Never deceive yourself or be deceived by anyone to believe that if you are a Christian you will never experience hard times in your life. It is biblical for Christians to go through troubles sometimes. God, the one who loves and cares for you, will allow you to go through hard times in life sometimes. That should not scare you at all or even make you doubt the love of God for you.
I believe that the first thing Christians should understand is that God has set some things to be part of life for every living person, Christian or not. For example, everyone should die and when a person dies (2 Samuel 14:14), it often is not easy for those that remain. It is also God’s doing that there will be natural disasters that will also affect Christians too. Similarly, no one enjoys such disasters.
Sometimes Christians get themselves into trouble from the choices they make. This could be unintentional but also it could be intentional. Similarly, Christians will lose their jobs, get hurt or involved in accidents, experience hate from bosses at work, get ridiculed among certain communities, etc. These
What we learn from the Bible
Paul, considered a ‘giant’ Christian, suffered some trouble too. His words in the book of 1 Corinthians 1:3 – 10 confirm that he had no power of his own to rescue himself with all those who were with him from trouble. His words teach us a number of things on why trouble comes our way:
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Verse 4: We get comfort from God to suite our troubles so that we also can comfort others.
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Verse 6: It contributes to our salvation. Salvation comes through endurance in sufferings, which Paul confesses they endured.
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Verse 8 – 9: It teaches us to rely on God and not ourselves. It makes you realise that all safety and good things that makes us happy come from God.
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Verse 10: It builds confidence in God.
I want to reference an instance in the Old Testament where God allowed people to go into battle they wouldn’t win even when they had enquired of Him. This story is found in the book of Judges 20, the entire chapter outlines how the Israelites at this time were killed in their numbers while God was aware of the failure ahead of them.
In verse 18, we learn that the Israelites asked God as to which in their tribe should go first to attack the Benjamin warriors and God guided them. Under that guidance, 22, 000 Israel troops fell down dead after the battle. The second time as recoded in verse 23, God approved that the Israelites should go to battle but they still lost to their opponents. It was only in the third attempt that they won the battle.
Conclusion
There are a number of lessons we can pick from the two portions I referenced in the previous section. I will pick just two:
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Even though I can read exactly why God allowed for the Israelites to fail even when they had been guided by Him, we still connect to the fact that they could have been trusting in their experience in battle, their 400 talented left handed man (Judges 20:16) and their 400, 000 skilled soldiers (Judges 20:17). God could be giving them a lesson on never to trust their own capacity but only Him as Paul enlightens us in the section we referenced in the previous section.
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It seemed okay to the Israelites to take God’s word to practice without any doubt even when it had brought some disappointments to them. What an example of how we should keep trusting God in our sicknesses, losses, pain and hurt even when we have prayed numerous times about it. We don’t trust God only when He answers our prayers the way we expect Him but just because He is God.
Indeed the Bible is written for us to learn from it. There is no need for you to worry if you have prayed about it.
Be blessed.
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