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.
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.
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.
