Eve!

They were living in paradise! All was good, nothing was bad. No stress, no worries, no mortgages or bills, no layoffs; no pesky neighbors, no need for diets or exercise. The only restriction was that they weren’t to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that’s all!

Then who shows up?
Satan comes into the picture with a proposition for Eve to try the Frank Sinatra philosophy who sang the song, “[I Did It] My Way!”

What they eventually learned was that it’s either YAHWEH or NO WAY!

But it goes from bad to worse: once they give into the temptation and eat the forbidden fruit – Adam and Eve lose their innocence! They lose direct fellowship with GOD; they inherit a sin nature so that they are afraid to face GOD and hide from Him! Then they get kicked out of paradise and have to suffer a life like we have in this fallen world where there is pain, suffering, blood, sweat and tears.

BUT GOD didn’t leave them hanging with hopelessness. He gave them a promise:

GENESIS 3:15
And I will put enmity between you
[Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head [Satan], and you shall bruise His heel.

Ultimately it turns out well: Adam and Eve by faith are redeemed! We’ll see them in heaven!

2] Consider Abraham and Sarah!

GOD promised Abram a son, that’s great news! but decades goes by until he’s nearly 100 and Sarah isn’t too far behind! No son has arrived and time is running out! That’s bad news! Abraham and Sarah have to help GOD out before it’s too late (they didn’t understand: 1) it’s never too late for GOD and 2) take the hint: GOD doesn’t need our help).

So Hagar gets involved with Sarah’s permission, and Abraham has a son through her! Job done, Abraham got a son! – not according to GOD though. He doesn’t recognize his first son Ishmael because he isn’t the one GOD promised!

But great news! When it became impossible for them to have a son, THAT’s when GOD did His work, to prove He did it – not them! He fulfilled His promise!

But then it goes from bad to worse: GOD commands Abraham to sacrifice his son! The knife that would end his son’s life is a matter of eighteen inches away from Isaac’s heart before GOD says, STOP! And He restores his son to him, acknowledging Abraham’s faith in YHWH!
Ultimately all the promises GOD made to Abraham will be fulfilled and he will live on this Earth (again) to see it happen!

3] Consider Moses!

He was living high on the hog, a prince of Egypt, the world power of the day! But one day he sees one of his Hebrew brothers being persecuted by an Egyptian, Moses takes him out, buries the body but (Bad news!) he’s found out!

He runs away and gets a job as a shepherd, marries a beautiful lady and then one day he finds himself doing an interview with GOD in a burning bush! GOD hires him for a job that Moses isn’t too keen on but goes anyways: He is to go free the Hebrew slaves and GOD gives him miraculous signs to do before Pharoah as evidence that Moses is GOD’s man!

But it goes from bad to worse: Pharoah’s magicians duplicate the miracles, Pharoah rejects Moses and tells the taskmasters to lean on the slaves and double their work load!
Moses life is a rollercoaster ride with all sorts of ups and downs in dealing with these Hebrew ex-slaves, but GOD is faithful to him at every turn, so it’s all good, right?

Well Moses screws up just one time – one time in 40 years! That’s a great track record! But what does GOD do? After serving GOD in a job that he didn’t want in the first place, he messes up just once and GOD forbids him from entering the promised land. He dies instead. GOD buries him. GOD takes His Name, His character, Who He is very, very seriously! And Moses misrepresented Him and was penalized for it.

But ultimately Moses does get to see the promised land at the Mt. of Transfiguration, along with Elijah and both, along with Abraham and all the saints will be blessed to see the Messiah rule during the Millennium!

4] Consider the demonized son of a grieved father!

This heartbroken father brings his son – this is his only son too, in fact his only child (LK 9:38) and he’s possessed of a demon! This father brings his son to the disciples, but bad news! They couldn’t help him! Eventually Jesus shows up and the father explains the situation to Him and asks Him to help if He can.

“IF I can?” Jesus says, “If YOU believe, anything is possible!” And the father cries tears and admits he has some unbelief. But Jesus doesn’t reject him for it; He knows this man has faith, but this is his dear son that he loves, that he has seen tormented by demons for years – he struggles in his faith!

So, great news! Jesus commands the demons to leave!

But it goes from bad to worse: Even though Jesus shows up and takes charge: the son falls to the ground and looks like he’s dead! Can you imagine what his father must have thought? Even though his son was possessed, at least he was alive – but now, he asked Jesus for help, and his son dies??

Ultimately however, Jesus picks the boy up by the hand, and he is restored, free of demons, to an overjoyed Daddy!

5] Consider Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary!

These were dear friends of Jesus and He resorted to their home for food and fellowship regularly! Imagine having the LORD Jesus as your very own dinner guest! They all loved Him, and they knew that He loved them! Martha loved to serve the LORD, Mary loved to sit at His feet and learn of Him, Lazarus loved to sit at table and have fellowship with Him!

But there came a time when Lazarus got sick; and then he got sicker still. His sisters began to worry about his recovery. They sent a message in haste and all that it said was, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." And it didn’t even say, “Come quickly!” because after all, the LORD loved them; of course He would come as soon as possible.

But then it got bad: a full day passed, no sign of Jesus! A second day passed! Still no sign of the LORD! Where was Jesus? What was He doing, why was He delayed?

He was several miles away, just chilling. And all He said to His disciples was, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

But it goes from bad to worse: Lazarus is dead! The LORD said,

JOHN 11:11-14
 …"Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up." 12 Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. 15 "And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there,
[WHY?] that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him."

Had the LORD Jesus been there in time, He would have healed Lazarus of a sickness like He did countless numbers of times. But not only did He wait for Lazarus to die, He waited for four days – that’s longer than any other dead person that He raised to life!

Ultimately, as we know, He did raise up Lazarus! The glory of GOD was revealed in a greater way when He delayed His answer to the prayers of Lazarus’ sisters! Remember that: GOD’s delays in your prayers will mean greater glory and blessing further down the road!

6] Consider JESUS on Calvary!

The Messiah King, the One long waited for… has arrived, and He chose His 12 – mostly fishermen, all of them common, ordinary men, nothing special about them. But in their eyes, the Kingdom of Israel is about to be restored because they are in the company of the King – “the Christ, the Son of the Living GOD”, as apostle Peter put it.

They’ve seen miracles, healings – even leprosy cleansed, exorcisms, they saw Jesus walking on water, commanding the storms and fish of the sea, turning water into wine, the dead being raised to life and their Leader really coming down on the religious hypocrites of their day!

He has promised them all places of preeminence in His Kingdom! (MT 19:28)

Then before they know it, He gets arrested, undergoes six bogus trials but gets condemned anyway – without any evidence to support the sentence. Without evidence it was just the religious leaders word against Jesus’ word. In a Roman Court, all Jesus had to say is, “I’m innocent” and by law He could go free!

That’s why Pilate is freaked out when Jesus remains mute – “like a sheep before his shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth” (ISA 53:7). And we know why: because He was standing in our place, taking the blame for our sin. We committed the crimes, but He got nailed for them (literally!).

But it goes from bad to worse: The disciples heard Jesus say that if He wanted to, He could call upon 12 legions of angels (MT 26:53). I figured it out that by the law of averages, that this many angels could obliterate 10 billion people overnight. They must have held out hope that He would call on them for help and bail Him out of this situation. But He doesn’t.

He gets crucified. He dies. He gets buried, and all of the hopes of the apostles die and gets buried with Him!

But ultimately – three days later!!!

REVELATION 1:18
I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore
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So in our own lives, when troubles and trials come our way, and we pray to the LORD to rescue us, and instead of getting better, things get worse! Take heart – understand that the LORD is in control and that as His child,

He fully intends to get you through the trials. At the same time He’s using them like a furnace and is burning off more and more of our carnal sin nature, “the flesh” and everything of the weakness of human nature and strengthening us by these trials through His Spirit!

Remember, the sword must spend time in the forge, enduring the heat of the flame, the pounding of the hammer if it wants to be resilient and remain strong in the battle! Without that time in that place, that sword will break in the very first battle!
So if you’re going through trials, understand, GOD is preparing to use you for His great purpose!

ROMANS 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose
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