The Christian life: Trails, purpose and perseverance
Many people ask, ” Why do bad things happen to good people“? My theory is that; it is part of our trials here on earth. As Christians, we are bound to face different trials, because the devil is not just going to sit down peacefully and let us convert all the souls to Christ, he is going to give us a hard time trying to, so that we give up the great commission. The hymn book says,
“…should I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas.”
So, there is our answer, we cannot expect everything in our life to go smoothly when we are at war with the devil. But we should stand strong and not let the devil win us over, yes, the battle is not an easy one, but we should remember that it is of the lord and he has already given us the victory; and that, if God were to open our eyes, we would see that the One with us is majority. A perfect example is Job, he persevered, his kind of situation is what we call long-suffering, neither his wife nor friends could help him, but he did not lose faith, he could not forget the times he enjoyed because he was now in pains, rather he thanked God still, and he got his reward. Imagine after bearing all those pains, he later cursed God, he would have continued to remain in pain for the rest of his life with no reward.
In the times of the apostles, they saw how they were persecuted one after another, but they never lost faith, they were all killed horribly save a few. We can say that, we in this generation or this side of the world are lucky because we can preach the gospel freely, we are allowed to go to church, we are able to read the bible and we are not forced into one particular religion, but we do not see this as an opportunity, rather, we are scared of what people would say. We cannot even read our bible for a few seconds, but we can carry out other activities throughout the day. Most of us are already losing interest in the church, saying they find it boring, comparing us to other churches, well am sorry to burst your bubble, if you have noticed, more and more activities are coming up in church and Christ is using it to filter the shelves from the wheat, if you are wise you will not follow the crowd but the church, because we are not denominational and as such do not conform to the patterns of the world. Most religious houses and so-called churches have no idea what they are doing, but you joining them knowing fully well the consequences of your actions, will definitely not go unpunished. Different trials will come, even Christ said it, but we should count it all joy for his name sake.
My second theory is that, when God sees that this particular person has tried to overcome the trials that come their way and that this person is getting tired or that this person has tried a lot, God might decide to take the person, so as not to fall for the temptation, after all the effort they have already put in, yes it is sad but true. I have heard people ask why God took their loved ones after all the prayers made, this might just be one of the reasons, and we cannot ask God questions because no matter how bad it looks, He still has our best interest at heart. So yes, the bad guys get to live long, that is God’s grace in their life, for them to get better and change their ways, for people like us to locate them and bring them to Christ, just know that this kind of persons are the most difficult because they are far gone, they are like the devil’s play thing, he can use them whenever he wants to carry out his evil doings, so God brings this kind of people our way; it is not for us to judge them or push them away, because most of them already feel like there is no redemption for themselves, we are to tell them there is and that Christ loves us all and will accept us irrespective of how dirty and filthy we maybe . Bringing that lost soul is not going to be easy, so put on the whole armour of God to fight against principalities and powers, so that we would bring a converted soul and not be converted in the process.
Lastly when people look at us, they should see Christ in us. Therefore, be happy when you are called churchy, holy Mary or Christian mother and much more because that was how the word Christians came about.
In summary, as believers, we have a great role to play on this earth, so we should not get carried away by things of this world but we should put our minds on things above. Trust God’s plan and purposes in our lives, learn to put him first. When given a mission like Jonah’s, we should not run away because God might be using you to save a whole nation. We should learn and struggle to know God’s word, so that we would be able to overcome temptations.
NB: Except otherwise stated, all images are from Google Images
