Romans 8:28 and Genesis 50:20

Throughout our lives we have all at one time or another screamed this question. We have either done it audibly or silently within our hearts and spirits. Yet if we are honest we have all demanded of God to know why something is as it is or is going on the way it is going on. Yet there are those in the body of Christ no less, that I refer to as "spiritual nazis" those psuedo-spiritual giants who would try to make you feel as if you had committed the unpardonable sin for being honest with God about your feelings. Come on folks lets get real here. God knows the intent of our hearts. If we cannot be honest with God who can we be honest with.

Are there real reasons why some things may be going crazy in my life. Is there any rhyme or reason for the testings, trials and calamities of life? Well as a matter of fact there is. It may be a test to help us grow up and mature in our walk with the Lord. Quite frequently it is as a result of bad choices and decisions in our lives. Maybe it is because of unconfessed sin or the resulting consequences of past sin which have already been confessed and covered by the Blood of Jesus. Our sins get blotted out, we are forgiven but there is a price to pay for sin. The consequences of sin cannot be escaped. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and sought God's forgiveness and received it, yet the baby they had still died as a result of the sin. The Bible clearly tells us that whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.

Sometimes that which we are going through is an out and out attack from satan straight from the pits of hell. In the midst of the trial or test we often times wrestle with trying to understand and get a grip upon the truth of whether it is from God or is it an attack from satan. First things, first! Either way God is in control of it because nothing happens in the life of a child of God without first having been sifted through the fingers of almighty God. So relax, rest in Him. Talk it over with Him. Find the mind of Christ in this situation. In so doing you will find your way out.

Over the years, despite times of pain, agony, trials and tests by fire, I have truly found that God is the Waymaker where there seems to be no way, even where there is no way He is the Waymaker. God will take what the enemy means for harm and turn it around into something good if we will let Him. But we have to understand that there are times when we have to allow Him to do some "working together" first. That "working together stuff" sometimes takes a little while. Now in the scheme of eternity it is only for a speck of a second, but to me it seems like forever. Pain is not fun. Tests are not fun. Trials and adversity are not fun. Yet when we stop and remember that Christianity is not just relationship but it is also a great adventure of the highest challenge, we will look at some of our trials and adversities in a little different light. I think John Hagee, pastor of the great Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, TX, who was our pastor when we lived there said it best..."If God would just print an insert to the San Antonio morning newspaper and address it to John Hagee saying, John this is a test, it is only a test. At the end of 30 days your life will return to normal. But nooooooooo.....! God does not do it that way because then we would not need to rely upon Him. We would not need to be dependent upon Him. If we knew ahead of time exactly how long to expect the difficulty or test to last we would take care of it in the strength of our own flesh and that is exactly what the test is designed to get rid of in our lives, self-dependency. God wants us to rely upon Him and Him alone as our source.

There is a heretical teaching amongst the body of Christ today which says that because God will not withhold any good thing from His children that He does not intend that we endure any pain or suffering. Yet we have scripture after scripture to encourage us in our time of difficulty. We have testimony after testimony in God's Word where He was with them in the fire and through the trial more times than He simply delivered them out. Many times I think God cannot do in us what He is trying to do to cleanse us and purify us because we keep jumping out of the flames. He can't burn any of it off because we won't stay long enough. Rely on Him to be the fourth man in the firey furnace. You will not regret it.

In closing a few verses for you to research in your Bible and to mark if you do not already have them marked.
Genesis 50:20
Romans 8:28
Phillipian 2:5
Phillipians 4: 4-8
I Corinthians 10-13