Friday, March 13, 2015

Bad Stuff Happens

Psalm 23:4  Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Why does God allow bad things to happen?

Every good and perfect thing comes from the Father. James 1:17  The enemy is the one that comes to steal, kill and destroy. John 10:10

God doesn't allow bad things to happen to us. He definitely doesn't send them.

What about Job? you ask.
God said to satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?" Job 1:8
God knew the stuff that Job was made of and He knew that Job would make it through and it wasn't like God was going to let him go through it without Him.

Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world and because this world has freedom of choice. God doesn't override a person't choice. He wants us to love Him by our own choice not because and All Powerful God demands it. So a lot of the time God doesn't stop bad things from happening although He is capable. He understands better than we do. We see our current sufferings and troubles but He sees our victory. We do not understand death. We don't understand life and we don't understand or know our Father when wee go through suffering and hard times.

My Father says He will never leave me or forsake me. He is always with me. Even when I go through the valley of the shadow of death. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters, restores my soul, leads me in paths of righteousness. He prepares a table for me in front of my enemies. He anoints me and I overflow. He doesn't give me just enough He gives me more than enough.

When I die and go from this earth, I will go to a better place. We do not see death as a victory. Let me explain. It is like when we die and we reach our reward which is Heaven and wee meet our Father face to face we can say "Haha! You thought you had me satan. You thought you had won. I suffered but I pulled close to God and turned to Him. I died but now I see my Father. You do not have me."

When we suffer and are in trouble it hurts and we complain and let everyone know how bad wee have it. We speak as though we are doomed to our suffering but what we forget is that because of Who's we are we already have the Victory. Look outside of your mind and this world and your limited understanding.

No one likes suffering but when you do, squeeze the living daylights out of it and force it to yield good fruit. Draw close to God and focus all your attention on Him. He is your ever present help.
He cannot help you when you are focusing on your suffering. Look up and out. When God is for you, who or what can be against you?

My Bible says "Though I WALK THROUGH the valley. It doesn't say though God makes me sit in this valley to teach me a lesson. NO!!
He is always with me through the valley and I do not fear evil because He is with me.

God doesn't allow us to go through trials and suffering to teach us and grow us or teach us a lesson.

One of three things will happen when you go through suffering.
1) You will learn nothing
2) You will learn something about yourself
3) You will learn more about your Father

1) Your sufferings aren't there to teach you or grow you. Bad stuff happens it is the way of a fallen world. It comes from choices being made and the consequences of them. You can go through suffering and come out unchanged. Not always but sometimes you can suffer and not grow or learn anything from it. I can get the flu or get stung by a bee but it profits me nothing once I have gone through that bit of pain and suffering.

2) You will learn something about yourself or you may become self absorbed or self-focused. "Oh look what I am going through" and we play a negative dialogue. Not only will you learn about yourself and how pitiful you think you are but what you learn will be distorted. A bit like looking in those wonky mirrors. If we look at ourselves through our suffering all we will see is a distorted image of ourselves.

3) You learn about your Father. When your focus is on God and we look at ourselves through how God sees us and our suffering we have clarity. We need to speak the truth over our situations and ourselves. "God is always with me. Even in my suffering. I walk through it but not alone. He sees my victory and I trust Him"
We then learn the goodness of God and our identity in Him. But we should be learning this everyday and not just when we suffer.

We need to learn this and draw so close to God and be so Christlike and filled that when we are squeezed only Jesus comes out. Nothing can harm me Jesus is here.

The other day I was having a really bad start to the day and I was starting to focus on all that was wrong with my day. I focused on what an awful mother I was and just such a pathetic excuse for a Christian. I felt like giving up and this is what the enemy wanted. He wanted me to be in this place of pity and self doubt, focused only on my current sufferings. But then I stopped and thought for a minute about what God had taught me about who I was to Him and how I needed to focus on Him and not my terrible day. All I wanted to do was wallow in my self pity but that had never accomplished anything before so I decided I would try it God's way and think of myself and my suffering less and draw close to God. He met me and helped me out of the grey cloud of despair I had wandered into when I had shifted my focus. I need to decrease so that He can increase in my life. That doesn't mean the bad stuff is going to go away but it does mean I have more power on my side and I have the satisfying victory badges when I rely on God to help me conquer the things that come my way.