Painful Circumstance

I’ve been thinking a lot about trials.  About the dichotomy of a loving, compassionate God and painful life circumstances that just don’t make sense.  It’s a question that people ask all the time.  How could a God that loves us allow such painful things to happen to His people?   Why does God want us to feel pain?

I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about that at various points over the last nine months.  I’d be lying to say it hasn’t crossed my mind.  And in praying about it and studying the Bible, I’ve come to one really big conclusion.

1. God is not punishing me. 

When we go through trials, the first reaction we often have is to rebel, ask God the hard questions:  Why is this happening?  What I have done?  Why are you doing this to me??

Those are natural questions, but to answer them, we have to take a step back.  I think of life--at any given moment--very much like a Polaroid picture.  A snapshot.  How can we possibly hope to drink in the magnitude of the view if we're stuck looking at only one frame of a panoramic shot?  We just have to step back. 

When I think about trials, my mind wanders to Job in the Bible.  If ever there was a trial by fire, it was given to Job.   

Job was a man who followed God. In the opening verses of Job, the devil recieved permission from God to tempt him--to take his family and wealth from him. The devil struck Job with boils, and yet, he never cursed God. Job's friends and wife pleaded with him to curse God and die, to accept that he was being punished for some unseen wrongdoing, but Job refused to believe it.  He remained strong, and in the end, the Lord blessed him twofold of all that he had lost.

What struck me recently as I was reading this book of the Bible was God's incredible, unwavering faith and belief in His servant.  God allowed Satan to tempt Job, to test him, and to take away all of his earthly possessions.  He allowed him to push Job to the breaking point, because He had faith in the heart and soul of His servant.  He wasn't punishing Job.  He chose Job.  He pointed him out to Satan!  God believed in him.  He was pleased with him, and He wanted to use Job's faith and devotion as a powerful witness.   In verse 8 of chapter 1, God describes Job this way: "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

That description gets me every time.

I want God to describe me that way.  "Have you considered my servant Mandy?  There is no one on earth like her."  I want God to use me in a mighty way.  

I don't believe for a second that God gives us trials to punish us.  Instead, I believe that we can look at every valley as God's personal thumbs-up sign--Hey, will you walk this road for Me? I love you, I know you can do it, and I'll walk right beside you the whole way.