Why not me?
I'm not a 'why me' kind of person. Many years ago I felt God confront me with this kind of thinking. I do admit that when I was younger I cried this to God on many occasions - and felt justified in doing so.
Why did I have to be a foster kid with no mother or father?
Why did I have to be abandoned and lonely?
Why did I have to confront anxiety, depression, anorexia?
Why did I have to confront infertility?
Why me?
Why me?
Why me?
And one day the Lord clearly said, 'why not you?'
One of the biggest problems as Christians is the thinking that because we believe and follow God, we will never confront trials, temptations or hard times. That somehow because we walk closely with God that we are excluded from difficulties and will live an adversity free life with Him. In times past we've heard the kind of preaching, 'come to God and everything will be rosy' - and then give up because it's soon apparent that it is not! We somehow think that we are an elite group who are completely free from the trials of this world simply because we believe in Him. And those who don't believe look at us and wonder where our God is when we ourselves go through difficult times and mumble and moan at our misfortune! We somehow think that God is only interested in us believers and will somehow save us from ALL difficulties of life. But this kind of thinking is wrong and contrary to who God is because God is interested in all humanity. God gives good gifts to everyone - it's our accessing these things that bring them to pass. If I am sick and need healing, then it's my accessing that healing from Him that brings it to pass. It's my faith in Him that brings power into my body to heal whatever ails me. But if we don't believe in Him, then we simply won't ask. But is the healing available to every person? Yes - but it's our faith that activates it. It's been settled on the cross so it's our calling on Him that brings it into our lives. All things are available to ALL people. But if we don't believe in Him, we won't ask, and we won't receive. We are the ones much more in control than we think!
Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. My belief and faith in God doesn't exclude me from that. I think it's a very difficult pill to swallow for us Christians to understand that difficult things will cross our paths and that we aren't excluded simply because we walk closely with God. To think this can be quite dangerous because when difficult times do come, we feel abandoned by God. We find ourselves believing that God somehow left us alone and didn't care about us enough to stop whatever it is that happened. This brings hopelessness, sadness and despair and stops us from reaching out to the One who has given us all we need in this life to combat these things. To the One who says, 'Be strong and courgeous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you' (Deuteronomy 31:6).
In the letter of Paul to the Corinthians, it is mentioned that Paul had a 'thorn' in the flesh. Paul cried out to God three times to 'remove' the thorn that was assailing him. Just stopping for a minute, I'd like to bring to attention that this 'thorn' was something that was sent by Satan - not by God (read 2 Corinthians 12:7). Too often we blame God for things that come against us and fail to recognize where 'bad' things come from. God Himself says we do not war against humans but against principalities and powers from the demonic realm. Again this is quite confronting - and try tell a non-Christian that! But we see in the case of Job that Satan himself asked God to hand Job over to him as he was convinced that Job only loved God because God had a hedge of protection around him - and he was wealthy. God, in a wisdom we simply cannot understand, allowed Satan to have his way except to take his life. Satan takes everything away from Job, his livelihood, his family and his wealth - and Job still will not deny his devotion to God. And Job did not have any understanding of a demonic realm so would have lacked so much understanding that we have today.
Back to Paul. He asked God three times to get rid of the 'thorn' in the flesh (of which we don't know what it was) and Gods reply was surprising. He said, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).' God never said, 'no worries Paul, I'll take it' but in fact informed Paul that He had been given all he needed to deal with the 'thorn.' God tells him that when he is in the weak and vulnerable place, when adversity has come against him, is where he will find His power. Paul understood this and said 'therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.' Wow, Paul really had a grasp of the manifest power of God in his life when faced with adversity. I'm not sure I've completely come to this place yet!!!
I don't know about you but loving, serving and following God when things are good and I'm in a place of blessing - is kind of easy. When God does something good in my life I can't wait to tell people and give a testimony from the pulpit. Oh how God is good!! But how do we love, serve and honour God when we find ourselves in the pit of adversity? Do we abandon Him - in the same way we think He has abandoned us? What if we really realized that God HAS given everything we need to see His power manifest in our lives during adversity? How would we praise Him then? How would our relationship with him be different? Would we approach adversity in the same way if we realized that it gives us a greater opportunity to see the manifest power of God in our lives? And what would it mean for those around us if they could see that our love of God remained steadfast in the face of difficulties? It facinates me that in the face of adversity, some non-believers cry out to God in their last ditched attempt to be saved from whatever they are experiencing! How much will they listen when they see that our faithfulness to God is unwaivering in our own difficult situations? Jesus said that He didn't come to heal the well - but the sick. It's not the well who need the most power - except to pray for others who are!
This is a big topic and I'm not sure I can do it justice here. My intent is to break open a topic that is hard to come to terms with - that as Christians we will face adversity. We need to resolve that so that in that place we are able to draw closer to God and take from Him all that we need to travel through it. The psalmist wrote, 'though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thy rod and thy staff protect me (Psalm 12:1).' He never said he camped there (walk denotes movement!), and he never said we wouldn't walk through the valley. He says we will 'walk through.' The bible never tells us that we won't walk through trials and adversity. But it tells us in many places that the rod and staff, the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, will walk with us, guide us and give us ALL we need. So if we need healing, He will give it (and yes He will use human medical intervention to do that!), if we need finances, He will provide - and so on and so on.
Many times I've been asked, 'why does God let bad things happen?' and my answer is, 'why do you think it's God?' To think that God allows bad and good things to happen means that He is in total control of this world. Which begs the question, is He? Is He really in control of this world and all the human beings in it? To say yes indicates that we are all simply puppets on a string at the whim and mercy of a cruel God who is just playing around with us. Perhaps we are all just living 'The Truman Show' existence? And if that's the case - then we might as well just give up now because we are at the mercy of fatalism which says, 'what will be will be and there's nothing you can do about it.'
Or alternatively, there is a God who is the author of creation who loved us enough to give us free will and allow the world to make it's own choices. That in fact, God IS in control and sovereign, but allows us to choose our path. We can choose to know Him, or not. We can choose to look after this earth, or not. What would it be like for you to have someone love you, not through choice, but because they had to? We wouldn't want that, and neither does God. So from the outset He placed us on earth to manage it. He gave us free will, to love, to hate, to know the difference between right and wrong. And in doing so as part of the choices we make, we face consequences. We teach our own children that there are consequences to choices yet we fail to see that the same applies to adults, and furthermore, the whole human race.
And consequences often reach much further than the individual, or group that are responsible for them. Over the generations, consequences are put in place of which ultimately we all become affected. And then over generations our human bodies have degenerated and we are faced with so many more diseases than we've ever confronted before. And then there's an enemy working against us - the one who is really in charge of this earth because we gave him the authority back in the garden. It's only when we accept salvation that we take back the authority that was given him. And because satan knows that, he targets believers more so than non-believers. He knows authority was purchased for us but if he can convince us otherwise, then he has us where he wants us - totally powerless. For those that don't believe, the authority is still his and he uses it as he wants. Where God is for us - Satan is not. But God does say that 'greater is He that is in us {God} than he that is in the world {satan}' (1 John 4:4). That takes us back to God giving us all we need to overcome the adversities that we face.
And then there are the many questions we simply cannot answer - or find the answers to. I have them and no doubt you do too. But the reality is that if we all had the answers then we'd have no need of God and no need of faith. There comes a time in our walk that we just need to acknowledge that we don't have the answers to everything - but we have to trust in a God whose ways are not our ways and thoughts are not ours. That's true trust and true faith.
So as we face adversity and pain in our own lives, I wonder whether we will cry out 'why me?' and feel abandoned by God and fail to take hold of all we need to confront the trial, leaving us feeling bereft and alone.
Or will we say 'why not me? and embrace all that God has for us to win the battles and take the victory?
The choice is ours.
Why did I have to be a foster kid with no mother or father?
Why did I have to be abandoned and lonely?
Why did I have to confront anxiety, depression, anorexia?
Why did I have to confront infertility?
Why me?
Why me?
Why me?
And one day the Lord clearly said, 'why not you?'
One of the biggest problems as Christians is the thinking that because we believe and follow God, we will never confront trials, temptations or hard times. That somehow because we walk closely with God that we are excluded from difficulties and will live an adversity free life with Him. In times past we've heard the kind of preaching, 'come to God and everything will be rosy' - and then give up because it's soon apparent that it is not! We somehow think that we are an elite group who are completely free from the trials of this world simply because we believe in Him. And those who don't believe look at us and wonder where our God is when we ourselves go through difficult times and mumble and moan at our misfortune! We somehow think that God is only interested in us believers and will somehow save us from ALL difficulties of life. But this kind of thinking is wrong and contrary to who God is because God is interested in all humanity. God gives good gifts to everyone - it's our accessing these things that bring them to pass. If I am sick and need healing, then it's my accessing that healing from Him that brings it to pass. It's my faith in Him that brings power into my body to heal whatever ails me. But if we don't believe in Him, then we simply won't ask. But is the healing available to every person? Yes - but it's our faith that activates it. It's been settled on the cross so it's our calling on Him that brings it into our lives. All things are available to ALL people. But if we don't believe in Him, we won't ask, and we won't receive. We are the ones much more in control than we think!
Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. My belief and faith in God doesn't exclude me from that. I think it's a very difficult pill to swallow for us Christians to understand that difficult things will cross our paths and that we aren't excluded simply because we walk closely with God. To think this can be quite dangerous because when difficult times do come, we feel abandoned by God. We find ourselves believing that God somehow left us alone and didn't care about us enough to stop whatever it is that happened. This brings hopelessness, sadness and despair and stops us from reaching out to the One who has given us all we need in this life to combat these things. To the One who says, 'Be strong and courgeous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you' (Deuteronomy 31:6).
In the letter of Paul to the Corinthians, it is mentioned that Paul had a 'thorn' in the flesh. Paul cried out to God three times to 'remove' the thorn that was assailing him. Just stopping for a minute, I'd like to bring to attention that this 'thorn' was something that was sent by Satan - not by God (read 2 Corinthians 12:7). Too often we blame God for things that come against us and fail to recognize where 'bad' things come from. God Himself says we do not war against humans but against principalities and powers from the demonic realm. Again this is quite confronting - and try tell a non-Christian that! But we see in the case of Job that Satan himself asked God to hand Job over to him as he was convinced that Job only loved God because God had a hedge of protection around him - and he was wealthy. God, in a wisdom we simply cannot understand, allowed Satan to have his way except to take his life. Satan takes everything away from Job, his livelihood, his family and his wealth - and Job still will not deny his devotion to God. And Job did not have any understanding of a demonic realm so would have lacked so much understanding that we have today.
Back to Paul. He asked God three times to get rid of the 'thorn' in the flesh (of which we don't know what it was) and Gods reply was surprising. He said, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).' God never said, 'no worries Paul, I'll take it' but in fact informed Paul that He had been given all he needed to deal with the 'thorn.' God tells him that when he is in the weak and vulnerable place, when adversity has come against him, is where he will find His power. Paul understood this and said 'therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.' Wow, Paul really had a grasp of the manifest power of God in his life when faced with adversity. I'm not sure I've completely come to this place yet!!!
I don't know about you but loving, serving and following God when things are good and I'm in a place of blessing - is kind of easy. When God does something good in my life I can't wait to tell people and give a testimony from the pulpit. Oh how God is good!! But how do we love, serve and honour God when we find ourselves in the pit of adversity? Do we abandon Him - in the same way we think He has abandoned us? What if we really realized that God HAS given everything we need to see His power manifest in our lives during adversity? How would we praise Him then? How would our relationship with him be different? Would we approach adversity in the same way if we realized that it gives us a greater opportunity to see the manifest power of God in our lives? And what would it mean for those around us if they could see that our love of God remained steadfast in the face of difficulties? It facinates me that in the face of adversity, some non-believers cry out to God in their last ditched attempt to be saved from whatever they are experiencing! How much will they listen when they see that our faithfulness to God is unwaivering in our own difficult situations? Jesus said that He didn't come to heal the well - but the sick. It's not the well who need the most power - except to pray for others who are!
This is a big topic and I'm not sure I can do it justice here. My intent is to break open a topic that is hard to come to terms with - that as Christians we will face adversity. We need to resolve that so that in that place we are able to draw closer to God and take from Him all that we need to travel through it. The psalmist wrote, 'though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thy rod and thy staff protect me (Psalm 12:1).' He never said he camped there (walk denotes movement!), and he never said we wouldn't walk through the valley. He says we will 'walk through.' The bible never tells us that we won't walk through trials and adversity. But it tells us in many places that the rod and staff, the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, will walk with us, guide us and give us ALL we need. So if we need healing, He will give it (and yes He will use human medical intervention to do that!), if we need finances, He will provide - and so on and so on.
Many times I've been asked, 'why does God let bad things happen?' and my answer is, 'why do you think it's God?' To think that God allows bad and good things to happen means that He is in total control of this world. Which begs the question, is He? Is He really in control of this world and all the human beings in it? To say yes indicates that we are all simply puppets on a string at the whim and mercy of a cruel God who is just playing around with us. Perhaps we are all just living 'The Truman Show' existence? And if that's the case - then we might as well just give up now because we are at the mercy of fatalism which says, 'what will be will be and there's nothing you can do about it.'
Or alternatively, there is a God who is the author of creation who loved us enough to give us free will and allow the world to make it's own choices. That in fact, God IS in control and sovereign, but allows us to choose our path. We can choose to know Him, or not. We can choose to look after this earth, or not. What would it be like for you to have someone love you, not through choice, but because they had to? We wouldn't want that, and neither does God. So from the outset He placed us on earth to manage it. He gave us free will, to love, to hate, to know the difference between right and wrong. And in doing so as part of the choices we make, we face consequences. We teach our own children that there are consequences to choices yet we fail to see that the same applies to adults, and furthermore, the whole human race.
And consequences often reach much further than the individual, or group that are responsible for them. Over the generations, consequences are put in place of which ultimately we all become affected. And then over generations our human bodies have degenerated and we are faced with so many more diseases than we've ever confronted before. And then there's an enemy working against us - the one who is really in charge of this earth because we gave him the authority back in the garden. It's only when we accept salvation that we take back the authority that was given him. And because satan knows that, he targets believers more so than non-believers. He knows authority was purchased for us but if he can convince us otherwise, then he has us where he wants us - totally powerless. For those that don't believe, the authority is still his and he uses it as he wants. Where God is for us - Satan is not. But God does say that 'greater is He that is in us {God} than he that is in the world {satan}' (1 John 4:4). That takes us back to God giving us all we need to overcome the adversities that we face.
And then there are the many questions we simply cannot answer - or find the answers to. I have them and no doubt you do too. But the reality is that if we all had the answers then we'd have no need of God and no need of faith. There comes a time in our walk that we just need to acknowledge that we don't have the answers to everything - but we have to trust in a God whose ways are not our ways and thoughts are not ours. That's true trust and true faith.
So as we face adversity and pain in our own lives, I wonder whether we will cry out 'why me?' and feel abandoned by God and fail to take hold of all we need to confront the trial, leaving us feeling bereft and alone.
Or will we say 'why not me? and embrace all that God has for us to win the battles and take the victory?
The choice is ours.
Beautifully written Nicole, you are right the choice is ours. Bless you
ReplyDeleteThanks Sharon. It is definitely worth noting that God many times DOES save us from adversity. For that I'm thankful.
ReplyDeleteVery well written Nicole!
ReplyDelete